Being a rapper obviously comes with its perks,
but it also comes with its downsides.
With all the fame and fortune comes jealousy and hate,
which can turn old friends into enemies.
The most recent artist to have his day ones turn their backs on him
is Memphis rapper NLE Choppa,
who was recently dissed and had his chain snatched by Shotta Fam,
the crew he came up with.
Let’s take a closer look at this story.
NLE Choppa is one of the hottest young artists coming out of Memphis.
Even though he’s only 18 years old,
he’s already built a big name for himself in the music industry
and racked up millions of plays on tracks like Walk Em Down and Camelot.
NLE Choppa grew up on Cottonwood Street in the Parkway Village neighborhood
of Southeast Memphis.
He was raised by his mother, Angela Potts, who is Jamaican,
and a lot of his music is inspired by his Jamaican heritage
– including the term Shotta.
When he began his career, his mother became his manager
– partially to protect him from the dangers of the industry
but also because he was under 18 at the time.
Choppa started freestyling with his friends at age 14
but decided to pursue music seriously about a year later.
The rapper attended Cordova High School, where he played on the basketball team
and was a decent athlete.
But all while he was playing ball and making music,
he would also be getting sucked into the street lifestyle.
Even though he says that he was never actually a gang member,
he had affiliations with the Grape Street Crips in the area.
Choppas's criminal history prior to rap is mostly unknown to the public
because he was still a juvenile when he started to blow up.
But he has admitted in interviews that he did some time in a juvenile detention center
when he was still in high school.
He said that it was a major eye-opener
and forced him to move more cautiously and stay out of trouble.
Choppa has cited Lil Wayne as his greatest influence
and studied a lot of his style and career to develop his own sound.
He first started releasing music under the name YNR Choppa,
and his first few SoundCloud tracks were under this name.
He eventually swapped the YNR for NLE – which stands for No Love Entertainment,
the name of his brand and record label.
His first track to do some decent numbers was No Love Anthem in 2018.
He also joined a local group called Shotta Fam and began making music with them.
They would release a series of tracks called No Chorus,
which became popular in Memphis.
No Chorus Part 3 would be another breakout moment for Choppa
and he was on his way to becoming one of the hottest up and coming artists in the city.
This track attracted the attention of none other than Birdman from Cash Money Records,
who featured the rapper on the track Dreams
– the final song on his 2019 collaborative album with Juvenile, Just Another Gangsta.
So Choppa was not only blowing up in his own city,
but he was also attracting the attention of industry veterans.
His official debut single, Shotta Flow was released in 2019,
which eventually reached #36 on the Billboard chart.
The song was an instant success because of its catchy flow and hard delivery.
The title was an obvious reference to his Shotta Fam crew,
as well as his mother’s Jamaican heritage.
The song would be remixed a few months later and featured a verse from Blue Face.
The remix also features a Cole Bennett-directed music video,
which helped propel the song even further.
The track would eventually be certified triple platinum by billboard
and Choppa would go on to release Shotta Flow Pt 2-5.
The fourth installment would feature a guest appearance from Chief Keef.
The crazy thing was that the track started out as just a freestyle
he recorded from the back of his car.
But Choppa could feel the potential of the song
and decided to clean it up and record an official version.
The video quickly gained the attention of fans and the hip hop media
and racked up 915,000 views in the first week of its release.
The following month, he dropped Shotta Flow 2,
which hit 20 million views in the first week and his career took off from there.
All the major labels were reportedly in a bidding war to sign him,
with the highest bid allegedly being around $3 million.
He ended up turning down offers from Republic, Interscope, and Caroline.
Instead, he signed a distribution deal with music industry veteran
Steve Stoute’s company United Masters,
which allowed him to keep his masters and publishing.
That was a pretty smart move for a kid who had barely turned 16,
although he had the support of his mother/manager
behind him to make the right moves in the industry.
He even started his own label,
No Love Entertainment in partnership with Warner Brothers.
His first single on his new label would be the track Free Youngboy,
which was produced by Cash Money AP and dedicated to NBA Youngboy,
who had recently been arrested for violating his parole.
Not long after that, he released the track Camelot,
which is still one of his most popular songs to date
and peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100.
So, NLE Choppa was quickly becoming one of the most promising up-and-coming stars in hip hop.
But all while Choppa was blowing up,
his old Shotta Fam friends would be watching his success from the sidelines.
The rapper released his debut project Cottonwood in December 2019.
Even though the title was a reference to the street he grew up on,
the project didn’t feature guest verses from anyone in Shotta Fam,
and the only other rappers on the project were Meek Mill and Blueface.
Although that doesn’t mean that they weren’t still cool at the time,
it does seem like Choppa gained momentum with the help of his friends,
then quickly went to only working with industry rappers.
It’s not clear exactly where the beef started, but as Choppa’s success in the industry grew,
his relationship with the dudes he grew up with in Memphis would become more and more distant.
In June 2020, a rapper affiliated with Shotta Fam
named BJ Capone dropped a track called Stay Dangerous (NLE Choppa Diss).
The two rappers had previously been featured together on the track CEO 2.0,
which came out less than 6 months before that.
NLE responded to the diss on the track Neighborhood Watch
from his Top Shotta album, where the artist raps
“Heard that diss, but we gon' see
Leave no evidence, OCD
I'ma get caught if the camera see me
'Cause I'm bare face, no mask when we meet”
It’s not clear where the beef started,
but it must have been something serious
to make the two rappers go from collaborating one minute,
to threatening each other’s lives the next.
