"Transparency" is a song by American rappers2 Chainz andLil Wayne, and American singerUsher. It was released on November 17, 2023, as the third single from their collaborative studio albumWelcome 2 Collegrove (2023).[2][3]
"Transparency" was originally aChris Brown song featuring 2 Chainz, that was supposed to be included on his tenth studio albumBreezy (2022), and sampledMichael Jackson's 1982 song "The Lady In My Life".[4] However, the song wasn't released, with Brown stating in 2022: "We couldn't clear the sample and we felt it took away from the song if that music wasn't there", unofficially releasing a solo version of it on his Instagram account.[4]
The track was later taken by 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne for their 2023 collaborative studio albumWelcome 2 Collegrove, enlistingFridayy,Hitmaka,Mike Dean, Paul Cabbin and Tarik Beats to rearrange its instrumental, andUsher to perform the song's chorus.
Slant commented the song saying that it's "a repurposing of a previously leaked Chris Brown song. It’s supposedly a somewhat serious song about integrity, but the two rappers groaningly take the titular concept literally, making cracks about, among other things, see-through garments".[5]HipHopDX stated that the song "feel[s] dated and slapdash", adding that it "rips lyrics from the chorus of a 2021 Chris Brown song of the same name, sounds like a lazy reach for radio play".[6]
