Offset Is Trying to Come Clean
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Offset’s memories of his biological father are fading. Until a few weeks ago, he couldn’t remember his dad’s face, then, out of nowhere, an uncle texted him a photo. “It blew my mind how much I look just like him,” Offset says as he pulls on a blunt, filling a Midtown Manhattan office with smoke.
It's a cold day in late January—Martin Luther King Jr. Day—and Offset is telling me about his parents. They met in the '80s at a talent show, where his father was dancing (a gift that Offset inherited). When Offset was a toddler, his dad “got into the streets,” he explains, and has been there ever since. This still affects the rapper, despite what you might call his Teflon demeanor.
“I don't care how gangster you are, who you're supposed to be, or how trapped out you are,” the twenty-seven-year-old says. “To see a nigga with their pop breaks you down.”
The last time they spoke it was on the phone three years ago as Offset’s rap career was ascending. Before that, it had been a dozen years since they talked, on Offset's twelfth birthday. “I had paper and I couldn’t wait to tell him,” he says about his new rap money. But when Offset asked his dad where he was living so he could bring him some cash, he admitted he didn’t have a stable address and that anyway he couldn’t accept his son’s help out of a sense of pride. That decision left Offset feeling insulted and resentful.
“It just started to make me upset. I've reached out and you've slapped my hand. You slapped my hand when it wasn't even out. You didn't even come back to put anything in my hand. So now I feel like you don't have any respect for me. You’re still running and you don't have to." Offset is venting, his gaze cast down at the floor. There’s sadness in his voice. He’s clearly hurt and frustrated.
Offset, whose given name is Kiari Kendrell Cephus, is grappling with this relationship at a pivotal time in both his personal and professional life. He has four children, one of whom, Kulture Kiari, is with his wife, the rap icon Cardi B. Their relationship has marked the joining of rap music’s most powerful emerging artists. Since their marriage in September 2017, Offset and Cardi have gone through highly publicized marital troubles, culminating last December with Cardi announcing their split. Although he’s made high-profile attempts to win her back, Offset has not spoken publicly about the split, until now.
The drama comes as Offset prepares his debut album, out February 22. He is the last of the Migos—the group formed with fellow rappers Quavo and Takeoff that vaulted them to fame—to put out a solo record. It's a designation that will have the music world's attention, as it looks to see if the rapper can match or succeed Migos. And Offset has been adamant about not rushing it. “I want the album to stick,” he says. “It’s my masterpiece.”
Up until this point, he’s cemented himself as an artist known for turn-up hits, with a persona built mostly around his spunk and a discography of iced-out raps and boasty verses, leaving a glossy veil between himself and his audience. But as the lines blurred between his star image and his life beyond the spotlight, Offset has spent the last year digging deeper into his own history while writing music outside of Migos. It's why, during this, his prime-time moment, Offset is thinking about his dad and about being a dad. He is focused on building a more positive model of fatherhood for his children than the one he’s known with his biological father. But he's also eager to offer him compassion.
“If my daddy called me right now," he says, "I'd get on a jet, buy him a house, give him a million dollars, and I won’t talk to him for another ten years. At least I’d know he’s straight.”
Offset speaks with a rich southern drawl, which has roots in Gwinnett County, a suburban area north of Atlanta where he lived with his younger brother, stepfather, and mother Latabia. According to Offset, Latabia is the reason for his competitive nature. To illustrate this, he tells me a story about a football game he played as an adolescent. He was knocked out from a dizzying tackle and woke up to his mom on the turf shouting for him to keep going. “Boy you better get out there! Don't play,” he yells, lovingly imitating his mom. (Latabia is with him during our interview, helping organize needs for his shoot and managing his team. As he emerges from the dressing room in a pink suit, she points out how as a kid she’d buy him outfits, but he’d pick out his own clothes to style himself.)
In middle school, Offset found extended brothers when he met Quavo and Takeoff. Their preteen ritual of splitting an eighty-nine cent crunchy taco into thirds so they all could get in on the snack was an early sign of their unbreakable solidarity. The three formed Migos in 2008 while attending Berkmar High School, dropped the 2011 debut mixtape Juug Season when Offset was just 19 years old, and two years later released the single “Versace,” which put the group on the map. But as the song began to take off, Offset was serving jail time for a probation violation. In fact, legal troubles seem to have bedeviled Offset during crucial moments in his life.
