Several members of Offset’s team mill around the sparsely furnished house — one of three residences for the rapper and his wife,— while the man himself, casually clad all in black, bobs in his seat, his wildcat eyes sparkling.
The ink is fresh, less than 24 hours old. He spent seven hours getting it done and plans for another three sometime before he has to board the 19-hour flight to Thailand for the festival, where Cardi is also performing. But when the conversation turns to Takeoff — despite all the elation Offset showed while the song played, despite all the emotion that went into a full tattoo on his back — he shuts down when asked to put his feelings into words. “It’s hard for me to talk about shit right now,” he says. “I’ve never talked about this stuff. Seriously. Talking about Take is hard, man,” he says, almost whispering. “Talking aboutthis shit is hard. That’s why I don’t, to be honest. That shit hurts.
He was classmates with Quavo — the third member of Migos — and began hanging out with him and Takeoff when Offset was in the sixth grade. While Quavo was Takeoff’s uncle, the two were just three years apart in age, and although Offset is often referred to as Quavo’s cousin, they are actually not biologically related.
But the group faced challenges trying to take things to the next level — not least because Offset, who’d fathered his first child at 17 and embraced a street lifestyle that he admits wasn’t part of his upbringing, was in Georgia’s DeKalb County Jail for violating his probation after a prior conviction for felony burglary and theft. He’s absent from the video for “Bando,” except for the T-shirts bearing the words “Free Offset” worn by his fellow Migos and multiple others.
With “Bad and Boujee,” it all finally came together. The song became the group’s biggest hit to date, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and being certified gold or platinum in 10 countries. Glover even shouted out the group when accepting a Golden Globe Award for “Atlanta.” “I really wanna thank the Migos,” he said. “Not for being in the show, but for making ‘Bad and Boujee.’ Like, that’s the best song ever.