If a..
If another hoe look at me in my face and say “what's up” I'ma say “what's down.
Get around, Clown.”
Before NLE Choppa would turn down a $3-million-dollar record deal at just 16 years old.
Before he would clock in a million followers on Instagram and over 400 thousand subscribers
on YouTube at the time of this recording.
Before Chopps got a call from the 5-0 telling him that he can't post any more photos of
videos with him sporting guns.
The police call me, my mother, my whole family.
I don't know how they got, you know what I'm sayin' our numbers but they call every one of us
Before he would drop the song Shotta Flow, which currently has over 34 million views
on YouTube, and before he would get cosigns from Meek Mill, LeBron James, Birdman… and
apparently…
Stevie Wonder?
NLE Choppa has accomplished more at 16 than most people can dream of doing in a lifetime.
But he did it on his own terms.
After his song blew up online, he started receiving offers from record labels for Millions
of dollars, but Choppa, he decided to do something that caught a lot of people off guard…
He turned down the M's and signed a distribution deal instead, where he still owns his own
music.
The kid must be paying attention to what's been going on with Uzi.
Hey Lil Uzi!
Come back to music!
I can't.
Growing up, Choppa was actually a really good basketball player and we have some old footage
of him balling to show you later in this video!
And although he won’t be waiting around for any basketball scholarships, well Choppa
actually wants to attend college one day.
Place your guesses in the comments down below on what he wants to major in.
What’s going on guys?
It’s your boy Michael McCrudden taking you through the life and career of NLE Choppa
prior to fame, here for you of course on Before They Were Famous.
This has been one of the most requested for me to get done this year.
We’ve recently covered Lil Nas X and I did a video on The Cast of The Avengers, you can
check those out later.
This video was brought to you by our good friends over at Kandy Pens.
Alright, let’s get into this video.
NLE Choppa was born Bryson Potts on November 1, 2002 on the east side of Memphis Tennessee.
When speaking about his hometown, well he told AllHipHop,
“I ain’t gonna lie...Memphis is just starting to get on the map a little bit from where
it was a year ago.
Because you know, different artists are paving the way for the people that’s coming up.
A lot of talent coming out of Memphis.
Shout out to Drake.
Drake really helped it.”
Drake has been spotted in Memphis during his videos for Worst Behavior and Look Alive with
Blocboy JB and he reps Memphis as a second home, the same place his dad was born and
lived for much of Drake’s childhood, so it makes sense.
Choppa said that although his childhood in Memphis was rough, everyone he knows, has
a lot of energy, and they’ve always been dancing and having fun.
When we hear a song, we, you know what I'm saying, we like dance as we do.
It's just Memphis.
This is how Memphis is.
Choppa’s mom was a business woman and taught him about entrepreneurship from an early age.
She seems to be a really important part of Choppa’s life and he wrote a song dedicated
to her over Tupac’s “Dear Mama” instrumental, where he says:
“You’re my presence, you’re my queen you’re my everything!
No one can interfere or get in between.”
She later became his manager, but it seems like she doesn’t care about the fame…
because she’ll still do this if he gets into trouble:
“Put some clothes on!
No.
Who you talkin' to?
See?
This how you get an old fashioned Chicago a** whoopin'”
In March of 2014 Choppa's mom appeared on her local news after an unidentified suspect
broke into her BMW while it was parked in her driveway.
Mrs. Potts had this to say:
"I started crying.
I was bawling.
I actually hurt my hand, 'cause I, I hit the door...
Don't take it for granted.
Lock your doors”
and as for the theif:
“What was you thinkin'?
Why would you steal somebody else car?
You needed a ride, you could've rung the doorbell, we could've called you a cab”
Choppa’s first love growing up was basketball.
He loved to play as much as he could, and he looked up to Kobe Bryant because of his
work ethic.
Now Choppa took some of that work ethic and he applied it to his music career later on.
Now Choppa played ball for his high school team and they put up some numbers.
But he says he was always getting into too much trouble to really focus on becoming an
athlete.
We found this old video of him playing point guard, and the kid, well, he was pretty good!
Apparently he even took Karate lessons at one point!
