Rapper 2 Chainz launches #MEALTIME cookbook

If you’re a fan of celebrity cookbooks, you probably have a copy of Gwyneth Paltrow’s healthy-eating tome, It’s All Good, sitting in your kitchen. You may have even flipped through Eva Longoria’s Eva’s Kitchen, or tried a recipe from Sheryl Crow’s unfortunately named If It Makes You Healthy.

Rapper 2 Chainz is the latest celebrity to launch his own cookbook. The 36-year-old “No Lie” and “Mercy” recording artist formerly known as Tity Boi (née Tauheed Epps) published #MEALTIME on September 9. But don’t expect to see a special 2 Chainz section carved out at Chapters the next time you’re there. The cookbook was released in conjunction with his latest album, B.O.A.T.S. II: Me Time.

Hip-hop-loving foodies who purchase the online album receive a copy of the cookbook digitally. While the hashtag in the title might make you laugh, what you’ll find inside may surprise you. Recipes include relatively healthy and simple Southern-inspired favourites, like shrimp scampi, garlic mashed potatoes, barbecue scallops, and teriyaki salmon.

In an interview on MSNBC’s NOW with Alex Wagner today (September 13), 2 Chainz confirmed that the recipes were created with his personal chef on a tour bus. The real reason why he got into cooking, however, was due to health issues.

“I do suffer from acid reflux as well as ulcers, so I take a couple of forms of medication, which I don’t like taking. I just try to eat properly to prevent me from getting sick, and so a couple of those things that I need to do is not get too full, not get too hungry. I don’t eat any beef or pork,” 2 Chainz told Wagner. “My mentality is what you put in is what you get out. It’s like a receipt.”

If you think that the College Park, Georgia-born artist takes his food too seriously, just take a look at his cooking instructions. In a recipe for mashed potatoes, 2 Chainz writes, “If wearing a four-finger ring, carefully place it on a side table before starting to cook”. Meanwhile, a recipe for asparagus includes the instructions, “Drape yourself in an Adidas sweatsuit, chainz n things”, and the first step in his teriyaki salmon recipe is “put on your Versace apron”.

The rapper’s foodie adventures are also documented in his Instagram account, hairweavekiller.

And just for fun, here’s a food-related music video by the new cookbook author.