Lil Wayne Teases New Song “Tina Turn Up Need A Tune Up”: Listen

Lil Wayne continues to be prolific via his ongoing Weezy Wednesday series. (That alone shouldn’t be news, as the New Orleans rap icon has churned out a new album every year since 1999’s The Block Is Hot – and that doesn’t even account for his Hot Boys days.) For this week’s episode on May 21, he teased a playful rap ditty with a tongue twister of a title, which may or may not play off a recent Jay Z lyric: “Tina Turn Up Need a Tune Up.”

In a snippet, a relaxed Weezy spits free-flowing verses trying to convince Tina Turn Up to stop messing with average guys, to his own croaking warbles and as Young Money signees like Lil Twist and Euro hype him up. “If you was mine, I would keep you with me / if you was mine, you’d be right here with me,” he raps, before he winds down the track to cheers: “Tina Turn Up, you need a tune up/ You dig? / Well, I could fix her/ Need a king, f–-k them princes.”  Check it out below.

(Skip to 3:20)

The song sounds like harmless fun. Given what its title recalls, that’s a relief. Before and after Beyonce and Jay Z performed “Drunk in Love” at this year’s Grammys, music and culture blogs debated whether Jay Z’s verse was harmful: “I’m Ike / Turner, turn up / Baby, no I don’t play / Now eat the cake, Anna Mae / Said, ‘Eat the cake, Anna Mae!’” He was referencing a troubling scene from 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do With It?, illustrating the domestic violence Tina Turner endured from Ike.

Critics were concerned, though the listening public’s been largely silent – a huge surprise, considering how Lil Wayne himself received backlash for a troubling line he spit in Future‘s leaked “Karate Chop” remix (“Beat the p—- up like Emmitt Till”). Given how Weezy seems to always be searching for some new, playful and sometimes gross ways to describe his sex life, it’s also surprising that he’d rather compare himself to a mechanic than Ike.

Considering all of this may be making a bigger deal out of a snippet of a song that may not even appear on Tha Carter V, sure. But it’s also due time that male rappers stop trying to liken rough sex (which can be enjoyable) to flat-out abuse. It’s a dangerous way for males to assert their masculinity. It’s also lazy. And as Weezy implies, everyone would win if they stopped.

[via MTV]

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