He’s also a video game fan and while he loves 2K, he says the game also makes him
pretty angry.
At 14 years old Choppa began to freestyle with his friends, but a year later, he decided
to take music more seriously!
Everyone around Choppa was making music, from his friends, to his neighbors, so one day,
Choppa decided he needed to record himself too.
He went to the studio and says from there it was a wrap… no pun intended.
He attended Cordova High School where he started to take rap more seriously.
He says in terms of school he was always a smart kid but was getting into too much trouble
to get his grades right.
when you in trouble you just can't make the right grades that you want to make.
Yeah.
In terms of his musical influences, Choppa is a really big fan of Bob Marley and claims
he is the only person that he listens to on a regular basis.
But in terms of rap, Choppa grew up listening to Lil Wayne, later becoming influenced by
Meek Mill, Lil Durk and NBA Youngboy.
Now Choppa, he's also been compared to Youngboy quite often.
He told XXL:
“it's so annoying.
They say NBA YoungBoy.
They say I look like him, sound like him, stand like him, dress like him.
They say my hair's like his—everything around me is compared to YoungBoy.”
It is kind of an elephant in the room situation.
Anyway...
Before becoming NLE Choppa, he was actually going by the rap name YNR Choppa and has a
few songs up on YouTube by the same name.
He released songs called “Through The Rain,” “Getting Money,” and “No Love Anthem”
onto his YouTube page, none of them getting too much traction at first.
His YNR Choppa page only has 438 subscribers as of today.
Choppa is also known as Baby Mexico.
And while he hasn’t said exactly why he’s called that, on his song “Letter to Mama”
he stated:
“Remember that day we went to Mexico when I was little?
Unforgettable.
Kinda had me thinkin’ I was Mexican.
My complexion, it had me guessing.”
So maybe that trip across the border is where he got the nickname originally?
His Soundcloud still exists under that name but it only had 207 followers before he abandoned it
He later switched his name to NLE Choppa.
NLE stands for No Love Entertainment.
He told HipHopDX in an interview:
Just showing no love, took that part of myself and turned it into a brand.
Choppa just a name people back home call me.
The first song to gain some online buzz under his new name was his hit song “No-Love Anthem.”
He would rap with his friends as a part of the Shotta Family, and they released their
No Chorus series onto YouTube, shooting official videos for the later songs in the series.
Now it was the videos third installment, “No Chorus Part 3,” that really started gaining
some traction online.
It was Choppa’s verse that stood out and had people talking about the kid locally.
Choppa had a local fanbase from his music, that was sitting at around 30,000 followers.
He said he would also do some stupid stuff online to get followers at the time and it
was working.
He has since deleted most of his old posts but I got a feeling this is where the guns
came into play.
“He's 16, he has more guns than the US army.
Why?
Why does.. why does Choppa have so many guns?
You know what I'm sayin', why does he 16, hey bro, if you keep doing this I'ma have
to arrest your mom.”
It was the song “Shotta Flow” that truly took him to the next level!
At first, he freestyled to the beat in the car, but then he recorded the official version
and shot a video for it.
The song gained a lot of online popularity through dance apps like Dubsmash as well as
a lot of YouTube reaction videos for the song, and the official video, well it quickly garnered
10 million views within less than a month of its release.
Really, I just wanted to make a song that was just beyond turnt.
You know what I'm sayin'?
But I wanted to keep it like, real Memphis.
By his 16th birthday, Choppa already had millions of views on YouTube and had made back the
costs of the music video, fivefold.
When I turned 16 I actually drove my moms car through the garage door and I had to get
my first job at a carpet store.
Can't imagine what it feels to be Choppa!
The opposite of.. eh..
Now while the song was taking off, Choppa had some backlash, because in his original
video, there were a lot of guns.
He stated
That’s just how life is in Memphis.
I wasn’t like, “yeah I’ma put these guns in this video to send a warning to so
and so.”
Wasn’t nothing like that, that’s just everyday life where I’m from.
I’m just showing the home I know.
He told AllHipHop.com that he wanted to make the video as Memphis as he could, from the
dances to the haircuts.
