MADE YOU THINK I WAS GONE…BUT

The title of Tory Lanez’s <i>Made You Think I Was Gone …But</i> is clearly a message to the MC’s detractors. Though Lanez remains incarcerated following his conviction from an incident that left fellow MC Megan Thee Stallion shot in the feet, at the time of <i>Made You Think I Was Gone …But</i>’s July 2026 release, the Umbrellas—the name for diehard Lanez fans—were still living off Lanez’s April <i>LOL : SLUTTY BASS</i> project. But in case you didn’t hear him, here’s another 23 bangers for your head top. <i>Made You Think I Was Gone …But</i> is split into two “discs”—collections of rap and R&B few people besides Lanez, one of Black music’s truly ambidextrous purveyors, could deliver. Freedom, and Lanez’s vision of it, plays as the recurring theme across the rap-centred “disc 1”. “Clearly, I’m sitting inside of the celly, but manifestin’ is the way/But I ain’t just manifestin’ when I tell you I’ll be home any day,” he raps on <b>“Revenge of Fargo”</b>. “The way I keep doing this number one shit from the cell/I know that it’s irkin’ em, yeah,” goes <b>“Crodie from the 9/Guy in My City”</b>. The vibe shift comes on “disc 2”, an R&B collection reminiscent of Lanez’s <i>Chixtape</i> series, wherein the Toronto-hailing vocalist sings mostly songs of heartbreak—understandable considering his location at the time of creation—but with an MC’s sensibility. <b>“The Over Song”,</b> <b>“Swangin’”</b> and <b>“Streets Want You Back”</b> are all about reckoning with failed relationships. Songs like <b>“Favorite Eater”,</b> <b>“Kody”</b> and <b>“Dancers Remorse (Sin City)”</b> are subject to another common pastime of the incarcerated: thinking about what people are getting up to on the outside. On the whole, <i>Made You Think I Was Gone …But</i> is but another testament to Lanez’s songwriting talent, affirming that you can lock away his body, but you can’t contain his studio wizardry.