When UWM English Professor Derrick Harriell got an email offering him the chance to work with “a famous southern rapper,” he thought it was spam.
But it wasn’t. It was a legitimate offer to collaborate with Grammy-winning rapper 2 Chainz, one of the leaders in the trap genre of southern rap music.
Fortunately, Harriell called the number in the email, and not long after that, he was sitting in 2 Chainz’s Atlanta recording studio. Over the course of the next two years, Harriell flew to Georgia twice a month and helped 2 Chainz craft the telling of his life story.
The result is “The Voice in My Head is God,” which was published in March and hit the bestseller list soon after.
“I think the thing that I’ve been relaying when I talk about my participation in the book is that it wasn’t an easy journey. … I was reminding (people) that this was a labor of love,” Harriell said. “When it hit the New York Times bestseller list, it’s like, man, everything came together and it paid off, and it’s a beautiful project, and it’s being celebrated as such.”
Harriell tells the whole story in an interview with Sarah Vickery, of the College of Letters & Science.
