Following struggles with Cash Money, Lil Wayne's musical output has been quite unpredictable. After remaining quiet for the first half of 2017, save for some familiar headlines related to his lawsuit, Wayne surprised fans with a new EP Wednesday night, as well as hinting at the release of Dedication 6. In Tune We Trust gives us four new songs from Weezy, all of which find the rapper sounding invigorated. Putting on his crew, collaborating with A-listers, and getting back into mixtape freestyle mode are all among Wayne's priorities on the project, but some formulas provide a bigger payoff than others. After listening on repeat all night, we've ranked the most exciting moments on the project. Click through the galleries to read our thoughts.
Fireworks
Through his work with Kendrick Lamar alone, Mike WiLL Made It is up for producer of the year. On "Fireworks," he's only strengthened the argument; tapping into the melodic, brightly synthetic sound he's perfected with Rae Sremmurd and presenting it to some of rap's most seasoned pop songwriters (even if they don't get enough credit for it) -- Lil Wayne and Jeezy. Wayne immediately reaches back to one of his most immortal hooks from "Steady Mobbin;" a descending melody that singing rappers like Young Thug have blueprinted their careers off of. His goofy side still very much present in 2017, Wayne revives one of the most absurd lines from the track: "Got 10 bathrooms / I could shit all day," which he shifts into a more freeform arrangement, using new textures of auto-tune and having two takes duke it out, subverting the roles of lead and backing vocal.
When it comes to his verses, he reels in his delivery, settling into a comfortably rapped triplet flow. Meanwhile, Jeezy reminds us why he was called as a consultant on 808s & Heartbreak, contrasting the reverberating synths with his raspy ad-libs. The catchy track shows that Jeezy and Weezy can keep up with the pop chops of the new generation, and should challenge themselves to do so whenever possible.
Magnolia
Lil Wayne has always had a special talent when it comes to taking a hugely popular song and making it his own. However, with the divide between generations in rap feeling larger than ever in 2017, the announcement that he'd be taking on Playboi Carti's SoundCloud smash "Magnolia" didn't seem as sure a bet as say, "Shoulder Lean" in 2007, or "Swag Surf" in 2009. Now that we've heard the remix in full (it was previously shared as a snippet), it's clear that Wayne's "Magnolia" is very much a success. That's not to say that we'll stop listening to Carti's version the way we did when Mike Jones' "Mr. Jones" became "Sky's The Limit" (were we listening to "Mr. Jones?").
But as freestyles fall out of favor in general, Weezy has proven that he's the rare rapper who can still sell the formula. Wayne wastes no time hopping into Carti's stuttered flow, and unlike some of his peers, he doesn't pull a muscle while doing it. In fact, he's able to find a happy medium between the song's freestyle-like bars and his meticulous punchline style. within the first few lines he's already laid into Birdman, quipping "Stunna number blocked," in the cadence of the song's memorable hook. From there, he plays into the New York concept with a shout-out to The LOX and the story of how he spent over half a year in the city. "Did a show with Ja, soon as I left the spot / Pulled over by the cops, them bitches found my Glock / They threw me in the box, eight months tops / Starin' at the clock, commissary stopped," he raps, recalling his time spent at Rikers Island following gun charges he landed in NY. With that behind him, book deal and all, he instantly shifts to his latest struggle: "Man when Carter 5 drop, a n---a jaw gon' drop." There have still been no developments on Wayne's studio album that's been trapped in the corrupt Cash Money network for years, but this freestyle bodes well for Dedication 6, the recently announced installment in the rapper's remix-oriented series.
One of the most thrilling moments of the track comes when he slips into Mannie Fresh's one-word-per-beat flow from "Get You Roll On," a rhythm that showed up in a flashy new form on Carti's own "NO. 9." This, along with Carti's interview that revealed Curren$y, a fellow New Orleans rapper, former Cash Money signee, and frequent collaborator of Wayne's, to be one of his primary influences, is another reminder that Wayne is not as far from the pulse of rap than his years of experience would suggest. Mixtape Weezy is alive and well, and while we may not see Carter V anytime soon, Dedication 6 could be just as jaw-dropping.