As expected, Lil Wayne came through with his Funeral album on Friday (Jan. 31). The project, which was initially announced in 2016, offers several tributes to late NBA legend, Kobe Bryant.
For starters, the LP contains 24 tracks, which was famously one of Bryant’s jersey numbers while on the Los Angeles Lakers. Wayne also made song No. 8—Bryant’s other jersey number—a tribute track titled “Bing James,” which sees a feature from Jay Rock. Furthermore, “Bing James” ends with a 24-second gap until the next song, which fans are taking as an honorary moment of silence for the late athlete.
“Nothing can make this week better like a new [Lil Wayne] album, and this man went and drooped a 24 song album with a 24sec moment of silence on the 8th track… Just wow,” one Twitter user wrote.
“Lil Wayne a legend for leaving 24 seconds of silence at the end of Bing James,” tweeted another.”
Funeral isn’t the first project that Weezy has expressed his admiration for Bryant. Back in 2009, inspired by the Laker’s victory during the Western Conference Finals, the YMCMB boss included a song called “Kobe Bryant” on his Tear Drop Tune 2 mixtape. Reciprocating the friendship, Bryant was also the first to reveal the promo poster for Wayne’s Carter V in 2014.
Wayne first responded to Bryant’s untimely death in an Instagram post on Monday.
“Forever love,” he wrote. “824.”
Wayne’s Funeral marks the latest musical output to pay homage to Black Mamba. On Wednesday (Jan. 29), The Game, Big Sean and Hit-Boy previewed a forthcoming collaboration about the basketball player and Tinashe also rereleased her song “Hopscotch” with new honorary lyrics.
Funeral marks Weezy’s 13th studio album and features collaborations with Big Sean, Lil Baby, Adam Levine, 2 Chainz, Takeoff, The-Dream, Lil Twist, XXXTENTACION and O.T. Genasis.
See Twitter reactions to Wayne’s Bryant tributes below.