Tory Lanez has been hard at work since his last album, Chixtape 5. Just a few months after the sample-heavy album was released, Lanez is back with a new mixtape titled The New Toronto 3. The Canadian singer-rapper joined For The Record to discuss the new project with Genius' VP of Content Strategy Rob Markman. During the conversation, Lanez explained why he doesn’t plan to sign to another label and discussed the success of his hit Instagram Live series, Quarantine Radio.
Lanez explained the lyrics on his song, “Letter To The City 2,” which seem to confirm that New Toronto 3 is the artist’s last project with Interscope. Now that Lanez is a free agent, he has no plans to sign with another label. Lanez said that because most of his operations—from music videos to TV to radio—are done in-house, he doesn’t need much help from a label.
“So it’s like a label coming to me and telling me, ‘Oh well, we can do this and that for you,’” he said. “Like yeah, y'all might could help with some sort of distribution, but I don’t need nothing from y'all. I need nothing.”
Lanez also discussed his Quarantine Radio show and added that he didn’t anticipate would become the popular IG Live series it is today. All he planned to do was play music and have a soundclash with his friends, but as celebrities like Bryson Tiller and Justin Bieber started to pop into the live stream and twerking battles ensued, more and more viewers tuned in.
He broke Taylor Swift’s record for most IG live viewers when Drake joined in on March 31, and then managed to shatter that record too.
“When Drake came, we was already at a 197,000 views and then he came in and they went to 310, and then we cut and then the last one we just did last time went up to 357,” he said.
On Wednesday, Lanez announced that he would be taking a break from Quarantine Radio starting next week as he waits to see how long social distancing rules will remain in effect.
Check out the full discussion in the video above, and catch up on all of the lyrics to Tory Lanez’s The New Toronto 3 on Genius now. Stay tuned next week for another new episode of For The Record and subscribe to the Genius YouTube page.
