In one corner, there was Jay returning with his puffed-up comeback Kingdom Come, doing all he could to make it an “event” album. They say style makes fights, and so here we had a good one. His legendary post– Carter II mixtape run has been lionized - but can you ever really say enough about it? Working off a particular swirl of prerolled blunts, promethazine, and a seemingly bottomless reservoir of raw talent, Wayne seemed to say something brilliant and unexpected every time he opened his mouth. In quick measure, he’d go about justifying himself. At that point in Wayne’s career, it was a preposterous, reckless thing to do - and all the more electrifying for it. 2 Specifying “Alive” meant a direct blow to the brow of the dormant Young Hov.
![lil wayne new album 2015 lil wayne new album 2015](https://i1.sndcdn.com/artworks-000107553070-xzw3zn-t500x500.jpg)
There were other, soon-to-be-eclipsed MCs who were hotter. But when he declared himself - on Side 1, Track 7 of TCII - the “Best Rapper Alive,” it seemed like calculated provocation. The growth, for those paying attention, was remarkable. When Wayne released his breakthrough album Tha Carter II at the end of 2005, Jay had been technically retired for more than two years. Wayne had slowly but surely worked his way past his early reputation as Cash Money’s token kiddie rapper. Because in the mid-2000s, every time these two crossed streams, it was a genuinely thrilling moment. For us wizened few who can still remember the heady hip-hop days of 2005, it’s little more than an echo of what once was.
![lil wayne new album 2015 lil wayne new album 2015](https://ksassets.timeincuk.net/wp/uploads/sites/55/2014/08/2014LilWayne_Getty179170885_10060314.jpg)
But even if Weezy and Hov had announced they were joining forces on the same label - even if they’d announced they were doing a joint album - even if they’d announced they were getting recreational pilots’ licenses together and starting their own niche airline catering exclusively to the Martha’s Vineyard–to–Hamptons route - it couldn’t help but feel, in 2015, a bit anticlimactic. For now, though, this is about nothing more than another shot in the dark for Jay’s beleaguered streaming service.Ī bit deflating, to be sure.
![lil wayne new album 2015 lil wayne new album 2015](https://thesource.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/thug-barter-6.png)
It is possible that Wayne jumped the gun on an actual announcement of label-swapping, and that Bryant is covering for him until the news can be made official Weezy has certainly been lobbing multimillion-dollar lawsuits at Cash Money for long enough for that to make sense. When Wayne was speaking about the partnership with Jay Z, he was speaking about his new deal as an artist owner with Tidal.” That was quickly repudiated by Wayne’s manager, Cortez Bryant: “The Internet and blogs 1 took his words out of context. Online, many speculated that this was a direct flouting of his contract with his beleaguered mentor/father figure Bryan “Birdman” Williams - that Wayne was leaving Birdman’s Cash Money for Jay’s Roc Nation. His shirt off, bucket hat on, he told a fawning crowd that he’d “just signed a deal” with his “motherfucking idol Jay Z.” Over the weekend at a show in Oakland, Lil Wayne made an announcement to great fanfare.