UWM English professor Derrick Harriell co-authored the autobiography of Grammy Award-winning rap artist 2 Chainz. “The Voice in My Head is God” is a New York Times best-seller.
The book details the spiritual journey 2 Chainz credits for his success and reflects on the inner voice he says has guided him his whole life: God.
WUWM Race & Ethnicity Reporter Teran Powell spoke with Harriell about the book.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Teran Powell: Talk a little bit about what that rapport-building was like.
Derrick Harriell: You know, it was really a very organic experience and interesting for me to learn how not only he [2 Chainz] works in relationship to the book, but the stories that he wanted to tell and the things that were important for him to make sure that were hit upon when it came to these stories, right? His big thing was: "I'm not trying to out-trauma nobody." He wanted to tell the story, “The Voice In My Head Is God,” about intuition.
That's the story he wanted to tell — a story about intuition, and how his intuition has informed all of the positive things that have happened and the wonderful things that have happened in his life, whether that be from a record deal to, you know, meeting people that he has then moved into business with. Listening to that voice in his head, he believes, is vital to not only his success, but all of our successes. And when you don't listen to that voice, that's when you might get in trouble.
Do you have a favorite chapter in the book?
Yes. That would be "God Is Love." And that's the chapter that's really highlights his relationship with his father and his father going through some health challenges. And it's a heartbreaking chapter, but there's so much beauty in the chapter.
2 Chainz is so vulnerable in that chapter and so direct in that chapter, and the story will have you on pins and needles as he's telling, you know, there's several stories that are kind of braided together and interwoven together throughout the chapter. And it all coalesces, it all comes together once we get to the end of the chapter, but it's a very, very thick and heavy chapter.
In addition to him being really vulnerable in that chapter, what else makes it your favorite?
That's a great question. I won't say daddy issues, but I know a lot of men — we have complicated relationships with our fathers. And I have a complicated relationship with my father. And his [2 Chainz's] relationship with his father could be complicated at times. And so there was a way that I read sort of myself.
There's one version where dad is a superhero and there's another version where wow, dad is human, right? And dad, you know, isn't always right. I'm speaking for myself now. Dad isn't always right, and sometimes what happens when the roles reverse and now it's time for me to parent a little bit. You know, how does that work?
And I'll say this as maybe a little foreshadowing: there's a moment in — I don't know if these are the words verbatim in the book, but essentially, I'm paraphrasing where he says his dad is in the hospital. He's worried about his father maybe not making it. And he says he has a show that he needed to drive to that was a couple hours away. And you know, he's telling his dad, "I don't need to go to that show. I'm going to stay here with you. You know, forget that show." And his dad is like, "No, go to your show. Go do what you got to do. I'll be right here when you get back."
And he says, I'm paraphrasing: and so I went to the show because my father had never lied to me. Why would he lie to me now?
To have co-written this book that is a New York Times best-seller, how does that feel?
Fantastic. Yeah, it feels really good. Mostly because the book feels like art and not just propaganda. Chainz kept calling it literature: "I want literature." And so, it's a body of work. It's poetic. And so that's what feels good. It became a best-seller while also maintaining a certain amount of artistic integrity.
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