This week of new music is what hip-hop/rap fans have been waiting for. The long awaited releases of Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter V” and an EP by Young Thug titled “On The Rvn” are shaking up the music world. A few others of importance are Logic’s latest installment of the Young Sinatra series, “YSIV”, and Kodak Black’s most recent single after being released from jail titled “If I’m Lyin, I’m Flyin”.

Lil’ Wayne’s “Tha Carter V”

A long seven years after the release of Tha Carter IV, Lil Wayne has finally dropped his fifth chapter of the Carter series. As many fans know, the journey to this album has been filled with postponements due to lawsuits against Birdman and Cash Money Records. The years of battle between Wayne and Birdman was put to an end for a confidential amount of money. Tha Carter V is 23 tracks long with features from various artists including: XXXTENTACION, Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, and more. Tracks like “Let It Fly” and “Mona Lisa” date back years while others seem to have been made just a few weeks prior to their release.

In December of 2014, Travis Scott, who is featured on the track “Let It Fly”, took to twitter to state “Me and Wayne did something crazy for C5 on my mama ima cry if that album don’t come out”. However, “Mona Lisa” offers seemingly flawless verses from both Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar, who tell the story of a woman who conspires them to be robbed blind by her real boyfriend.

Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter V is projected to sell between 525,000 and 550,000 copies in its first week, likely placing the album at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Chart.

Young Thug’s “On the Ryn”

Another release that seemed to sneak by many, “On The Rvn” by Young Thug released early last week. Preceding the release of the EP Thugger was arrested on a warrant stemming from 2017, hence the name “On The Rvn”. The EP, despite being only 6 tracks, is yet another high quality release from Young Thug. The title track starts off the album on a high note, a typical Thugger banger. Another standout track being “Climax”, with the up and coming 6lack. This song mainly features trumpets and guitar, instruments definitely outside of the typical Young Thug wheelhouse. Easily the most surprising song however is “High”, featuring the legendary artist Elton John. This was a collaboration few saw coming, yet somehow, works perfectly. Overall the EP is yet another smaller Young Thug release full of quality songs. Immediately following the release of the album, Thug proceed to bash the aforementioned, “Tha Carter V”. He announced the title of his next tape, “Barter 7”, a play off of Wayne’s newest release.