At N.B.A. All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, North Carolina, LeBron James is probably relieved, for a change, to just talk about music. He sits with me for a rare one-on-one chat in a private room off the set at the Shear Excellence barbershop, where he will eventually join 2 Chainz, Meek Mill, Maverick Carter, Jamie Foxx, Anthony Davis, Antonio Brown, and Jerrod Carmichael to tape the latest episode of The Shop, his Uninterrupted-co-produced show which airs on HBO. LeBron’s presence is massive, and not only because he is a tall, muscular man; his charisma just fills the room. Wearing a red-and-blue parka, navy sweatpants, Nike Air Max2 Light shoes, and a black durag, his eyes light up and he looks like a kid when he talks about the hip-hop music he loves, and his role as executive producer on the celebrated rapper 2 Chainz’s new album, Rap or Go to the League.

Lisa Robinson: Why did you want to be involved with this record?

LeBron James: Anything I do has to be organic to me, and I wouldn’t be who I am today without music. My love for music, my love for hip-hop music . . . what it does for me in my training, what it’s done for me in my life . . . There are days I’ve gotten through because of music—great artists who’ve been able to use their penmanship to get me through days. So this was just organic to me.

2 Chainz titled the album Rap or Go to the League. Were those the only choices you felt you had growing up, in order to get out of bad neighborhoods?

Yeah, at times you definitely felt that way. And Biggie Smalls kind of said it best when he said, “Either you’re slinging crack rock or you got a wicked jump shot.” It was crazy. You didn’t really know what that meant until you got a little bit older; then it was like, Wow, there’s not many options for us African-American kids in this community. It was like, Which road do I take? And thank god the game kind of chose me to go in the direction I went.

When you won one of your M.V.P. awards you thanked your mother, Gloria James; you said she always put food on the table. You said you didn’t know how she did it, and you didn’t want to know how she did it. One of 2 Chainz’s recent lyrics is, “Tryna make my momma proud.” Do you still want to make your mother proud?

Absolutely, absolutely. Everything I do, I’m still trying to make my mom proud. I want her to smile at everything I do, because what she did for me . . . There were things I knew that I could see, there were things I couldn’t see—but I never questioned. I didn’t want to know. She’s incredible. Her strength, her power. So for me to be in the position I’m in today—for me to be able to uplift her and make her proud—is something I think about all the time.

You’ve been politically outspoken, and with your I Promise School in Akron, you’re showing kids that there are so many things they can aspire to be: doctors, lawyers, politicians . . . Would you describe this album as a political album?

I think it hits on all different facets. I think it has a spiritual stand; it has a very passionate stand; it has a hood-excellence stand. I think the position that we’re in as African-Americans, to be able to continue to push our culture . . . that’s why I’m happy to be a part of this. I’m all about pushing the African-American culture. I’m doing this piece with 2 Chainz. I’m doing a TV series with Octavia Spencer. I’m doing Space Jam with Ryan Coogler. So for me to be able to push all this, and let these kids know that we have so much to tell—so many great stories. We just need to continue to support one another. For me, being in this position means a lot.

How did you did you and 2 Chainz come to know each other?

I’ve been a fan of his music for a long time. I was the one always going around saying how hard he was, how dope he was, when all my friends were saying he was terrible . . . They just didn’t like his flow, but for some reason, I caught up to it; I loved it, it was cool to me, it resonated to me. I thought he was great.

At what age was this, and what else were you listening to?

In my late teens . . . 18, 19, 20. I listened to everything. All hip-hop—Run-D.M.C., Jay, Tupac, Biggie, Eric B & Rakim . . . Rakim was one of my favorites. And 2 Chainz and I just struck up a good relationship over the years out of mutual respect.

What did you actually do for this album? Were you in the studio? You weren’t twiddling knobs . . . ?

No, no. I’m no engineer, no beat-maker, no producer. It was more of an A&R thing. I helped him put the track list together, sequencing, which songs should flow: which song should be first, which one should be last, how to end the album, what should fall in the middle. Executive producer was kind of a title that was given to me. He asked if I wanted to executive produce his album, and I was like, “What does that entail?” He said, “I want you to be part of the process. I want you to be part of the track-list process.” He told me, “I see how much of a wide range of music you love; how you talk about how great music is, different artists that we know, artists that no one’s ever heard of—it’s pretty cool, and I want you to be part of the process.” He told me the title, and he said it’s going to be so much more than what people expect from the name, so I said “All right, let’s do it.” At one point, we had 17 songs, and we wanted to get it down to 14 songs—so I had to be part of the process of deciding which songs to take off.

Couldn’t you add some bonus tracks to another version?

That’s all part of it. I came up with the idea of putting out a deluxe album a couple of weeks after we drop the initial album, with the songs we took off.

Did you advise him about any lyrical content, or was the creative vision all his?

As far as inspiration, it was all him. My advice was more like if I thought he should add another artist to do a feature on a song . . .

Who does features on the album?

