Lil’ Wayne
Tha Carter IV
One listen into Tha Carter IV, several elements of the album had me pretty excited. Between two tracks, “Interlude” & “Outro”, Lil’ Wayne employs a murderer’s row of Tech N9ne, Andre 3000, Bun B, Nas, Shyne, and Busta Rhymes to basically give the album a complete break from anything Wayne. Conceptually, I love this idea. Get a bunch of extremely talented rappers to team up on a couple songs, completely removing the focus of the album (Lil’ Wayne) from the equation. It actually seems somewhat selfless. And it works. “Interlude”, with Tech and Andre laying verses over the same simple paranoid drone of a beat as “Intro” and “Outro” could not be more thrilling. In fact, I didn’t even find it particularly lazy to use the same beat three times on the album. Tech N9ne lays down what may go down as one of the best verses of the year, on “Interlude”. Andre 3000 follows him up with a very solid verse, pretty much just doing his thing. It is hard to pick out one guy who shines the most in “Outro”, but with a gun to my head I would have to say Nas’s verse challenges Tech’s as best verse on the album, and likewise some of the best material I have heard all year. Busta manages to make a serious impact in his appearance, grabbing our attention with his fast pace as well as his Luda-like delivery in portions of his verse. Finally, Shyne’s verse is absolutely street, and Bun B has a solid verse, but is overshadowed to some degree by the later verses of Nas, Shyne, and Busta on the same track.
The work on these songs is so strong; it leads me to believe a mixtape needs to be made employing every great rapper alive to deliver one verse and one verse only over this beat, just to see who comes out on top.
To finish off this write-up of Tha Carter IV, I would like to turn on its head one of Wayne’s patented couplets regarding his many coital experiences with the world. Wayne raps, “Been f*****g the world and n***a I ain’t cum yet”. After your work on Tha Carter IV, Mr. Wayne, I would like to regretfully disagree. You may not have “cum” yet, but the world seems to have climaxed circa Tha Carter III. While you are still pumping away inside the world, she is tired, annoyed, and wondering when you are going to finish so you can both smoke a cigarette, take a shower, and go about your business. A swift retreat for a period of time might allow the world to give you another shot once you have regained the hunger and passion that lit the hip-hop world on fire several years back. But until then, avoid making music please.
4/11
Can’t Miss: “Interlude”, “Outro”, “6 foot 7 foot”
Can’t Hit: “How to Hate”, “How to Love”, “So Special”