After the diss track dropped, BJ Kapone went on social media and said
“Somebody tell the NLE Choppa young n**** stop cappin like he shot me
you ***** we beat you until you screamed for yo moma my n****
we know the real you somebody tell my son Bryson unblock me shaky ass”
So, it seems like the beef goes deeper than just rap disses.
According to rumors, BJ was shot in his hand and nearly lost a finger.
Choppa then took credit for the shooting in his music,
which BJ is saying is all cap and that he wasn't the shooter.
BJ also claims that Choppa was never really about that life
and paid for his affiliations with the Grape Street Crips.
Back in March, another Shotta Gang member Baby Scrap did an interview
where he revealed that he was no longer cool with Choppa,
even though he was the one who introduced him to Shotta Fam in the first place.
The interviewer asks him who came up with the idea for the track No Chorus,
and he gives credit to another Shotta Fam rapper named K Mula.
Together the idea of No Chorus, right?
Yeah yeah
That was really,
I think really that was K Mula
Like there would have been no chorus like No Chorus Part 2
Baby Scrap also said that he was the one who introduced Choppa to Shotta Fam
and they all just clicked and started making music.
When asked if he and Choppa are still cool today,
Baby Scrapp says
“nah I don’t rap with his ass no more”.
Y'all still talk today?
Nah, like we ain't-
nah, I don't rap with his ass no more
But he continues on to say that they used to be cool
and were close when they first started rapping together in like 8th grade.
He also says that he’s not a hater and that even if they aren’t on good terms,
he’s not going to try to take away from his success.
Nah, I ain't no hating ass *****
even if I ain't cool with him or whatever
I'd never doubt a *****
like what's they coming from, what they tryna do or whatever.
In the same interview, when asked about Shotta Gang,
he says that it’s more like a family than a gang.
So what exactly is Shotta Fam tho?
Man Shotta Fam
Shotta Fam, it ain't no gang,
it ain't no,
this shit a movement like
my brotha made Shotta Fam for us so we won't have to just like,
you heard me,
be pressured by all the other guys and shit out here, like we had our own shit,
you heard me, we a family.
He said that members of Shotta Fam
have all different affiliations including Hoovers, Vice Lords, and Bloods,
but at the end of the day it isn’t about the gang
it’s about being a family and a movement.
He also blames Choppa for making it seem like it is something that it’s not.
Throughout the interview, he’s pretty laid back
and doesn’t seem like he’s dissing Choppa just for the clout.
But he also makes it clear several times that they aren’t cool like that
and it seems like it’s deeper than two old friends going their separate ways.
So it seems like it isn’t just BJ Kapone who has beef with Choppa,
the rest of Shotta Gang isn’t really rockin with him like that either.
Another rapper affiliated with the crew
named CEO Shiesty also dropped an NLE diss track called Truth Be Told,
where he tells Choppa to “quit cappin like you got them bodies
stop all that cappin that ain’t shit to play bout”
To make it all even worse,
just recently Shotta Fam members claimed that they stole Choppa’s signature NLE chain
while he was at the mall.
A Shotta Fam member named Lil Mula posted a video on social media
that showed him standing over a diamond chain that said NLE
– No Love Entertainment.
In the video, he can be heard saying
“What you mean you said f*** Shotta Fam like we ain’t make you”.
This **** talking about ****** you said **** Shotta Fam what you mean *****
like we ain't make you my *****
quit playing this **** you heard me **** ***** you talking about
He then shows another phone where he’s on Facetime with Baby Scrap,
who is pointing a gun at the camera.
Lil mula tells Scrap “tell this n**** come get this shit Back in Blood"
come get this shit Back in Blood know what the **** going on man
– making a reference to the Pooh Shiesty song
where he taunts his rivals to come take back what he stole from them.
He even went as far as having the chain diamond tested to prove that it wasn’t fake.
It's real.
Fans have claimed that it wasn’t actually Choppa’s chain
and that it belonged to one of his close friends.
But Lil Mula didn’t stop with the chain snatching.
He also released a diss track and video called Extortion (NLEK Choppa Diss).
The K at the end of NLEK stands for killer,
meaning Lil Mula isn’t just dissing on wax, he’s out for blood.
On the track he raps
“How the **** you say it’s **** the gang
you groupie that **** facts”
and “how the **** you get some fame now you a killa that **** funny”.
He also reveals that Choppa used to sleep on his floor before the fame
and says that the only reason he blew up
is that he’s funny and used Shotta Fam to build his street rep.
He also raps
“How the **** you diss this Shotta **** its tatted on your stomach”
and makes the same accusation as BJ Kapone
– that Choppa had to pay his way into the Grape Street Crips.
He’s even wearing the chain he allegedly snatched from Choppa
to double down on the disrespect.
Choppa has yet to respond to the diss.
More recently the rapper has been on a positive wave
and claimed that he was quitting rap to work on a new line of medicinal herbs.
So it isn’t clear if he will return to his old ways to respond to Lil Mula
or continue on his path as a spiritual healer.
Even though it seems pretty wild
that these rappers could go from best friends one minute
to threatening to kill each other the next,
that isn’t anything new in rap
– especially for a cutthroat city like Memphis.
Moneybagg Yo – another Memphis artist –
is going through the same thing after his old homies called him fake
for selling out the squad and signing to Yo Gotti.
It’s not exactly clear where the NLE Choppa – Shotta Gang beef started,
but it's getting pretty serious.
It seems like some of the rapper’s old friends got jealous of his success
and felt betrayed that he didn’t bring them along with him.
But it also seems like Choppa may have said some disrespectful things about them,
even though they helped make him blow up.
It’s sad to see, but with enough money and fame involved,
old friends can turn to bitter enemies.
It seems like this beef is just getting started, so stay tuned for more updates.
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