Lil Wayne

By 2016, Wayne had become embroiled in a legal battle with Birdman and Cash Money Records, further complicating the fate of Tha Carter V. These continued delays prompted the release of the Free Weezy Album, yet another mixtape to tide over his fans. By the end of the year, he published a memoir about his time spent at Riker's Island (Gone 'Til November) and scored another hit with "Sucker for Pain," a collaboration for the chart-topping Suicide Squad soundtrack. The all-star track topped the Billboard rap chart and rose to number three on the R&B/hip-hop chart. DJ Khaled's "I'm the One" became one of Wayne's biggest collaborations the following year, topping the pop chart on its way to quintuple-platinum status. Primarily collaborative work continued well into 2018, including a contribution to the Future-driven soundtrack for Superfly, until Wayne finally issued the oft-grim Tha Carter V, the chart-topping finale to the Carter series. After joining blink-182 in 2019 for a co-headlining tour and mashup single "What's My Age Again/A Milli," Wayne completed album 13, Funeral. Featuring a broad range of guest MCs -- Jay Rock, Lil Baby, and XXXTentacion among them -- the set was issued in January 2020 and entered the Billboard 200 at the top. In July of that year, Wayne re-released his 2015 mixtape Free Weezy Album as FWA. The project had seen an exclusive release on only one streaming service five years earlier, but the wider release was markedly different, with some tracks omitted completely and new mixes of songs that formerly included uncleared samples. 2021 saw the tracks "B.B. King Freestyle (with Drake)" and "Funeral" top the Billboard charts, and the release of the one-off single "Ain't Got Time" featuring Fousheé. In October of that year, Wayne teamed up with Rich the Kid for the ten-song mixtape Trust Fund Babies. The project included only one featured guest spot from YG. In January of 2022, Wayne's 2011 mixtape Sorry 4 the Wait arrived on streaming services for the first time. Originally a stopgap release intended to sate fans waiting for the long-delayed Carter IV, the newly refreshed version of the tape included four songs recorded around the time of its re-release and included guest spots from Lil Tecca and Allan Cubas. In February of 2023 Wayne included posthumous contributions from DMX on the single "Kant Nobody," which was later the lead-off track of the decades-spanning best-of compilation I Am Music, which materialized a month later. I Am Music included some of Wayne's best-known, best-loved, and best-performing songs from across his career, and debuted at the number 25 position on the Billboard Top 200 charts. In September of that same year, Wayne released the mixtape Tha Fix Before Tha VI, an odds and ends preamble to fill space before the release of the sixth installment of Tha Carter series. The ten-track project included guest appearances from Euro, Fousheé, and Jon Batiste, as well as production from a host of notable producers like Cool & Dre. The mixtape debuted at the number 40 position on the U.S. Billboard charts. Before the end of 2023, Lil Wayne reunited with Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz for the collaborative album Welcome to Collegrove. Released on Def Jam in November of 2023, it was a sequel to the 2016 album ColleGrove, which had been created in equal parts by both rappers but was only credited to 2 Chainz as the main artist due to record label disputes. His output in the front half of 2024 mostly consisted of high-profile features like "Lifestyle" from the second album by Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign's supergroup ¥$ and "Can't Hold Me Down" with Lil Yachty and Kyle Richh. ~ David Jeffries & Andy Kellman, Rovi

From 🇺🇸 United States