Photo Courtesy: Kyle Nobles
By Faye Darku
While many celebrated Independence Day with a cold beer, hotdogs and fireworks, rapper Lil Wayne did something a little different. With the rising trend of artists releasing surprise albums, Lil Wayne is the latest to throw his hat into the ring.
On Saturday Wayne dropped his new album, Free Weezy Album (or “FWA”), exclusively on Jay Z’s streaming service Tidal. His second mixtape released this year. FWA is a mixtape meaning it’s not for sale but a free gift for fans on Independence Day to listen to while you drink and party.
The mixtape was released at midnight with 15 tracks which is over an hour of music. Notable feature appearances are by Young Jeezy, Wiz Khalifa and Bibi Bourely, among others.
The tracks have been receiving good reviews from fans on different social media platforms, but with the surprise albums brings more drama for the rapper.
Lil Wayne is in a very heated feud with his label, Cash Money Records, a label he’s been signed to since the beginning of his rap career. He claims that the label is withholding not only two albums but also millions of dollars he is owed. Tens of millions of dollars to be exact. The problems for Wayne is that he legally cannot sell those two full albums but he can release free music which is exactly what he just did.
The rapper has been making his intention very clear that he wants out of Cash Money but a contract is a contract and Birdman is not willing to let him go. The only way for Wayne to get out is if he takes this beef to court.
Jay Z’s newest service, Tidal was a way for Wayne to show how serious he was about moving on from Cash Money. He was among many artists like Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West and J. Cole, who signed as co-owners of Tidal, the music streaming service. While the mixtape is free, you have to be subscribed to Tidal to get the full album.
Other artist who are co-owners of Tidal have given exclusive content to the streaming service subscribes such as music video for Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj’s “Feeling Myself” as well as Rihanna’s video for “Bitch Better Have My Money.”
So it would not be shocking for the rapper to drop a record but Lil Wayne is known to make a statement and he sure did this time by not just releasing one track but fifteen.
