7 Hot Lines from Collegrove

The Collegrove cover features 2 Chainz with Lil Wayne’s tattoos, paying homage to past Wayne covers.

I usually hate articles like this, as they feed into the cyclical fodder that surrounds album releases. Every music publication wants to benefit from the release of a popular album, so they write meaningless articles about every possible aspect of the release, from “10 Hottest Bars” to “7 Coolest Moments.” The key difference here is that I’m trying to help the album, instead of the other way around.

Seriously, why is no one listening to this thing? This is 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne we’re talking about, both in top form. Sure, Wayne’s been lackluster as of late, but let’s compare the numbers: 2 Chainz last solo album sold 63,000 copies in its first week. For Collegrove, he brought in the former “Greatest Rapper Alive,” and only sold 34,000 first week, 54,000 if you count streams, which are increasing in importance every day. For a more vivid comparison, Lil Wayne’s last official solo album, I Am Not A Human Being II (which was pretty awful) sold 217,000 copies in its first week. But despite the weak release, I was sure we had a sleeper on our hands. But I’ve yet to hear any of these songs on the radio, despite pop-y jams like “Gotta Lotta” that seem born for the Top 40. Even worse, I’m barely seeing Collegrove discussed in the more niche hip-hop forums, overshadowed by Kendrick Lamar’s untitled unmastered and The Life of Pablo. So if you’ve yet to check this thing out, hopefully these bars will provide enough of a reason.

“Them shotgun barrels like tunnels nigga, don’t even mumble” – Lil Wayne, “Bounce”

“Bounce” features some amazing lines from Chainz and Weezy, as well as amazing, breakneck flows. This bar in particular stuck out, as it’s a nice bit of wordplay that evokes both image and sound. Everyone knows that snitches get stitches, and with shotgun barrels like tunnels, even the smallest mumbles of betrayal are heard, sought, and destroyed.

“Get pulled over for swervin’ like ‘Hi, officer,’

When he ask me why I was swerving, ‘I’m high, officer.’” – 2 Chainz, “Bounce”

This is the kind of bar that backpackers hate and 2 Chainz fans live for. I already mentioned that these guys both murder “Bounce,” and while 2 Chainz has smarter lines than this on the song, none are quite as full of personality and humor. His matter-of-fact delivery made me laugh the first time I heard it, and any line the results in a physical responses deserves merit.

“I throw niggas from off of the plane I’m in/

Oh my god, it’s raining men/

Said the weatherman to the anchorman” – Lil Wayne, “Smell Like Money”

Another set of bars that are on here mainly because they make me laugh. This set of lines is embedded in a great run of Weezy’s so they’re easy to overlook, but the casual mini-narrative Wayne creates here generates a hilarious image, and shows record label troubles have far from diminished Weezy’s sense of humor.

“Couldn’t believe in Santa Claus ‘cause I ain’t have no chimney.” – 2 Chainz “Bentley Truck”

This album is mostly just lots of fun, but occasionally it adds a little gravity to the mix. Chainz squeezes this heavy-hitting, matter-of-fact line in between the run-of-the-mill boasts about luxury brands and having lots of money, creating a nice bit of contrast. For all the well-off suburbanites bumping this, it really adds a layer of perspective, and relatability for anyone that’s gone through something similar.

“I’m whooping on this beat like a stepchild” – 2 Chainz “100 Joints”

Not quite as clever as Childish Gambino’s infamous “Rap stepfather” line, but still a dope allusion to the often less than healthy relationship between stepparents and stepchildren. We like our rappers dark, and casually dark is the best kind of dark.

“I keep that Maggie on me, I think I’m Homer Simpson/

Money over bitches, should be a Bible scripture” – Lil Wayne “Rolls Royce Weather Everyday”

These lines don’t play into each other thematically, but they’re both hot bars that happen to occur one after the other. The “Maggie” bit is moderately clever, certainly not a Golden Age Wayne bar, but not nearly as bad as the trash populating The Free Weezy Album. The following bar evokes Golden Age Weezy in the full, “M.O.B. since day one.” Sexist, sure, a bit, but such an important piece of “hood” wisdom, it might as well be a Bible scripture.

“My ceiling’s absent, my wheels are massive, my friends assassins

All of us bastards, our mothers queens and our women dancers.” – Lil Wayne “Bounce”

I had to throw another line off “Bounce” on here. That song is a lyrical gold mine. In double time, Weezy references his ride, his mixtape, his crew, and the women in his life in fine fashion. The juxtaposition of Wayne and his crew as “bastards” against “queens” and “dancers” is a revealingly self-deprecating bar about gender roles in Wayne’s environment.

Hopefully those bars alone are enough to convince anyone to check out Collegrove. If not, they sound best in context!