What, you thought a little thing like jail would slow down Lil Wayne? Weezy's now pretty much the Most Famous Nonviolent Criminal in Rikers Island, and a little time in the pen can't keep seemingly everyone's favorite rapper down. Voila, his latest release, a quick verse on a remix of Drake's "Light Up," the only recent verse that Wayne could ever be accused of phoning in -- literally.
The track itself is an interesting offering from Drake off his new album, Thank Me Later. It favors a darker - than - usual beat and no syrupy, teen - female - targeted singing. Still, he manages to get upstaged by his guest stars here, the great Jay-Z and, of course, Lil Wayne, who rapped over a barely audible phone line for friends on the other end who recorded it. The beat-less version leaked to the Internet last week, but Drake's engineer, 40, posted the finished version yesterday on his blog.
With the crackly reception and low volume, it's not Weezy's most commanding performance, but, hey, it was recorded from jail. The lyrics show some penitentiary introspection: "I'm in a cell, reading fan mail / Wish I was in Amsterdam sipping Amstel / Thinking about all the pussy I can't smell."
Local tie here: Up-and-coming producer Mike Banger manned the engineering decks for the Drake album, as he does for all Young Money releases these days.