Review: 3.5/5
Best songs: President Carter, Megaman, Nightmares of the Bottom, It’s Good
What a month for hip hop we get the Jay-Z/Kanye Watch The Throne and Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV. While Weezy’s buzz isn’t nowhere near it was back in ’07 when Tha Carter III sold a million records in one week, Weezy’s lyrical prowess is still sharp as ever -this is the mixtape Weezy. The high points of this album is definitely Weezy’s uncanny punchline ability. The low point is the lack of song concepts and Soundclick style production.
1. Intro (Produced by Willy Will)
Over a circus style romp, the mixtape Weezy gives us lines like “boy I’m going in like my water broke” in what seems like a barrage of punchlines some great, some we’ve heard before. What’s dope about Weezy’s style is how effortless he makes it all seem.
2. Blunt Blowin (Produced by Develop)
Again mixtape Weezy goes hard with lines like “They say we learn from mistakes, that’s why they mistake me” and “All hail Weezy, even through bad weather”. What’s interesting is Weezy interpolates Pat Benetar’s Heartbreaker for the hook, which from an artistic point of view is dope but from a rap point of view strange.
3. Megaman (Produced by Megaman)
This is probably the epitome of the mixtape Weezy over soundclick style beats, I personally don’t mind it, but after listening to Kanye for the last few months its a bit lazy to name a song after some unknown producer -though I do get Lil Wayne is referring to himself as “Megaman”.
4. 6 Foot 7 Foot (featuring Cory Gunz)(Produced by Bangladesh)
You’ve heard the “A Milli” style track by now.
5. Nightmares of the Bottom (Produced by Snizzy, Kenoe)
Again Weezy goes punch line after punchline, this time over a more emotive beat. Again there’s some great lines in here and some not so great ones. I think it would have been better if Wayne actually used this beat to talk about something personal.
6. She Will (featuring Drake) (Produced by T-Minus)
Is this emo strip club music? Whatever it is, Wayne and Drake cook up the score for World Star hoes to get their web cam on. While I do like the beat, the lyrics are all over the place.
7. How to Hate (featuring T-Pain) (Produced by Young Fyre)
While I do appreciate T-Pain, this hook is unbearable. Considering Lil Wayne made “Lollipop” his attempt to make a “lyrical” girl song for the radio is nowhere near as fun or exciting.
8. Interlude (featuring Tech N9ne and André 3000) (Produced by Willy Will)
It’s pretty mind blowing that Tech N9ne and Andre 3000 are beasting on an interlude sans Lil Wayne…on a Lil Wayne album.
9. John (featuring Rick Ross)(Produced by Polow da Don, Rob Holladay, Ayo The Producer)
Probably the laziest song ever. Not only does Polow and co jack Lex Luger’s style, Lil Wayne jacks Rick Ross “I’m Not a Star” chorus.
10. Abortion (Produced by StreetRunner, Commission)
Listening to this album, it becomes apparent Lil Wayne could care less what type of beat he’s rapping over as long as he’s dropping punchlines about how great he is, how life’s a bitch and making acrostic poems for “F” as in Weezy F Baby, he’s happy.
11. So Special (featuring John Legend) (Produced by Cool & Dre)
I don’t know if it’s my perception or what, but John Legend sounds like he phoned in this hook, as it doesn’t sound nowhere near as sincere as what he did on Kanye’s “Blame Game”. It may have been better if Wayne just auto-tuned his way through it (Wait did I just say that?).
12. How to Love (Produced by Noel “Detail” Fisher, Drum Up)
While this song has been getting burn for the last few months, I think it is about to crossover. It’s just too much fun singing along “how to love” ala Affion Crockett style. From a song listening perspective though, this record is a mess.
13. President Carter (Produced by Infamous)
See 10.
14. It’s Good (featuring Drake and Jadakiss)
While I’m always up for some subliminal shots for cheap promo, could we please stop getting Jadakiss as a feature for New York street cred? While Drake sounds really upset over Wayne’s incarceration, Wayne sounds like he’s back on that lean.
15. Outro (featuring Bun B, Nas, Shyne and Busta Rhymes)
Another random interlude, this time simply called “Outro” that features Bun B, Nas, Busta Rhymes and Shyne (of all people). This is major face palm material and is obviously the result of some A&R thinking “how can we get credibility?”
Last Word
While it’s expected by now that Lil Wayne can rap his ass off and come up with some amazing metaphors (and some not so good ones), the main draw of Weezy is “what will he do next?”. And therein lies the problem, I would have expected if Weezy had five years to make this album he could have come up with something as creative as Kanye’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Punchlines are only good for a limited amount of listens (ask Lloyd Banks), Lil Wayne needs to get involved more in the production process on his next go around (Tha Carter 5) if he wants to craft a classic.
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