When the Vine-driven "Nasty Freestyle" tore up the charts in 2014, it had a lot of fans who were old enough to remember Lil Wayne and T-Pain's collaborations asking: "How can this guy just go ahead and call himself T-Wayne?"
This reaction was of course inspired by Lil Wayne and T-Pain's promise to release a full collaborative project called T-Wayne. However, due to label conflicts, it had been a good 5 years since the announcement of the album with no hope in sight -- more or less giving the new T-Wayne a pass.
This week, T-Pain decided to release the album (or at least a version of it) for stream. The surprise drop gave fans a satisfying dose of nostalgia, but also, a renewed resentment for the other T-Wayne, at least according to a statement the rapper made to TMZ.
"I've been getting a whole lot of backlash for no reason. I didn't choose for my name to be T-Wayne," he argued, explaining the origin of his moniker. "My first name and my middle name put together -- that's just how I was born."
"Fans have been coming at me like 'you need to change your name. Your career is done. Don't try to compare yourself to legends," he continued. "I'm not going to stop my world just because somebody dropped an album that ain't got nothing to do with me that just use my name. I'mma keep my name as T-Wayne... but it's no beef or nothin' like that."
T-Wayne had previously joked about "adding his verse" to the project following the announcement Wednesday.
Is there room for two T-Waynes? Listen to Lil Wayne and T-Pain's new project here and let us know.
