''Welcome 2 Collegrove'' is a collaborative

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American rappers

2 Chainz Tauheed K. Epps (born September 12, 1977), known professionally as 2 Chainz (formerly Tity Boi), is an American rapper and actor. Born and raised in College Park, Georgia, he gained recognition as one-half of the Southern hip-hop duo Playaz Ci ...

and

Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. He is often regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all ...

. It was released on November 17, 2023, through

Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...

. It is the sequel to 2 Chainz' third studio album ''

ColleGrove ''ColleGrove'' is the third studio album by American rapper 2 Chainz. It was released on March 4, 2016, by Def Jam Recordings. The album is a collaborative effort between him and fellow American rapper Lil Wayne, but due to the latter's record la ...

'' (2016), 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 Shéyaa Bin Abraham-Joseph (born October 22, 1992), known professionally as 21 Savage, is an American-British rapper. Born in London and raised in Atlanta, he began his recording career in 2013 and released three independent mixtapes to regiona ...

, Usher,

Fabolous John David Jackson (born November 18, 1977), known professionally as Fabolous, is an American rapper. Raised in Brooklyn, he first gained recognition for his ability upon performing live on DJ Clue's WQHT, Hot 97 radio show. Jackson then signed ...

Benny the Butcher Jeremie Damon Pennick (born November 27, 1984), known professionally as Benny the Butcher, or simply Benny, is an American rapper and songwriter. He came to prominence in 2018 following the release of his debut album, '' Tana Talk 3''. Along w ...

Vory Tavoris Javon Hollins Jr. (born August 17, 1997), known professionally as Vory (formerly King Vory), is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter. Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he is perhaps best known for his guest appearances on Kanye West's ...

Rick Ross William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. An influential figure in modern Hip-hop, hip hop music, Rick Ross has become known for his "Wiktionary:booming, booming" vocal perfor ...

and

Marsha Ambrosius Marsha Ambrosius-Billups, born Marsha Angelique Ambrosius (born 8 August 1977) is an English singer and songwriter. She began her music career in the early 2000s with Floetry, achieving both critical acclaim and commercial success. Following the ...

Background and promotion

The title is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of 2 Chainz' and Lil Wayne's hometowns. 2 Chainz is from College Park,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, while Wayne hails from

Hollygrove, New Orleans Hollygrove is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, located in the city's 17th Ward. A subdistrict of the Uptown/Carrollton area, the boundaries as defined by the New Orleans City Planning Commission are the following: Palm ...

. The release was led by the single "

Presha "Presha" is a song by American rappers 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne, released on October 20, 2023 as the lead single from their collaborative studio album ''Welcome 2 Collegrove'' (2023). It was produced by Bangladesh (record producer), Bangladesh. Bac ...

", released on October 20, 2023 and produced by

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. The album was originally set to release on the same day as

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as the "Queen of Rap" and one of the most influential rappers of all time, she is noted for her ...

's ''

Pink Friday 2 ''Pink Friday 2'' is the fifth studio album by rapper Nicki Minaj, released on December 8, 2023 through Republic Records. A sequel to Minaj's debut album '' Pink Friday'' (2010), it fuses sounds from various genres with hip hop, R&B and pop. I ...

''; 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 Apple Music is an audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users can select music to stream to their device on-demand, or listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the sister internet radio stations Apple Musi ...

, 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 Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

and

Southern hip hop Southern hip-hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip-hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip-hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee ...

album. According to

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's TiVo Staff "Narrative skits and quick shifts in production styles give the album a mixtape feel". Thomas Galindo of ''

American Songwriter ''American Songwriter'' is a bimonthly magazine covering songwriting. Established in 1984, it features interviews, songwriting tips, news, reviews and lyric contest. The magazine is based in Nashville, Tennessee. History The ''American Songwri ...

'' 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 unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, often shortened to just unit, is a sales metric in the music industry that defines the number of streaming media, songs streamed and music download, songs downloaded equal to one Record sales, tradi ...

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 Patrick Earl Houston (born February 8, 1973), known professionally as Project Pat, is an American rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. He is the older brother of Juicy J, the co-founder of Three 6 Mafia. Houston was formerly a member of the hip-hop ...

. * "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 Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop collective formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its members include RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and, until his death in 2004, O ...

Personnel

Musicians *

– vocals *

50 Cent Curtis James Jackson III (born July 6, 1975), known professionally as 50 Cent, is an American rapper, actor, and television producer. Born in Queens, a borough of New York City, Jackson began pursuing a musical career in 1996. In 1999–2000, ...

– speaker (tracks 1, 6, 11, 16, 20) * Nolan Presley –

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

(track 2) * Big Papito – programming (track 2) * B Ham – background vocals, drums (track 8) *

MarcLo The Monsters & Strangerz are an American production and songwriting team from Miami, Florida. The team features The Monsters: Alexander " Eskeerdo" Izquierdo, Stefan Johnson, and Jordan K. Johnson and The Strangerz: Marcus "Marc Lo" Lomax and Cla ...

– drums (track 8) * Jack Freeman – additional vocals (track 10) *

Murda Beatz Shane Lee Lindstrom (born February 11, 1994), known professionally as Murda Beatz, is a Canadian record producer from Ontario. Working predominantly in hip hop and trap music, he has produced hit songs and albums for various musical acts since 2 ...

– drums, percussion (track 18) * Jordan Fox – keyboards, strings (track 18) * Sitara – additional vocals (track 19) * Von Waters – additional vocals (track 19) * Mighty Max – saxophone (track 19) * Streetrunner – strings (track 19) *

Dem Jointz Dwayne Allen Abernathy Jr. (born July 17, 1976), known professionally as Dem Jointz, is an American record producer, songwriter and singer. He has been credited with production work for artists including Kanye West, Rihanna, Anderson .Paak, Emi ...

– programming (track 21) Technical * Glenn Schick – mastering * Finis White – mixing (tracks 2, 3, 5, 8–10, 12–15, 17–19, 21) * Fabian Marasciullo – mixing (track 4) * Mike Dean – mixing (track 7) * Nolan Presley –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

(tracks 2–5, 7–10, 12–15, 17–19, 21) * Cristal Viramontes – engineering (tracks 2–5, 7–10, 12–15, 17–19, 21) * Manny Galvez – engineering (tracks 2–5, 7–10, 12–15, 17–19, 21) * Anthony R. Smith – engineering (track 9) * Sloane Esme – mixing assistance (track 4)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{authority control 2023 collaborative albums Lil Wayne albums 2 Chainz albums Def Jam Recordings albums Sequel albums