You might know Chevy Woods as a key rapper in Wiz Khalifa’s Taylor Gang, or even as a strip-club food connoisseur. But when the crew hits the road, he flips into his "Chefy Woods" alias, becoming the clique’s in-squad chef.

“They know what I can cook, and there's not really too many things I can't make,” the Pittsburgh-raised artist says, “so I think they accept anything Chefy Woods serves up.” To that end, you might find Chevy breaking out the grill during impromptu tour bus pitstops and charring up “shrimp, corn on the cob, burgers, hotdogs, chicken, and salmon sometimes” for the team, which also includes Juicy J, SosaMann, J.R. Donato, and stoner gawd, Berner.

Taking on a dual role as both hip-hop artist and kitchen manager is something that sets Chevy and the Taylor Gang apart from the world of showbiz rappers relying on personal chefs. Rick Ross might have Chef Amaris Jones to tend to his every stomach growl, and DJ Khaled demands his daily egg whites are finessed by Chef Dee, but with Chevy commandeering the Taylor Gang’s menu, it turns the meal-time relationship into something close-knit and fraternal.

Fittingly, the roots of Chevy’s role as cook to a band of rappers harks back to the time the Taylor Gang rolled up to the music industry convention South by Southwest. “We kept waking up in the morning and everybody was like, 'What are we eating? When are we eating?'” he explains. “I was like, 'I'm gonna put a stop to that.' So I would would go and buy breakfast foods so that I could at least get the ball rolling." Chefy Woods heeded the call, recounting a menu based around “a lot of cheese-eggs, turkey bacon, and waffles or pancakes, and also home fries.”

So as Chevy finishes up his own solo studio debut album, which will drop this fall, we got him to step into his Chefy Woods persona to drop gems about Wiz's eating habits, how to persuade the Taylor Gang to eat more vegetables, and a Pittsburgh pizza institution that'll have you cutting class.

I'd say it's old school, it's Southern. I'm into having the food taste like food and not be bland. I'm really into going to restaurants, ordering a dish, and if it doesn't taste right, I'll take it home and try my own spin on it.

It's not even leftovers. If I eat the meal there—like, I might get salmon, rice, and asparagus—then I'll think, "Alright, I want to try that at home and put teriyaki sauce on it." I'm about trying to put that little spin on it that the restaurant was missing.

Wiz really likes rice, salmon, and baked chicken; things of that nature. The funny thing is, anything with rice, Wiz is really down with it. When it's rice involved, I know that he's going to come and scoop him up a plate.

I actually haven't served Juicy J food yet but I want to. We're gonna get that all together, like a big Taylor Gang dinner where I'm cooking for the squad. Because Juicy is a Southern guy, I'd probably make catfish, some shrimp, and grits.

For sure. You know, the thing about it is, with any meal I always make vegetables, whether it's carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, greens. As kids, you never wanted to eat your vegetables, but now you can make vegetables taste the way you want to.

Say you're making lemon-pepper chicken wings and you're grilling them. I think that if you match that with the vegetables and put lemon pepper on the vegetables, I think the pairing works. Someone will taste the chicken and be like, "Okay, now I have these vegetables sprinkled with a little lemon pepper too." You make it go hand-in-hand. It's all about the seasoning.

Yeah, for sure. I'll grill when we get to shows, or sometimes it's just on the fly. I might wake up and see everybody move around and people are trying to get meals and look in the refrigerator. I'll be like, "Yo, let's go get a grill, some food, a table and a cooler with some beers," just like I'd do at home. I try to bring that vibe on the road, that home-cooked meal that you'd get from your mom or something like that. I just strike up the grill, I don't tell everybody until it's done, and you can't just grab food off the grill until it's done—you will have to wait until I'm finished cooking.

For the last tour, we grilled maybe three or four times so we ended up buying a $20 grill and then trashing it, leaving it there at the venue, and getting another grill at the next venue. This year, we're gonna ride around with a grill.

I used to do charcoal a lot but now I'm really getting into a gas grill because you can prepare the food in the kitchen and then walk straight out. You don't have to wait for coals to get hot and delay the process. I like for the grill to just be hot and get going.

First of all, when you're putting the coals in the grill, people have a tendency to take the lighter fluid and just squirt it on there without no sense of direction. Don't do that! You want to keep your face away from the grill and don't throw the match in with a little bit of lighter fluid: You wait until you soak up all of the coals and then you throw the match or the paper in there. You don't want to be squirting the lighter fluid onto the fire or you could burn your eyebrows. 

I mean, if I end up actually taking it on full throttle, it's probably gonna be that name. We've been using it and it's sticking with people; when I post pictures of food, that's what they hashtag. The people made the name, we made the name, we've all agreed on it with the fans and the Taylor Gang.

There's this Jamaican food place called Fireside and they make the best jerk chicken, red beans and rice, and cabbage. Any time I'm home, I'll fly to that place.

Oh my god, it is the best! It's so good and they serve it to you hot, right out of the oven to the plate immediately. Everybody knows about Mineo's; everybody goes there. I have friends that went to this high school called Allderdice, which Wiz went to also, and I know he's done it before—like, you just leave school, go get pizza, and then come back 'cause it's literally just across the street.

I might have to ask them that when I go there! I've been eating it since I was 12, 13 years old, so I don't know what they do, but they do something to keep me running back there.