Photo: Naht Jona, LLC
Lil Wayne revealed earlier this year that he couldn’t pick his hitmaking album Tha Carter III out of a lineup. “I believe that [God] blessed me with this amazing mind, but would not give [me] an amazing memory to remember this amazing shit,” he told Rolling Stone. One thing Wayne does remember, though: how to play guitar. Weezy picked up the axe over a decade ago, first as a trick during his live shows, and then to pivot to rock for his 2010 album Rebirth. Now, he’s back to rip a solo for his fellow Louisianan Jon Batiste, on “Uneasy,” off Batiste’s new album, World Music Radio. It’s only a simple, 30-second ditty, coming in the middle of a John Legend–y interlude toward the end of the song. Still, we’d say Wayne has a better chance of remembering that than the verse he dropped here.
Somehow, Lil Wayne playing guitar may not be the most chaotic thing on WMR, Batiste’s first album since his Grammy hit We Are. There’s an Afrobeats linkup with Fireboy DML, a sax solo from Kenny G, and another collab with Lana Del Rey after they linked up earlier this year on Del Rey’s Ocean Blvd. What takes the cake, though, is “Be Who You Are,” a song that features rising K-pop group NewJeans, Colombian singer-songwriter Camilo, and breakout Dreamville rapper J.I.D. Yeah, you’ve just gotta hear that one for yourself too.