Around the time Migos was taking shape, Offset, at the age of 17, learned he would be a father for the first time. “I was panicking,” he says about the moment he found out. “I was the first one of the homies that jumped off the porch, so I wasn’t really sharing my panics. The time was getting closer and closer for him to be born. And I was thinking, I’m still just a boy.” After the birth, he made a promise to be the dad he never had, doing whatever it took to make ends meet. He turned to crime to provide for his son, and in 2012 landed his first felony conviction for possessing stolen property.
In 2015, all three Migos members were charged with felony possession of a schedule II narcotic and carrying a loaded gun on school property following a concert at Georgia Southern University. A year later, Offset, Quavo, and Takeoff saw their lux appeal reach mainstream culture with the help of their No. 1 single, “Bad and Boujee.” Its global success (complete with multiple memes, chart positions in more than a dozen countries, and a shoutout by Donald Glover at the Golden Globes) was pivotal for the group’s members, especially Offset, whose bouncy cadence and grit shined on the song’s famed hook. Since then, he’s explored his voice on his collaboration with 21 Savage and Metro Boomin on the 2017 EP, Without Warning, which included coveted features for artists like Gucci Mane and Tyga. Last year, Offset flexed his skills when he and Quavo co-wrote and laid vocals for The Carters’ stadium-blowing hit, “APESHIT.”
In July 2018, ten days after Kulture’s birth, Offset was hit with a felony weapons charge, when police say they found three guns and less than an ounce of marijuana during a traffic stop. “The trap is set up for you to be in trouble, it’s hard to get out of it,” he says.
During our conversation, Offset slowly opens up about his children. He's protective like any good father and has to read my vibe before sharing their ages: Jordan is nine, Kody and Kalea are both three (born the same year), and Kulture is six months old. “Have you seen my kids?! They’re beautiful,” Offset brags, flashing an uncontainable smile after he mentions them. He prides himself on making sure they each have a strong sense of self, great education, and myriad opportunities. Offset says his oldest son, Jordan, takes after his athleticism. It gives him chills, he says, to watch his son dominate in sports.
“He's only nine years old and he has a sixty-five-yard range, four tackles. Then, at a basketball game he scored thirteen out of the twenty-five points. Plus in baseball, home run,” he says, smacking his mouth to emulate a bat cracking sound, not unlike a very Migos vocal flourish. The children keep him grounded, he says, and when he’s at home in daddy mode, he unwinds into his truest form as “a regular person.”
“I'm not just all diamonds, pearls, and fancy big houses,” he explains. “I have flaws like everybody else. I'm a human being, too, and I want to open that up.”
But opening that up means discussing his relationship with Cardi B with me, and it remains a sensitive topic for him. From the time dating rumors started circulating about the couple when they collaborated on “Lick” in early 2017, Offset and Cardi’s relationship has been the subject of intense tabloid speculation. They married in secret in September 2017 and the following summer, Cardi gave birth to Kulture.
Scrutiny continued for the next five months after blogs began reporting that Offset was unfaithful during his wife’s pregnancy. In response, Cardi posted a somber video on Instagram last December announcing their split; underneath it, amid comments from her fans, was Offset’s defeated message: “Y’all won.” It sent her fans into a frenzy. In the heat of the breakup, other rappers started the #TakeOffsetBack hashtag, and at Rolling Loud, a music festival notorious for its mostly male lineup, Offset’s friend, 21 Savage, asked the crowd to chant “Cardi, take Offset back.” Later that night, with the help of Cardi’s team, Offset crashed her headlining performance and filled the stage with bundles of white and red roses to spell out his plea.
His actions sparked a dialogue about the harm in public apologies and the emotional pressure women feel when asked for forgiveness on the spot. As the conversation around his actions continued to build online, he tweeted: “All of my wrongs have been made public, i figure It’s only right that my apologies are made public too. A nigga was just trying .....thank god I ain’t got no balloons sheeesh.” His “take me back” gestures were performative and grand, but as Cardi admitted in Harper’s Bazaar, she still wasn’t so sure about their future.
When Offset and I speak in January, their status is still pending, and it’s one of the few topics the rapper doesn’t want to touch after all the public criticism. He turns from talkative to shy when I ask if the topic of romantic love appears on the new album. A brief pause stiffens the air until he recovers and smiles. “Hell yeah, I’m vulnerable,” he says. “I ain’t too tough.”