Choppa says that moving forward though, he wants to put a lot of thought into his video
and do things that are more creative.
He says no more guns and for good reason, the local police were onto him and it ain't
necessarily good for business.
I wanna have the endorsements.
I wanna be able to work with companies.
Big companies.
Choppa began playing in front of high school crowds who were screaming his lyrics, he told
HipHopDX
I don’t really have no prep.
I just grab the mic and go.
It’s a really good feeling, especially when the crowd knows the lyrics and stuff.
When they not just watching but they actually like turning up with me, keeps me kinda energized
through the show.
He told XXL that when he performed at Whitehaven High School, he felt like NBA Youngboy and
Michael Jackson at the same time.
After the show, one girl tried to break his car window just to touch him and another girl
even asked him to sign her chest…
Yeah.. that's when you know you made it!
Were gonna get into more of his come up but for now, it looks like it's getting a little
smokey in here.
You've all heard of KandyPens right?
All the
fan fair an attention was overwhelming for Choppa and he couldn't believe it at the time.
After the song blew up, he began getting homeschooled because he was on the road so much and he
wanted
to keep focused on the future.
With all of these new eyes on him, some of these people included record executives.
Now, Choppa sat down with every label, from Republic to Interscope and was involved in
a bidding war that reportedly went as high as $3 million dollars.
Instead of signing with one of those labels, he decided to opt for a different route.
He turned down the 3-million-dollar deal and decided to remain independent so that he could
own his masters.
He signed a distribution deal with United Masters, while keeping ownership of his songs.
The move was an unprecedented one, especially for a young artist who is just starting out.
United Masters is company owned by hip-hop legend Steve Stoute.
Stout’s assistant named KB hit up Choppa 10 times before Choppa replied to his request
for a meeting.
After they finally met, he said that everything started to click, and they inked the distribution
deal.
When speaking to The Breakfast Club, Choppa said:
“I think a lot of rappers are thinking short term.
But long term, they’re not making no money off the song because at the end of the day,
the label owns the song.
But if you own your music, it’s your song, you’re making money off it.”
He said that the decision wasn’t too hard because of his belief in himself and his work.
Stoute told Billboard:
“Record companies are calling the guy and offering a bunch of money.
Here’s the issue: He’s already just seen, with him owning the rights and us doing distribution,
he’s earning money on Spotify and Apple Music, and his song is growing on YouTube.
What does he need a record company to do?”
And according to online reports, he’s already made 300k from his music alone.
Which is close to the average advance money that a label will give you to make your album
but that you have to recoup through record sales.
So it looks like the independent route is already working for Choppa.
And Choppa is also building his own record company called No Love Entertainment and he
told Billboard:
“I want to be able to have my own label, so I can build something from the ground up.
In 10 years, I want to look back and think, ‘I created something big.’”
He wants to build something not only for himself, but for his family too.
Choppa told Genius that with his first big check from music, he wants to invest in real
estate and his own shoe company, he stated:
“Everybody needs shoes and everybody needs a house.”
Throw in a barber shop and this kid's got it all figured out.
Choppa also says that he wants to give back with his success.
I really just like to see people being the best they can be.
I feel like if I got a blessing, then it’s up to me to share that blessing with the world
any way I can with other people less fortunate with me.
In terms of his circle, Choppa, he's kept it small.
He has the same people around him who he came up with and says there is no need to add more
people for right now.
But people from outside of his circle are definitely recognizing him.
He said he’s talked to Meek Mill, J. Cole, and even LeBron James:
Okay I've been in his DM's, he hit me back.
But nothing like LeBron.
I mean I'm... you know.
Bro, he's like “You remind me of.. you remind me of me” he said “when I was young, and
then, and when Reebok offered me about 10 million I told them 'no.'”
As for the future, he said that he eventually wants to move to either Atlanta or Florida.
Now Choppa is looking forward to giving back to his community and eventually says he wants
to go to college so that he can study business.
There’s the answer to that question off the top.
As for the rest of the story, well, I guess we’ll have to wait and see because this
is Before They Were Famous!
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BOOM
oww that one hurt