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In that spirit, his next album, which is scheduled for release in early 2022, will act as a celebration of the young talent he has seen rising around him, and a way for him to help build the careers of a new generation of artists. It’s what helps us merge young and old together.” We’ll put our own things aside, and know that if we work together, it’ll be better for the whole outcome. “It’s the best thing about the city,” he says. He credits the city, too, with his collaborative and ever-evolving musical style, arguing that it’s a mentality engendered by Atlanta’s creative scene. “It’s the go-to for creative, for production, style, dress, walk, talk, slang, the whole game.” “Hip hop has been driven by the city of Atlanta,” he says. Two decades on from Atlanta’s much-vaunted rise as the home of contemporary hip-hop - after it overtook New York in the late 90s, thanks to a wave of brilliantly genre-bending artists - Chainz believes the city’s musical crown is at no risk of slipping. He remains zealous, to this day, in his pride for the city. “It wouldn’t make sense to do it anywhere else.” “It’s my home, and it’s where this whole thing came from,” he says. For him, returning to the city to shoot the collection was a no-brainer. Realigion, which showed Chainz in the restrooms of Atlanta’s Lenox Mall. The accompanying campaign - which debuts here on HYPEBEAST - is intended as an intentional call-back to the cover art for T.R.U. “I’ve been trying to do this for a long time,” he says. “It was for the people that had money, and wanted other people to know they could afford it.” “It represented people that had a little bit more going on,” he says. “It was a brand that represented hustlers in my community,” he says. Yet the True Religion project is distinct from the other collections he’s put his name to: more than a guest cameo, it represents the fruition of a long-held ambition to work with a brand that was the defining aspiration symbol of his young adulthood. “Make sure you print that in bold, so he can see it.” Whatever he wants to do, I ride with him.” “He pulled me into Versace, and I’m forever grateful for that, and forever supportive of what he has going on. “He has reinforced how valuable it is to be one’s self to the fullest of your ability.” Plus, he adds, “Chainz got his jump shot from me. “Chainz is equally a chameleon as he is consistent within his energy,” says Bembury via email. Indeed, after Bembury’s departure from Versace, Chainz was among the first to see his solo design projects, before they were shared with the press.
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Chainz remains effusive about Bembury, with whom he has maintained a close creative exchange. That collaboration also brought him into a working relationship with the footwear designer Salehe Bembury, who first introduced Chainz to Donatella Versace, and later co-designed the Chain Reaction with him. This isn’t Chainz’ first entry into fashion - aside from a 2015 line of novelty Christmas sweaters, which raised $2m USD for charity, his 2018 collaboration with Versace produced the ‘Chain Reaction’, one of the best-ever selling sneaker styles for the brand. “I was buying out the store every time they brought out new stuff.” “Everybody in the stores used to call me,” he remembers. His collection is extensive enough, now, to fill eight closets. “I really was f*ckin with them hard,” he says, estimating that he has spent, conservatively, hundreds of thousands of dollars on True Religion products in his lifetime. But he was drawn to the “full-circle” notion of partnering with a label that he had grown up admiring so strongly.
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The prospect of a retrospective collection wasn’t a natural fit for Chainz - by his own admission, he dislikes looking backwards.
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And, most significantly for the artist, it’s the focus of a full-scale fashion collaboration with the denim brand True Religion, which inspired the title of his EP. That record has now been re-released as a tenth anniversary edition, complete with a duo of new songs. “It was a hustler showing the rest of the world what we got on,” as he puts it now. In its celebration of the community around him, the record acted as a statement of intent for Chainz, and a template for the music he would go on to make over the next ten years. Realigion, the EP which marked his breakout as a solo artist upon its release a decade ago, and which featured guest spots from 90s stalwarts Raekwon and Jadakiss, alongside then-rising stars from Meek Mill to Big Sean. That collaborative nature has been a running thread throughout his career since its beginning.