But, after months of turmoil, Offset joined Cardi at the 2019 Grammy Awards and stood by her side during her momentous acceptance speech for Best Rap Album. (People on Twitter criticized him for standing next to her on stage and in pictures, accusing him of trying to steal her spotlight.) After the Grammys, Offset sent me an update about their marriage: “It’s been good. We’re being more open to each other, raising our baby and taking things slowly.”
Offset, like many other popular cultural figures, has undeniable baggage. Beyond his legal troubles, he’s faced bouts of controversy, including rumored affairs and the 2018 release of a queerphobic song lyric. In his verse on YFN Lucci’s “Boss Life,” Offset rapped: “Pinky ring crystal clear, 40k spent on a private Lear/60k solitaire/I cannot vibe with queers.” The lyrics sparked backlash, forcing Offset to issue an apology on his social media. In it, he maintained that he did not intend to use “queers” as a homophobic slur, noting the definition of “queer” as strange or odd.
“When I wrote that I was thinking of words that could rhyme with the others (here, lear, solitaire, bear) and I saw this definition about her having a queer feeling she was being watched and it fit what I was thinking about a stalker creepy paparazzi situation,” he said in an Instagram post.
With the release of his new album, Offset is beginning a new chapter in his career, one that may find him earning redemption for his previous missteps. Certainly, they’ve managed to spark the public’s interest, particularly when it comes to all the relationship drama with Cardi.
On the day we meet, Offset is mellow and snug in a simple black sweatsuit. His locs and diamonds are tucked in the hood that frames his symmetrical face of tattoos. As he settles back into the cushy armchair, he’s friendly and present. His rap persona is imbued with riches and luxury, but it’s this down-to-earth side that his fans don’t know outside of Migos.
During a photoshoot that day, Offset is lively—playing the songs he’s still narrowing down for the new album while he poses. There’s one song he plays a few times during the shoot where he raps, “Have you ever been confined? ... Looking at your kids through the blinds.” Hopping over the heady beat with his signature lilt, he drops woeful lines about being locked up and separated from his babies. Offset confirms that the song is on the new album; when the lyrics come up in conversation, he looks off and shakes his head as if he’s reliving the hurt.
“I cried to myself while I was doing this album ’cause I was talking about my story and my kids,” he says. “When I did a song, I started getting memories of my grandma, my struggles, my partner that was killed, the thoughts I had while I was incarcerated, and my kids’ faces were there in my head. I love my kids, this is who I do it for.”
When Cardi first heard the album, she said it brought her to tears.
On his latest single “Red Room,” Offset yields to that vulnerability and vents about some of those hardships. In the video, he raps in vignettes as scenes of his life flash in a montage, images that lament the loss of his grandmother and the near-death car accident that almost took his life in 2018. “You can get too personal in the music, but niggas know not to do that,” he laughs. “You have to put it on a platter where people understand, because people go through it. I'm just trying to make relatable music at the end of the day.”
Atlanta producers Metro Boomin and Southside lead the LP’s production and in a stride to focus on Offset’s solo powers, it has no credited features (though other artists do appear on the album). The album’s release date was pushed back after it was initially scheduled to come out in late 2018. Offset chalks this up to what he and Metro call “fourth-quarter recording.” In other words: a surge of last-minute creativity that’s made it difficult to narrow down the final songs.
He estimates that the project will have around fourteen tracks and themes of fatherhood and family are at its core. “I want it to be strong, I don’t want to overdose you,” he says. Both Migos albums Culture and Culture II reached No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart. I ask Offset whether he’s concerned that being vulnerable will alienate listeners.
“Fuck all that stream shit because I don't do music for money. It's my heart. This is what I believe in. It's my creativity and I do it for the people.” He tells me he’s thankful to know what controls him, and it’s family and happiness, which, he says, are worth more than millions and accolades.
As night falls, Offset ponders his evolution and what it could look like. It can be difficult to juggle lowering his guard and sharing too much in his music. He’s tasked with opening up while also trying to protect his wife, children, and loved ones from public critique. When it comes to himself, and his prior transgressions, Offset welcomes the chance to be authentic and cooly prove doubters wrong. “I've never let anyone judge me because I've been in front of a judge before. And I'm a warrior because of that,” he says. “I've been in front of somebody that can tell me when I'm going to sleep and when I'm waking up. I've been judged the unfair way. When you feel like you're not a man. To beat that is hard, so whatever you perceive is what you perceive. And that's on you.”
Photographs by Amar Daved. Styling by Aya Kanai. Grooming by Nate Poston.
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