Image via Getty/Josh Brasted
Lil Wayne’s highly anticipated album, Funeral, is almost here. Last week, Wayne took to social media to announce that his thirteenth studio album would arrive on all streaming platforms at the end of January.
Funeral has been in the works for some time now. Tunechi first teased the album back in November 2016, but he didn’t mention it again until 2019, when he posted a coffin emoji on his Instagram Story. Wayne later provided an update on the album’s whereabouts, saying that it would be released as a follow-up to 2018’s Tha Carter V, at the end of 2019.
Aside from a few hints, we don’t know too much about what to expect on Funeral. In the past few years, Wayne hasn’t done many interviews or answered a lot of questions regarding new music. But, he has given us a few bread crumbs here and there. As we wind down to the release date, the Complex Music team broke down everything we know about Lil Wayne’s forthcoming Funeral album.
The release date and merch have been announced
Just a week ahead of the album’s release, Lil Wayne shared the album’s January 31 release date with a short teaser video on social media. The artwork shows the album title written in an Old English-inspired font against a cream background. The design, which some suspect will be the album art (although that hasn’t been confirmed) is very simple, but some fans noticed a small detail. If you flip the image upside down, you will see that the word “Funeral” has been superimposed with “Lil Wayne.” The teaser also includes a short snippet of music, in which Wayne sings over dramatic piano and strings: “Welcome to the funeral, closed casket as usual.” In addition to the social media message, Wayne announced that he would be selling merch in conjunction with the album’s release. The merch includes vinyl records, t-shirts, hoodies, and headwear with the album title emblazoned on them.
Lil Baby and Big Sean are expected guest features
Lil Wayne has yet to drop the tracklist for the album, but he has hinted at some possible guest features in previous interviews. The two that seem the most likely are Lil Baby and Big Sean. In a brief interview with XXL in August 2019, Tunechi recalled the time he hopped in the studio with Lil Baby and Big Sean. He said it was Baby who requested they link up.
“I’m a big Lil Baby fan,” he revealed. “So it was a swap type of thing. You send me a song, I send [him a song]… that type of thing. But actually he demanded that he work with me. That’s a new thing these days. Back in the days when I was doing it, there was no such thing as you send me your song. You had to be in the studio with that person. He demanded that. So I respected that. We got to do the session together. We was out here in New York, not long ago. Probably a month ago. It was him, I and Big Sean.” When asked whether the trio would appear on the same song, Lil Wayne said, “I don’t know,” but then stated that the name of the track with Lil Baby was titled “I Do It.”
In that same interview, Wayne also name-dropped a few female artists that he was a fan of at the moment. “There’s a bunch of female rappers, all of the ones I hear I like. The City Girls. I live in Miami so I hear a lot of them,” he said, adding that he also likes Kash Doll “because she’s spitting.” He did not confirm their appearances on the project, but it is still a possibility we’ll see them show up on Funeral.
LoopHoles, Rio, Academics, MonstaBeatz, and London on Da Track are expected producers
There will be several producers listed in the credits. According to Wayne, the album will feature production from The LoopHoles, Rio, Academics, MonstaBeatz, London on Da Track. The rapper has previously worked with most of this group, but he suggests The Loopholes will have the most credits. “A lotta LoopHoles,” he told XXL, explaining who to expect on the project. “A lot of their music. Again, the usual suspects. Rio, Academics, Monsta[Beatz], London [on Da Track], people like that.” The Loopholes is a production collective based in Atlanta, who have credits on Future’s The WIZRD, as well as records with Young Thug, Yung Nudy, and Wiz Khalifa.
It will sound ‘a little more like today’s music’
While Funeral will serve as a follow-up to 2018’s Tha Carter V, the two projects likely won't be similar, sonically. Wayne told New Orleans radio station Q93.3 that his forthcoming project would sound much more on-trend with rap’s current sound. “What the new thing is for me is actually trying to put out music that sounds a little more like today’s music,” he revealed. “What that means for me… is adding hooks. I forget about hooks. I forget ’em. Somebody gotta come in the booth and stop me from rapping, like, ‘This is where you stop it and add a hook.’”
Many fans raved about what Wayne was able to accomplish with Tha Carter V, but some criticized its “dated” sound, which may have been due to parts of the album being recorded years before its release date (the album was delayed due to issues with his Cash Money/Young Money label). And although Wayne is known for setting trends and breaking the rules, the 37-year-old veteran told VIBE that he loves “the difficulty of trying to fit in with what’s going on today, making sure I sound likable to the ears today and having to remind myself that it’s not about what it was back then.”
Wayne still has the same recording habits
We may be getting a new sound from Wayne in 2020, but his recording habits have not changed. He told Q93.3’s Wild Wayne in August 2019 that he still doesn't write a single lyric down. “I can’t write nothing down, I got way too old to be trying to read something,” he said. “I can’t write nothing down, I'm going straight off the top...It makes everything more valid, more valuable."
He also told VIBE in January of this year that he powers through studio sessions, easily recording “12 songs a night.” He added, “I can’t wait to get in the studio now every night, just to see what I can come up with. [Before] it was just me going to the studio and saying, let me kill ten more songs and then I’m going to go home or do whatever I was doing. Now, it’s let me see what I come up with. Self-discovery, rebirth—call it whatever you want to call it but it feels awesome, I swear to God.”
He says he’s been finished with the album since mid-2019
Wayne is always in album mode. In the same Q93.3 radio interview, Tunechi revealed that Funeral had been completed since the end of 2019, despite him announcing its release date months later. Due to Wayne’s speedy recording process, he revealed that he had a slew of singles in the vault to choose from. “My album’s always done,” he said. “It just takes Mack [Maine] to come in there to rack up a couple of songs and name them. That's how it go round here. I work every day. It just take them to come in and say, ‘Let me get these twenty songs, can I have these and name them, and we go from there.’”