The 2020s File Feature
Do It Again
Do It Again: NLE Choppa, 2Rare, and the Winter of 2023February 2023 arrived with the kind of cold that settles into city bones and the kind of rap energy tha…
01 The Story
Do It Again: NLE Choppa, 2Rare, and the Winter of 2023
February 2023 arrived with the kind of cold that settles into city bones and the kind of rap energy that follows wherever NLE Choppa goes. The Memphis rapper had spent the years since his breakthrough building a catalog that spanned drill-adjacent aggression and, in an unexpected turn, something closer to wellness advocacy and spiritual exploration. Do It Again, his collaboration with Chicago's 2Rare, landed squarely in the former mode: immediate, physical, designed to move a room.
Two Cities, One Track
The pairing of NLE Choppa with 2Rare brought together two distinct regional energies. Choppa had come up through Memphis's rap tradition, where street narrative and melodic hooks have always coexisted more comfortably than outsiders sometimes assume. The city had a long history of producing artists who combined visceral content with genuinely infectious sonics, and Choppa carried that lineage into the 2020s without treating it as nostalgia. 2Rare was building a name in Chicago's competitive scene, carrying that city's intensity into his performances without simply imitating its most established voices. The collaboration gave each artist a different context to operate in, and the contrast worked in the track's favor; each brought something the other did not have, and the resulting combination was more energetic than either might have produced working alone.
A Quick Flash on the Hot 100
Do It Again entered the Billboard Hot 100 on February 4, 2023, debuting at number 96. The following week it moved to its peak of number 85, a modest but real commercial footprint for a track operating in the tighter margins of the streaming-era chart. The song spent five weeks on the Hot 100, cycling out by early March as the album campaign that surrounded it moved through its natural momentum. Over 54 million YouTube views testified to genuine audience affection that extended well beyond the chart window.
The Production Approach
The sonic landscape of Do It Again sat comfortably in the contemporary trap register that dominated urban radio in 2023: hi-hat rolls that sprint and stumble in deliberate patterns, bass that sits low in the chest, a melody that catches just enough to make the chorus repeatable. NLE Choppa's delivery had evolved since his early recordings; the aggression was still present but better controlled, more precisely deployed. 2Rare matched the energy without crowding out the space.
NLE Choppa's Complicated Public Persona
Part of what made NLE Choppa an interesting figure in early 2023 was the genuine tension between his music and his public statements about health, spirituality, and personal transformation. He was one of the more vocal advocates for holistic wellness in the rap world at the time, which sat in interesting contrast with his catalog's more combative moments. Do It Again did not try to resolve this tension; it simply operated in one register while the public conversations about the other register continued in parallel.
The Persistence of Street Rap in the Streaming Era
One of the things Do It Again illustrated was the continued commercial vitality of straightforward street rap in an era where the Hot 100 was increasingly dominated by pop-inflected styles. The song found its audience without concession or compromise, earned its chart position through genuine streaming engagement from a devoted base, and added another entry to a catalog that was growing more complex and interesting with each release. NLE Choppa continued to evolve as an artist through the rest of 2023 and into subsequent years, and tracks like this one belong to a period when the version of him that was shaping up was clearly worth paying attention to. For listeners who prefer their rap direct and physical, Do It Again delivered exactly what the title promised: the pleasure of returning to something that does its job without apology, with two artists who know exactly where to be in the room and when to take up space.
Press play when the playlist needs to shift gears. This one does not ask permission.
“Do It Again” — NLE Choppa & 2Rare's singular moment on the 2020s charts.
02 Song Meaning
Energy, Performance, and the Terms of the Game: Reading "Do It Again"
Not every song reaches for the existential. Some songs are about the exact moment you are in, the physical sensation of listening loudly, the confidence that comes from being in a room where the music is right. Do It Again belongs to this tradition: it is about performance, energy, and the particular social rituals of street life rendered with a directness that does not require elaborate unpacking.
The Flex as Communication
In contemporary hip-hop, the flex is a communicative act with specific social functions. Declaring what you have and what you are capable of is not simply vanity; it is a negotiation of status within a context where status determines safety and opportunity. NLE Choppa and 2Rare both understand this grammar fluently, and the song's bravado is best read within this framework rather than as simple boasting divorced from context.
Physicality and Movement
The song is notable for how strongly it orients toward the body: the music wants you to move, and the lyrics describe movement, action, physical presence. This is trap music working at one of its core functions, which is to give the body somewhere to go with its energy. The production choices support this at every level, from the bass frequencies to the vocal mix that places both rappers forward and close.
The Partnership Dynamic
Collaboration in rap is its own art form, and what makes Do It Again work as a collaborative track is the way NLE Choppa and 2Rare complement each other's styles without blurring into a single undifferentiated performance. Each brings his own approach to the same material, and the contrast gives the song a dynamic range that a solo track might not achieve. Listeners who already knew one artist found an introduction to the other, which is part of the practical function of a well-chosen rap collaboration.
Memphis and Chicago in Conversation
The deeper cultural conversation the track initiates is between two cities with enormous and distinct contributions to American rap. Memphis gave the world the slow, bass-heavy, melodic horrorcore tradition as well as generations of street rappers who shaped the sound of the 2000s and 2010s. Chicago gave the world drill and its many international descendants. Putting representatives of these two traditions together and letting them share a track is an act of musical geography, a map of where American rap comes from and where it goes.
Straightforwardness as a Virtue
In an era when many rap records reach for concept, narrative complexity, and genre-blending, there is genuine value in a track that simply does what it says it will do with maximum commitment. Do It Again does not pretend to be anything other than what it is, and that clarity of purpose is part of its appeal. The best street rap has always been honest about its own intentions, and this track carries that tradition forward without apology.
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