Kendrick does a feature. We have Young Thug as a feature. Travis Scott . . . [also, Ariana Grande, Lil Wayne, Chance the Rapper, and Kodak Black].

Obviously the title is ironic—there’s so much more that people can aspire to.

That’s it. You just hit it . . . Everybody knows the mantra of rappers loving ballplayers and ballplayers’ love of rap. Everybody knows that 2 Chainz used to play basketball, so the title is going to suck you in. But once you get into the project, you’ll see it’s so much more than that.

You’ve said you want to own a basketball team. Do you think you’d ever want to run a record label?

No, I don’t think so. I’ve heard the music business is very, very difficult. But who knows what my kids might want to do someday?

What music do they listen to? The same stuff you do?

They listen to everything. A little bit of everything. Of course my [four-year-old] daughter listens to Frozen, Disney soundtracks . . .

What about when your kids start cursing . . . ?

I think there’s a fine line with that: how you raise your kids and how you approach music. There’s things when I grew up that I knew not to say around the house. When I listened to rap music around my mother, I would beep when a curse word would come up. She wouldn’t allow me to use curse words until I got older. It’s the same with my kids. If a curse word comes up, they don’t say it. Or if the n-word comes up, they won’t say it. They’re not at that age where it’s appropriate to know where it comes from until they get older.

One thing I don’t think hip-hop artists get acknowledged enough for is how great their storytelling is. People hear the lyrics, they hear the curse words, they hear the n-word—but people don’t realize how creative an influence these writers are. It’s the world we grew up in. And I’m blessed and fortunate enough to be able to be in a position to not only know these guys personally, but to relate to the stories—because I was an inner-city kid, growing up and seeing things you don’t want your kids seeing: drug dealing and shootings and drive-bys . . . I’m blessed to be able to be in a position where I can be friends with these unbelievable artists. You can tell they’re speaking from their experience. When your mouth can articulate what’s in your brain onto a beat—it’s the craziest thing.

Two days later, on the phone from his home in Atlanta, Grammy-winning rapper, songwriter, actor and activist 2 Chainz is excited to talk about his fifth studio album, Rap or Go to the League.

Lisa Robinson: Why did you choose this title?

2 Chainz: It’s actually an oxymoron. It has a deeper meaning than just singing or dribbling the ball. It tries to highlight the African-American option on doing something else to become successful. It doesn’t have to be shooting the jumps or having a wicked crossover. A lot of times in the low socio-economic environments that African-American people come from, we’re told we’re heavy into sports, heavy into rap, but there are so many other options. This album is based around black excellence from a 2 Chainz perspective. I’m positive that a lot of white Americans weren’t told that they had to dribble a ball or spit verses in order to be successful.

You had other options . . .

I had an academic scholarship and a basketball scholarship. But I got locked up in the 12th grade for selling marijuana, which kind of put my dreams back. Some of the stories you hear from me and Meek Mill shine a light on where we come from.

You’ve said there’s more to this album than people might expect. Would you describe this as a political album?

Coming from my community and wanting to talk about black excellence, well, I’m not known for being political or too preachy, so I did it in a combination of having ear candy—obviously the production is exceptional—but I also tried to put some education and learning into it. It could be an audio book. Some kids have A.D.D., and they don’t even read a whole book, so this album could be a fun way of teaching—a fun way to learn. We have LeBron participating in this whole thing—and he’s known for being more than an athlete. The marriage and the glue came together very organically, and we know that sports and entertainment have a strong correlation. My album is filled with substance, filled with concepts. I put a lot of time into it.

Are you still trying to make your mother proud?

Every day. I bought her a nice car yesterday. She’s very proud of me.

Why did you ask LeBron to be involved, and what did he bring to the project?

LeBron is the biggest athlete in the world right now, and he decided to use his platform differently than any other athlete. We’ve had some of the greatest basketball players in the world who I admire, because I love sports. But LeBron is a little more accessible, a little more attainable—and with him being around, it’s just a different feeling. He’s super humble, and the thing that gave me the idea of bringing him in—to add to his résumé, to be the A&R—is that every Friday when new music comes out, you can count on him being in the back of his Maybach or Sprinter going through the music, quoting lyrics. He puts out these videos of him bringing attention to these artists, tagging their lyrics . . . he doesn’t get paid for it. He doesn’t tell the person ahead of time. This is just something he naturally does. So, I thought with a title like this, with the conversation I was trying to spark, why not bring him in the studio and we can build some concepts together?

What was the process?

We spent days listening to music together; we had a feel for each other. We hit on lessons that we could both share, and help black youth. Not just for black people, but anybody who needs inspiration. I let him listen to the stuff I already had. We narrowed down some of the tracks. We put the unexpected together. We painted a beautiful picture together. And that’s what we continue to do—we’re really friends. He and Maverick [Carter, LeBron’s business partner] have a wonderful blueprint of how to bring your friends up with you—share the wealth. And it was important that I brought in someone of his stature. He was a presence that I appreciated having around. I mean, let’s be real—he’s King James.

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