BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition - January 2020

thetic of the Chixtape,” he explains. The
following year, he would continue to make
samples of 90s and 00s R&B standards
his signature on 2015’s 3 and 2016’s 4.
The songs aren’t covers (nor are they
loops) of familiar songs that Lanez just
sings over. Instead, he uses the originals
as launching points for new compositions.
The classics are confidently screwed,
chopped, reversed, replayed, interpolated,
and filtered in every which way as Lanez
juxtaposes his own and, usually, Play
Picasso’s grimy, almost eerie, sounding
production under his angelic vocals on
odes about relationships, lust, love, and
sex. In some cases, the
samples are barely
recognizable, but
their role in deconstructing the series’
themes of nostalgia and adolescence is
always clear.
For its 5th and newest edition, Lanez
wanted to do something different with the
Chixtape: “Something we felt would push
the narrative and move the needle on it.”
He found his answer when he played
T-Pain his flip of “I’m Sprung,” eventually
titled “Jerry Sprunger. T-Pain was so into
it, he laid a new verse on the remake just
for Lanez. That got the gears turning and
the ball rolling as Lanez recalls, “It was the
T-Pain feature that I used to run to all the
other places and tell people like ‘Yo, I got
T-Pain on this song, so you should do this
with me.’” The-Dream, Mario, Trey Songz,
Mya, and Ashanti – whom Lanez asked
to be the album’s cover model – and
several other artists who dominated the
00s, are seamlessly woven back into new
incarnations of their signature work on
Chixtape 5.
It’s a tough ask, but Lanez
downplays the process of
assembling such a potent
supporting cast for the
project, admitting the
real challenge was
working through the
legalities (“The clearing
process was the only
hard part for me.”) The
fact that Tory Lanez has
built up a reputation —
and a rolodex — that enables
him to execute a
project on this scale
is a feat in itself,
but, ultimately, Lanez and Play Picasso
didn’t let the whole “guest thing” distract
them from putting together an incredible
batch of songs from the most daunting
conspicuous source material imaginable.
And as cool as he’s trying to be about it,
Lanez is proud of his work, plain and simple.
“It’s so nostalgic. It’s so much to give
all in one sitting. It’s really good.”
Chixtape 5 feels like a creative peak
for Tory Lanez: a mammoth of a concept,
only executable by a bold artist. But for
Lanez, it’s still part of the groundwork
for the legacy he’s aspiring to build
for himself. Looking back at a decade
worth of Chixtapes alongside numerous
other triumphs, Lanez is cognizant of
is trajectory. “I came in at 2011. This is
the decade I got famous in, and I stayed
“relevant” throughout the whole decade,”
he laughs as he says “relevant,” as if the
idea of it going any other way for him is an
absurdity.
“[The 2010s] definitely embodies the
foundation of things. When we get down
the line and we look back at these first 10
years, we’re gonna be like ‘Yo, that’s when
everything was just getting started.’ From
2020 and upwards, it’s out of here.”
With a brief headlining tour—featuring
“special guests,” who will more than likely
be a few of the artists featured on 5—on
the horizon, his mentoring of soon-to-be
R&B diva Mariah the Scientist, and more
music on the way (including teasing a 6th
Chixtape), Tory promises he’s not ready to
rest on his laurels. “I’m about to go super
crazy. Crazier than the world could ever
expect from me.” ,
JANUARY 2020 BEATROUTE 11