Welcome 2 Collegrove
Welcome 2 Collegrove is a collaborative studio album by American rappers 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne. It was released on November 17, 2023, through Def Jam Recordings. It is the sequel to 2 Chainz' third studio album ColleGrove, which was originally planned to be a Lil Wayne collaboration album; although he could not be co-credited due to label issues. It features guest appearances from 21 Savage, Usher, Fabolous, Benny the Butcher, Vory, Rick Ross and Marsha Ambrosius.
Background and promotion
The title is a portmanteau of 2 Chainz' and Lil Wayne's hometowns. 2 Chainz is from College Park, Georgia, while Wayne hails from Hollygrove, New Orleans. The release was led by the single "Presha", released on October 20, 2023 and produced by Bangladesh. The album was originally set to release on the same day as Nicki Minaj's Pink Friday 2; however, Minaj later pushed that album's release date further back to December 8, so her vinyl preorders would be shipped in the first week. The album was originally believed to be released on November 2, 2023 but Wayne said that was "not tru".On October 27, during an episode of Young Money Radio on Apple Music, the pair debuted two new songs in "Long Story Short" and "Oprah and Gayle"; both are confirmed to appear on the album. The second single from the album, "Long Story Short", was released November 10. The third single from the album, "Transparency" was released November 17.
Composition
Welcome 2 Collegrove is a hip hop and Southern hip hop album. According to AllMusic's TiVo Staff "Narrative skits and quick shifts in production styles give the album a mixtape feel". Thomas Galindo of American Songwriter said that in comparison to their previous collaborative album, on Welcome 2 Collegrove Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz "opted for more of a mixed bag of approaches".Commercial performance
In the United States, Welcome 2 Collegrove debuted at number 20 on the US Billboard 200 with 34,000 album-equivalent units.Track listing
Notes- signifies an additional producer.
- "Long Story Short" samples "Out There", written by Jordan Houston, Paul Beauregard, and Patrick Houston, and performed by Project Pat.
- "Shame" interpolates "Shame on a Nigga" written by Lamont Hawkins, Clifford Smith, Corey Woods, Dennis Coles, Gary Grice, Jason Hunter, Robert Diggs, and Russell Jones, and performed by Wu-Tang Clan.
Personnel
- 2 Chainz – vocals
- Lil Wayne – vocals
- 50 Cent – speaker
- Nolan Presley – programming
- Big Papito – programming
- B Ham – background vocals, drums
- MarcLo – drums
- Jack Freeman – additional vocals
- Murda Beatz – drums, percussion
- Jordan Fox – keyboards, strings
- Sitara – additional vocals
- Von Waters – additional vocals
- Mighty Max – saxophone
- Streetrunner – strings
- Dem Jointz – programming
- Glenn Schick – mastering
- Finis White – mixing (recorded music)|mixing]
- Fabian Marasciullo – mixing
- Mike Dean – mixing
- Nolan Presley – engineering
- Cristal Viramontes – engineering
- Manny Galvez – engineering
- Anthony R. Smith – engineering
- Sloane Esme – mixing assistance
Charts