Tory Lanez | Anticipated Canadian Albums | The Way We Were | Why Lhasa de Sela Matters

THE SHAPE OF R& B IS IN CONSTANT MOTION, WITH A TELLING HISTORY that is preserved far better than its genre cousin hip-hop, with much of the late ’80s and early ’90s being flipped and adapted for consumption by the new generation. For Tory Lanez, the idea of Chixtape 5 is just that: reliving an era, retelling the tales and reviving the sounds that he grew up on. With a focus on the 2000-’06 era, the fifth instalment of his mixtape series, which debuted in February 2011, outlines contagious feels of flirting and luxury.

“When people say that the ’90s were their golden years, I feel like those were my golden years,” Lanez says. He takes the era he fell in love with and brings it into 2019. In terms of choosing which songs to feature, he breaks it down to being a “hot song,” “memorable” or “nostalgic.”

“I just feel like it’s a good time for R&B. Tory Lanez as an artist doesn’t just make R&B albums, or one-sided music ever, so it’s the one time the world gets this.”

While he admits there were “a couple of records that didn’t make it” due to time constraints, Chixtape 5 is consumed by new vocals and a flip on production executed in full by Lanez and co-producer Play Picasso. “I definitely went crazy on the production — every niche of it. I’m usually a part of all my albums, but [with] this one, it was like [with] every single song, the main idea, how the beat was chopped, the sequence, everything was me.”

Whether it’s collaboration projects or Chixtape 6, which Lanez casually alludes to at the end of the album, he’s moving with the vibe. “Chixtape 6 is probably what’s going to come next, but I’m not gonna do the same shit. However we choose to do it, it probably won’t be the exact same. This is a one of a kind.”