4/5
TuneChainz.
You can see it with his eyes closed. Peep the perfect portrait of Lil' Wayne on the amazing album artwork for his new album 'Welcome 2 Collegrove' with your rapper's favourite megastar rapper, 2 Chainz (a sequel to Chainz' third-studio album 'ColleGrove'), and you may wonder why you just see Wayne when this is a collaborative affair. And that's exactly the point. Inked like a deal set to dry, look at all the art on Weezy F. Baby's (please say the baby) profile. The only thing Lil Tunechi has more than tats is records. From all the Carter's we've got with 'No Ceilings'. Not to mention all the rock albums and mixtapes in-between that prove the most prolific man in rap is not a human being. Yet, despite this outstanding output, label pains prevented him from releasing collaborative albums like his Young Money brethren Drake (who also surprise released his third 'Scary Hours' EP on the same New Music Friday to complete his October output 'For All The Dogs'). Now you know why you could never feel your face with Juelz Santana. Or get those long awaited albums with R&B royalty Lloyd ('Best Of Young Worlds') and T-Pain ('He Rap, He Sing'). I can't believe it.
Peep the amazing artwork from the 2016 'ColleGrove' album from Chainz and you get the picture. It's the same song. And despite the Cash Money issues (please, don't say the Baby), Tha Carter put bars down on every song on the album, bar four. Now, what happened to that boy is a thing of the past. As the sequel to their unofficial collaborative album on wax is here almost a decade later for your Def Jam. Justice is served, and for just us as rap fans, it's done so with the coldest lines, laced like revenge. This definitive Def Jam Recordings album really is a duet as Chainz and Wayne bring an A-list of urban music guest features to the fore, featuring 21 Savage ('Big Diamonds', bigger than Drake's rings), Usher ('Transparency'), Fabolous ('PPA'), Benny the Butcher ('Oprah and Gayle' (you get an album, you get an album), Vory (the monstrous 'Godzilla'), Rick Ross ('Can't Believe You') and Marsha Ambrosius (the shining 'Moonlight' closing).
Ambition can't match the ceiling of a rap GOAT who started his career as a child actor in this game like a young Usher Raymond, scheming and looking hard, and raps Most Improved Player, the artist formerly known as Tity Boi, who Disturbed Tha Peace with Ludacris who also has his own new release this week (albeit a Disney Christmas movie 'Dashing Through The Snow', hey, it's worth an unwrap). You better tighten the zips on those duffel bags, boyz, because in this player's circle these two are winning like the sheen on their caddy, stunting like daddy. VROOM! After 17 years, OutKast, Andre 3000 may have finally released a new album, 'New Blue Sun', featuring nothing but flutes (and it's f#####g fantastic), but these two are still the pied piper's of rap, now the former self-proclaimed one should have never been allowed to lead people in the first place.
If that wasn't enough star power for your unit (cue, the Wong 'Avengers: Endgame' meme), more comes in the form of the legendary 50 Cent who narrates the interludes to this story from the intro to the outro, bringing that 'Power' acting back for the forthcoming star of 'The Expendables 4'. This portmanteau to 2 Chainz' College Park, Georgia hometown, and Lil' Wayne's birthplace of New Orleans, Louisiana was preluded by the pre-release of 'Presha' produced by long-time Wayne affiliate Bangladesh. The pressure, so much so that Nicki Minaj pushed back the release of her 'Pink Friday 2' sequel to another New Music Friday in December. The reality is, it's actually, so everyone can eat with the pre-orders this Thanksgiving and Christmas season. We know Roman is just reloading. 'Long Story Short' like the stunning second single, this dynamic duo are no longer 'ColleGrove' dropouts.
Poking fun and playing games like bringing back the original point-making artwork that D'Angelo would be proud of, and even pointing to it in the album's title, "welcome" "2". They need no more introduction, balling and popping bottles like a 'G6'. As famous as a Far East Movement. After all, 'Don't Dope Sell Itself?' This fix before 'Tha VI' is bound to make 'Millions From Now' with platinum lyrics like, "Been in the kitchen, you know I ain't payin'/You can ask chef, let me know how I pan out/Garage full of food, and I'm gon' pull the Lamb' out/Mm, yeah, you know what I'm sayin'?/The handshake I gave you was my last handout/Mm, yeah, you know what I'm sayin'? (Chainz)". And, "A million dollars from now/I won't remember you, I done forgot/I won't forget how I got what I got/Cry me a river 'cause I'm on a yacht/Stack night after night, after commas it's dots/Remind me, forgot that it's slime over thots/Don't make me pop, cast a nine on the opps/It's Tunechi and Tity Boi, minus the bra (Wayne)."
Genius loves company, like Ray Charles, and these two are taking everyone who got in their way to school. It's 'Crazy Thick' like a 'Significant Other'. 'Shame' on a you know what with a Wu-Tang sample for this clan's chambers. Moving like 36 with a savage 21 tracks that do something for you. Putting up numbers like it was your 21st year in the game, no shame. Just under an hour in runtime, but prolific in its production like the hours Drizzy is putting in, there's even more 'Bars' here than when Lil' Wayne was just a "guest feature" on the true welcome to 'ColleGrove'. Mobbing deep over Havoc beats (rest peacefully Prodigy) with 2 rapping, "Touchin' the sky, I could skateboard in the cloud/Put 'em on some much loud that they won't make sound/This that body walk nonchalant, don't make sense/Like a n#### with dreads tryna own his own barber shop/Heart not hard to stop, take a new whip then karate chop/Turn the f#####' top to a halter top/Concrete jungle, I'll f### Jane though/Industry, a bunch of n####s swing on the same rope/Sit in the same room, f### on the same h#/We on different planes if we is in the same boat/Captivate 'em and creative/Potato head, turn 'em into mashed potatoes."
To Lil's big planet lines, world reaching with "Uh, b###### flow, I had to though, I'm natural and practical/Infatuated with the dope, fanatical, banana clip, you're apple though/I got more tools than Apple Store/You're screwed up and now them goons is at your door with ransom notes/And we gon' need some answers though, answer more/Your modern family can suddenly become a canceled show, that's standard though/I have your cousin be the one to cut your throat, my standards low/I'm from New Orleans, you either be man or h## and now they know/You mash and go and cash it slow, whatever go and that you know/Got more techs than Apple Store, I have more sex than Scorpios/And I don't text or call them h##s, restaurant 'em all them h##s/I slept with foreign h##s that only heard Tha Carter IV." Now, whose snatching the crown? Those who, "Send blood hounds at you, send my rounds at you" with Ludacrs lines, dashing through the blow and decking your halls. Welcome back to ColleGrove for the first time. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Big Diamonds (Feat. 21 Savage)', 'Transparency (Feat. Usher)', 'Godzilla (Feat. Vory)'.
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