‘Chixtape 5’ is the fourth studio album by Canadian born, New York raised Hip-Hop artist, Tory Lanez. The album was released on November 15, 2019 through Mad Love and Interscope Records and consists of 18 tracks. It is the fifth installment of the Lanez’ mixtape series ‘Chixtape’. Throughout the album, the Canadian emcee uses early 2000s sampled instrumentals and skits to tell the journey of him and his love interest, Leah. Prior to ‘Chixtape 5’’s release, Lanez also launched a website, Chixtape.com, designed in the style of the old social media website Myspace. The album peaked at number one on the U.S. Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums Chart, and number 2 on both the U.S. Rolling Stone Top 200 and U.S. Billboard 200 charts.
The album begins with a skit voiced by rap artist Britney Taylor. With this skit, listeners learn that Lanez is coming back to town with a past skeleton lurking in the shadows. This skeleton is Jalissa, Lane’s old fling from the ‘Chixtape 4’ mixtape and little does he know that she has a rude awakening in store for him. The skit then leads us to “Trade”, the first song on the album. The track contains a sample of Fabolous’s “Trade It All part 2” and features R&B group Jagged Edge. Throughout the track, the New York rapper uses auto-tuned singing to illustrate a story of him desiring to spend time with a particular woman. “Feels like forever I’ve been waiting, Waiting just to get you back yeah, yeah. You’ve been moving stingy with your time. Knowing that I put it all on the line,” Lanez sings in the first verse. With these lyrics, the 27-year-old implies that he and his mystery woman have been playing a cat and mouse game as a result of her playing hard to get.
The next track in this Hip-Hop love story is “Jerry Sprunger”. “Jerry Sprunger” is the third track on ‘Chixtape 5’ and served as a single prior to the album’s release. It features Atlanta native and fellow Hip-Hop artist T-Pain and samples Pain’s 2005 hit single “I’m Sprung”. Throughout the four minute track, Lanez and Pain sing about falling in love with an anonymous woman and wanting to be in a relationship with her. Both of the rapper’s brag about this mystery woman from her looks to her personality. “I can’t let you go without me. Waiting on lil mama tryna lock me. It can’t be nobody if it’s not me. I’m in the same spot that you dropped me.” Lanez and Pain sing in the chorus, letting their mystery woman know that they’re waiting and willing to be committed to her.
Throughout the next couple of songs, listeners of ‘Chixtape 5’ learn that Lanez has finally gotten his wish of quality time with the mystery woman who is finally revealed to be Leah, the sister of Keisha, the love interest back in ‘Chixtape 3’ and Jalissa’s friend. We also learn that Leah was paid by Jalissa to make Tory fall in love with her and in the mix of the plan, Leah actually falls for Lanez. However, after the plan was revealed by Jalissa herself, Lanez breaks up with Leah, and this brings us to the song “The Cry”.
“The Cry” is the twelfth song on the album. It samples Mario’s 2007 song “Crying Out for Me” and includes a guest verse from Mario himself. The song tells the tale of a heartbroken man. Both men sing about how a girl played them before and now this girl wants to really be with them. In this song, both Tory and Mario are referring to Leah and the plan that was revealed on the previous track “Best of You/Busted”. Also, on the track, Tory vows that Leah will get her karma by simply singing, “Gotta replay you how you played me, baby.”
Following “The Cry”, listeners now dive into the melodies of “Still Waitin’”, the thirteenth song on the ‘Chixtape 5′ album. The track samples Trey Songz’ “Can’t Help but Wait” and also features Songz on the record. On this track, Lanez is still hooked on Leah and cannot seem to get her and her wrongdoing off of his mind. “I wanna be somewhere stuntin’ sippin’ on bubbly, Not even a thought of you in my mind.” With these lines, Lanez sings about wanting to remove Leah from his thoughts, but not being able to.
‘Chixtape 5’ receives 6 stars out of 10 stars because while the album was likable, it still was disappointing and was not as good as its predecessors, ‘Chixtape 1-4’.