Nearly a year after his older brother Glenn Johnson died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, DaBaby released the introspective Lil Wayne collab “Lonely” on Thursday (Sept. 9), on which he appears to address the incident, as well as his feelings about being an outcast in the music industry.
“As if I got a reason to act like I’m lonely/ I saw my big brother laid out with his brains blown out/ It’s been catchin’ up on me/ S—, how would you act if your bro took his life?/ And you know that you rappin’ like all of these n—-s/ And you don’t even trap and you livin’ your life,” he raps on the second verse of the mid-tempo tune on which he sings “Lonely, lonely baby” on the chorus.
The track is the latest release from the rapper, who has been under fire for homophobic comments he made earlier this summer at the Rolling Loud Miami festival on July 25, during which he spouted off ignorant and misinformed comments about HIV/AIDS. The Weezy collab comes a week after DaBaby (born Jonathan Kirk) appeared to address the controversy and fallout on a freestyle over WizKid and Tems’ summer hit “Essence”; he also has a controversial verse on Kanye West’s “Jail Pt. 2.”
The opening verse of “Lonely” sounds like a reaction to the backlash the North Carolina rapper faced following the Rolling Loud rant, in which an aggrieved-sounding DaBaby raps, “D—, look at what happened to hip-hop/ He at the GRAMMYs and still got that s— cocked/ Pull out the camera with me and my b—- out/ And take a picture, ain’t a hatin’ n—a in the world out here f—in’ with big John/ Knock his brains out if he got it on his mind.”
Wayne does his thing on his verse, which features some classic twisty Weezy logic. “I just popped a soma and now I’m karma/ All that body on me got you hot, I’m warmin’/ And it ain’t gon’ help you more than I’m gon’ harm you/ Outchea by myself rollin’ like an Army/ F— her by myself, f— her with her homies/ I don’t need nobody, I don’t see no solids,” he raps in his rapid-fire cadence.
Listen to “Lonely” below.
