After years locked up in label disputes, Lil Wayne‘s long-awaited new album, Tha Carter V, has finally arrived. The 23-track album marks the fifth installment in the prolific rapper’s enormously successful, Grammy-winning series of albums. However, in addition to the baseline excitement of fans about a new Weezy LP, the significant buzz surrounding this specific release stems from a long, fraught battle his parent label, Cash Money Records, and Birdman, the label’s leader and Wayne’s noted musical father figure.
The album was teased by Wayne and those around him as far back as 2012, one year after the release of Tha Carter IV, which was met with a middling critical response but was an overwhelming commercial success, eventually being certified Platinum two times over. Tha Carter IV also came after an extended delay, prompting Wayne to release a new mixtape, Sorry 4 Tha Wait, to hold fans over until the album’s release.
In 2014, Lil Wayne released “Believe Me” featuring Drake, which was intended to be Tha Carter V‘s lead single. However, shortly before the album’s rumored initial release date, Weezy F. Baby fired off a series of tweets explaining that fans would have to wait, as Birdman was not going to release the project. As he lamented at the time,
To all my fans, I want you to know that my album won’t and hasn’t been released bekuz … Cash Money Records refuse to release it. This is not my fault. I am truly and deeply sorry to all my fans but most of all to myself and my family for putting us in this situation. … I want off this label and nothing to do with these people but unfortunately it ain’t that easy. I am a prisoner and so is my creativity. Again, I am truly sorry and I don’t blame ya if ya fed up with waiting 4 me & this album. But thank you.
Lil Wayne’s feud with his label only ramped up from there. In early 2015, Weezy sued Cash Money for $51 million and demanded the right to terminate his contract and leave the label. Later that year, Wayne released The Free Weezy Album exclusively on Tidal, and Cash Money returned fire by filing suit against Jay-Z‘s fledgling streaming platform for $50 million. That suit was eventually dropped. Through all that, Tha Carter V remained one of popular music’s big, mythical question marks. With each passing year, fans got more and more ravenous for its release, and the online campaign to #FreeThaCarterV (or #FreeC5) continued to grow louder and louder.
This ain’t for y’all new niggas. These the lost files from ’09 and I’m tired of em just sittin on my hard drive. #FreeC5
— T-Pain (@TPAIN) May 18, 2017
In recent weeks, news surfaced that Lil Wayne and Birdman had finally reached an agreement for an undisclosed sum, effectively freeing up Tha Carter V for release. Now, the album has finally arrived, though it seems pretty clear that it’s not entirely a relic of 2012 that’s been collecting dust for half a decade. The new album features a slew of special guests both young and old including features by Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, his daughter, Reginae Carter, Ashanti, Snoop Dogg, and more and boasts production credits from Swizz Beatz, Dr. Dre, Metro Boomin, Mannie Fresh, Zaytoven, DJ Mustard. The album also includes a collaboration with highly controversial young rapper XXXTentacion, who was shot dead during a robbery attempt earlier this year.
Tha Carter V, as it is released today, is likely a combination of new and old, featuring some material from the intended initial release and some created in the time since. It’s hard to see exactly where that line is, too. The album has plenty of the more rock-influenced, trap-style beats that have now become the norm, but Wayne had already started experimenting with that new musical direction for some time by 2012, as evidenced by his sound on mixtapes like Rebirth (2010), No I Am Not a Human Being (2010), and the other numerous “unofficial” projects he’s released since then.
While it’s surely not the same Wayne that earned the commanded him the “greatest rapper alive” crown for much of the 2000’s, it’s still a new Weezy album, and it’s still an exciting victory after years and years of waiting. Stream Tha Carter V below:
Lil Wayne – Tha Carter V – Full Album
Weezy celebrated the hard-won release of the LP with a star-studded joint 36th birthday party/release party dubbed “Wayne’s World,” attended by famous friends like Stevie Wonder, Chris Brown, Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, Timbaland, Ray J, Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi of Rae Sremmurd, Trippie Redd, Shaggy, Trey Songz, Tiffany Haddish, Draya Michelle. You can check out a gallery of photos from the party below via Getty Images.
Lil Wayne was also just announced as the replacement for the injured Childish Gambino at the upcoming Austin City Limits festival—though we all know what happened last time he was booked as a late festival lineup addition. We won’t hold our breaths, we’ll just be over here victoriously bumping Tha Carter V.
The post Lil Wayne Finally Frees ‘Tha Carter V’ After Years Of Ugly Label Battles At Star-Studded Birthday Bash [Album Stream/Photos] appeared first on L4LM.
