Lil Wayne

One Liner: Self-proclaimed best rapper alive.  I don't go that far, but he can drop some perfect one liners (among a bunch of groaners).

Wikipedia Genre: hip hop, southern hip hop
Home: New Orleans, LA

Poster Position: n/a - added at the last minute
Day: Saturday at 7:00
Weekend Two Only.

Thoughts: Well, this has been a crazy ass day.  Late last night, they announced that Childish Gambino was cancelling his shows (including ACL).  And the internet erupted in anger, with loads of people pissed that ACL had failed to add in another big time artist to take Gambino's place.  (which, by the way, is bullshit.  I'm sure its hard as hell to just pull another top tier artist out of thin air when the Fest is a week from now).  Well, now they come up with something large.  I'm pretty pumped.

I saw Wayne perform at SXSW a year or two ago, at the outdoor stage at Stubbs, and even though he hasn't released any new albums in a while (more on that later), he can still bring it with his weird, raspy voice and funny one liners.

Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. is his real name.  Wikipedia says "Lil Wayne has sold over 100 million records worldwide, including more than 15 million albums and 37 million digital tracks in the United States, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time."

I dove down deep into some of this stuff below, but after writing all of this, I felt like I needed to tl;dr this one.  The fact is that most of these songs are not very good.  He has a lot of uneven content out there.  But I don't think any other rapper right now does as much to bring out double and triple meanings in words to craft wordplay that can be as interesting and funny.  In this world of other Lil rappers popping up every five minutes, who are generally terrible at writing raps, it is still good to hear the best tracks from Wayne and remember what it is like to hear someone who actually took the time to work on his bars.

He first came up as part of the Hot Boys, when he was still just a kid.  I thought I remembered that group, but when I just went to listen to their one album available on Spotify, I don't recall any of it.  Their debut album came out in 1996, when Wayne would have been 14.  Which is really weird.  Oh wait, I know what song they had - they were the "Bling Bling" guys.

I was a big fan of that tune right after college.  He was part of the whole Cash Money group of guys (who you can see on that video), but he left all of those guys in the dust soon after this type of stuff was released.

Tha Carter V, the album that was just released (Sept. 28, 2018), has been teased and talked about and rumored for years.  Drake, who is signed to Wayne's label, tweeted something about it in freaking 2014.  But then it came out that Wayne was in a spat with Cash Money boss Birdman, who was holding back the album from being released.  That was freaking FOUR years ago!  I'm curious if he's re-done these songs, or if this is really going to be just a release of a rap album written and rapped in a 2014 style.  We'll see tomorrow.

The thing with Wayne is that he releases albums and mixtapes (which are virtually indistinguishable) at a ridiculously fast rate.  So, in my opinion, you get a bunch of amazing one-liners from the guy - great jokes and turns of phrase and metaphors and quips - tucked among a bunch of painful groaners.

I'm going to run through these things - I really only know the more recent albums and mixtapes - and see what I think.

1999's Tha Block is Hot.  Sounds like b-sides from one of the other Cash Money albums.  You can hear the echoes of his verse on "Back That Azz Up" in his song "Drop It Like It's Hot," which is not very good.  This album is not necessary, but kind of crazy to think the dude was 17 and put out a platinum rap album.

2000's Lights Out is not available on Spotify.  Which is weird.  Oh, no, wait, there it is.  Listed as being released in 2009 for some reason.  Which is not true.  meh.

2002's 500 Degreez (which is, I guess, a reference and one-up to Juvenile's 400 Degreez) is definitely better.  But at 21 songs, its overly long.  And although its better than the first two, that honestly isn't saying much, this is very up and down.  He's not trying to come up with weird lines either, its more of a straight-forward lyricism about how cool he is, not crazy-weird references and jokes.

2004's Tha Carter was his big break, and although he still has the Cash Money dudes on the album helping him out, this is about the time that he started to leave all of those dudes in the dust as far as popularity goes.  The big hit from this album was "Go DJ," which has 16.1 million streams.

This isn't an album that was ever on my radar in the first place.  I know that song up above, but none of the rest of these ring any bells.  The beats are good, and the flow is right, but there's nothing special here.  He hasn't yet converted into a weirdo alien.  Also, as will be the theme with this cat - 21 songs, 1 hour and 19 minutes.

