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 de
cision 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.