We pull up to a parking lot in an apartment complex. Every time the police circle the block, someone notifies the crew by saying “12.” Within minutes, prescription opiates are changing hands. Residents are shooting dice, but 21 hangs back. “I don’t shoot craps, I shoot Cee-lo,” says 21, preferring bigger stakes. “We living in the days when money is respect,” he tells me. “As long as you got money, niggas gon’ respect you. It don’t even matter what you do, what you ‘bout, how you carry yourself. If you got a lot of money, niggas gon’ respect you and you gon’ be able to do whatever you want to do.”

But what does 21 respect? “I respect motherfucking character. Actions. Backgrounds. What type of nigga you is. If you on some ‘I ain’t no gangsta, I’m just a cool ass nigga,’ I respect you. Versus you ain’t no gangsta and you act like you is, to try to get cool with me. Niggas be thinking, ‘Oh I gotta act like I’m a killer when I’m around him.’ Like hell nah, cause you acting. I respect real shit. That shit get on my nerves, especially when they be doing it to impress me. Don’t do that. Cause I got niggas dead ‘bout that. So that’s like you disrespecting them. Cause you acting like you one of us, and I got niggas that died for this shit.”

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21 released Free Guwop, a tribute EP to Gucci Mane, in July. He has a collaborative EP with Metro Boomin in the works, called SavageBoomin, and another tape, Slaughter King, dropping after. What's keeping the rapper who professed to having one foot in and one foot out focused? “I got two kids,” he says, as he drives to Decatur to Van Morrison's “Brown-Eyed Girl” humming from the classic rock station on his radio. “I ain’t tryna die. Or get locked up. Had to change up the way I move. Rapping just gave me something to do versus the streets. I got a crew. I got a lot of real niggas around me that deserve everything that I deserve. Rapping is one of the tools we can use to make sure all our folks straight.” Some of his crew, the Slaughter Gang, also have the number “21” inked somewhere on their bodies. It refers to their block back home. “I just want us to win,” he says. “Niggas ain’t did nothing but lose they whole life.”