2005's Tha Carter II is better, yet again.  There is a marked change in the sound, in that Mannie Fresh (from Cash Money) is no longer in charge of the beats.  He still stays pretty mainstream on these raps, and there are 22 tracks, clocking in a 1:17, so he's not throwing everything out the window here.  The big hit from this one is "Fireman," which is kinda like "Go DJ," with a club ready beat and hook.  13.9 million streams.

Huh.  I remembered that tune being better than it is.  This has been weird running through the old albums.

2006's Like Father Like Son, a collaboration with Birdman (who he frequently calls his daddy in his early albums) is not great.  "Stuntin' Like My Daddy" was the hit, but meh.  An hour and 35 minutes of more tunes that honestly sound just like the ones on Carter II.

NOW, here's where I started paying attention.  Before the next full album, he released a few mixtapes that you could download for free from DatPiff, Dedication 2 and Drought 3 and Drought is Over 3 (among even more) that were good stuff.  I got Drought 3 and jammed it a lot, as it is Wayne ganking other people's beats and doing his own thing over the top.  Its solid.

Even without a new album in several years, he was still in the limelight with these mixtapes, which is a very weird business model.  But right about now, an MTV poll selected Lil Wayne as "Hottest MC in the Game," and Rolling Stone named him "Best MC."  This period was when he really did rule the world.  2006 to 2008 was ridiculous.

2008's Tha Carter III, with that cute little tattoo'ed baby on the cover, was the first time that I bought a Lil Wayne album and got into this stuff.  And its dope.  This is his best album.  "A Milli" is a jam with a great beat (167.8 million streams).  "Lollipop" was the pop crossover hit (with 132.7 million streams).  "3 Peat" was the album opener that made it clear that this was going to be a different album, with randomly weird rhymes about shooting up your grandmother and "you can't get on my level, you gon' need a space shuttle or a ladder that's forever."  But my favorite is the strange "Let the Beat Build," that takes a small slice of an old Eddie Kendricks song, and loops it, chops it, and draws it out until some bass finally kicks in.  Love it.

Only 15.6 million streams, so I'm well aware that the masses like "Milli" and "Lolli" more, but I dig the laid back vibe and sound here.  Don't get me wrong, I still jam "A Milli" with some frequency - the beat in that one is super tight.  "Mr. Carter," with Jay-Z (whose last name is also Carter) is another good one.  There is an unfortunate detour with T-Pain, and a mediocre Robin Thicke track, and "Mrs. Officer" is weak (weeoohhweeohhhweeee!), but the majority of this album is very good.  (also, weird thing, I'm pretty sure "P***y Monster" was not on the version of this album that I own.  This song does not sound familiar at all.  It sucks.).  This album won four Grammys and went 3x platinum to become 2008's best selling album.

Next, you get the weird 2009's Rebirth, which is like Ice T's detour with Body Count, if Body Count had been one of the worst rock-lite bar bands ever in the history of time, and instead of rapping over that rock sound, Ice had decided to use Auto-Tune to just take a dump all over the garbage rock licks.  It's truly horrible.  Two of the tracks have a lot of listens, the Eminem one ("Drop the World" with 111 million streams) and the Nicki Minaj one ("Knockout" with 19 million).  The Eninem one is like that terrible band found a synth in their garage and just went for it, and then Em walked in and dropped verse before running out.

2010's I Am Not a Human Being.  I bought this one as well, although most of it is pretty forgettable.  Multiple tracks with Drake on them, as well as several with Nicki Minaj, because this is right about the time that Wayne discovered and signed Drake, long before Drake became the hottest artists in the world.  I dig the smooth groove of "With You," but the hit from this album is "Right Above It," with 111.1 million streams.

Pretty good.  Although this album has a few tracks that sound like Rebirth, which blow.  Looking at the title track, which is pretty bad.  Most of this album is forgettable.

A few more mixtapes fired out around here.

