We first got word of this collaboration when Ludacris teased it on Instagram Live, and now he has released his “Silence Of The Lambs” single featuring Lil Wayne.

This Timbaland-produced song includes 2 verses from Luda and a chorus from Wayne. There is currently no word on what project it will appear on.

The song’s ominous choral intro and its title allude to the 1992 movie The SIlence of the Lambs). The movie tells the story of an FBI trainee who is tasked with psychologically profiling and finding a serial killer who hunts women and skins them.

One theme explored by the movie is that of shame and guilt; the main character experienced a traumatic event as a child where she saw & heard Lambs being slaughtered on a relative’s farm. The helplessness the character felt gave her a sent of guilt and shame, something she hopes to lay to rest by solving the serial killer’s mystery and “saving” all the innocent women (likened to lambs) that he had slayed.

Lambs have long been an icon of undeserving pain & suffering. The killing and crucifixion of Jesus for the purpose of atoning for man’s sins has made him into an epochal “Sacrificial Lamb”. In general, Lambs are seen as tender and often helpless animals. Their “silence” and implied ignorance as they unknowingly march on to certain death is meant to evoke sympathy and mercy.

In this song, Luda & Wayne play on words and euphemisms likening Lambs to the world’s masses. The track is rife with commentary on social issues including rampant consumerism, greed, racism, sexual assault, and the effects of social media.

In Luda’s words, we are all lambs living in a world of pain, sometimes caused by us, sometimes caused by unjust forces beyond our control; marching silently into our demise.

And silence, as they say, is deafening.