Lil Wayne and Young Thug have always had a contentious relationship. While the elder MC was publicly fine with the eventual title of Barter 6, Thug’s mixtape from this April, it was Weezy’s legal team that made him Blood-ify the name in the first place. It doesn’t help that the Atlantan is so closely aligned with Bryan “Birdman” Williams, Wayne’s long-time friend, mentor and label boss who is currently holding Tha Carter V hostage. And all of this is before Birdman and Thug were implicated in a plot to murder Wayne after an Atlanta concert. (Peewee Roscoe, the rapper and sometimes tour manager for Rich Gang, has been indicted in that case.) So it comes as a naked, daring taunt that Thug chooses his previously-released Lil Wayne collaboration, “Take Kare,” to open his new mixtape, Slime Season.

Originally billed as as a full-length collaboration between Thug and his go-to producer, London on da Track, Slime Season instead pairs him with a handful of beatsmiths, including Tha Tour, Part One MVP Goose. The tape is a mixture of new material, just-released singles (“Best Friend,” the Gucci Mane-featuring “Again”) and some of the best work culled from the massive and devastating hard drive leaks from earlier this year. (The pieces salvaged from those sessions include “That’s All,” “Draw Down,” “Mine” and more.) Guest appearances come courtesy of Young Ralph, PeeWee Longway and Quavo and OffSet from the Migos. This marks Thug’s second official release this year, with his retail debut, Hy!£UN35, still in limbo.

 

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