Short and casual, the ten-track mixtape
Trust Fund Babies brings together rap legend
Lil Wayne with younger rap star
Rich the Kid for a series of spirited if low-stakes collaborations. The two rappers play off of each other's styles and try on different approaches, hitting the mark on opening track "Feelin' Like Tunechi," romping sex rap "Headlock," and the melodic and bouncy "Admit It."
YG shows up on "Buzzin'" for the project's only outside feature, and this song finds
Lil Wayne running through the kind of psychedelic, free-associative wordplay that defined some of his best work in the late 2000s.
Trust Fund Babies doesn't take itself too seriously, and though it doesn't achieve anything monumental, it does feel like both
Rich and
Wayne are experimenting and trying out different ideas in real time. Given that the mixtape format was the domain where
Wayne made some of his most exciting breakthroughs as he was developing his style early on, it's great to hear faint echoes of that excitement on the strongest moments of
Trust Fund Babies. ~ Fred Thomas