2011's Tha Carter IV.  What is the deal with needing to name all of his albums the same thing?  So weird.  The cover of this one has Wayne as a 5 year old (?) or so, looking like he is graduating from Kindergarten.  Two lines that I love from this one: "and I get some buuud, like Rudy Huxtable," (from "Intro") and "bitch, real G's move in silence like lasagna" (from "6 foot 7 foot").  I have this weirdly clear memory of my niece saying that she hated "6 foot 7 foot" when we were eating lunch on Lake Austin one day, and I was mortally wounded.  It's popcorn rap, but for anyone who loved Beetlejuice back in the day, it has to bring up some fun nostalgia.  170.9 million streams.

As with his other albums, there are a bunch of misses on here (the T-Pain track being a prime example, as well as the generically guitared "How to Love," which still boast 110 million streams), but "Blunt Blowin" and "She Will," are good tracks and the others have a line or two that clicks.

2013's I Am Not a Human Being II is mostly another mixtape full of b-side level stuff, except for the 2 Chainz track "Rich as Fuck," which I listen to with some frequency on different rap playlists I have created on Spotify.  86.4 million streams and a beat that bumps all day.

There is also a Drake/Future collaboration, which has way more streams (174.6 million).  The Juicy J collaboration is pretty solid too.  And then there is the terrible stuff like "Wowzerz," which is mainly bad puns about the vagina and has a chorus saying that his tongue is an Uzi, his dick is an AK.  And even worse, the rock and roll song at the end that is horrible.  Stop the rock and roll attempts, man.

2018's Tha Carter V.  The opening two tracks for this new album are a horrible way to start an album, man.  I guess he was looking for a certain feel and mood, but the first track is a spoken message from his mom, in which she professes her love for him and cries for two minutes, and then the second track is a slow, plodding collaboration with recently deceased XXXTENTACION called "Don't Cry."  Blurg.  If you thought you would get to have fun with Lil Wayne, think again.  Whoooooooo's ready for depression?!?!  
It gets more fun as the album goes along, and he adds happier collabos, like Snoop and Kendrick and Nicki (but also Travis Scott, blurg).  The killer issue here is that the album is TWENTY-THREE FREAKING SONGS LONG!  Gaaaaaaaah.  An hour and a half.  My God, man.  Just pick the best ten for this album and then release That Carter 6 next month!  Why is this so hard?
After only two sweeps through this album, which is admittedly not enough of a study, I'd say I don't care for it.  Too many slow tunes.  Nicki Minaj doesn't even rap, she just sings a turgid ballad over a bad piano and bass track.  The Kendrick track is good, but mainly because of Kendrick's part, not Wayne's.  If I'm going to suggest a track, I guess it would be "Uproar" or "Dope N****z" (with bonus points for the guitar sample from "Bumpy's Lament" that Dre used in "Xxplosive.") but that's a light recommendation.  Where are the fun tunes?  The second half of the album is slightly more fun (see "Start This Shit Off Right,") but its still very mellow.

On top of all of those albums, and a bunch of mixtapes I haven't even mentioned, Wayne has appeared on a million other people's tracks.  Other rappers (Drake, Jay-Z, Kanye, Outkast, Eminem) and pop artists (Destiny's Child, Enrique Iglesias, Usher, Shakira, Madonna) and weird shit (Limp Bizkit, David Guetta, Jamie Foxx, Imagine Dragons), so it makes it hard to remember when and where I heard a good line.  He's classic on Juicy J's "Bandz a Make Her Dance," Drake's "The Motto," T.I.'s "Swagger Like Us," Nicki Minaj's "Truffle Butter," and Chance the Rapper's "No Problem."

But as I've alluded to in the start of this, he's just too uneven to give him any sort of crown.  He has loads of good individual lines, but he also throws out a bunch of groaners.  he uses too much AutoTune.  He gives bad rappers big guest spots on his tracks.  He puts out waaaaaaay too many songs.  But he's also delightfully weird and funny.  So I give him a thumbs up.  Go check it out and see for yourself.

As another small aside, in March 2014, Lil Wayne told a crowd at SXSW that Tha Carter V would potentially be his last album.  He's walked that comment back recently, but I don't know if he'll be that excited to keep making music if his long awaited album bombs.  And from my perspective, its going to bomb.  Nothing on there sounds like a hit at all.  The Kendrick Lamar tune is going to get a lot of streams, and I'm sure the posthumous XXXTENTACION song, and the Travis Scott one, will get curiosity streams, but if it is a big commercial success I'd be shocked.