For my money, Lil Wayne hit a crazy sustained peak in late 2005, when he released the great Tha Carter II, and he kept it going throughout 2006′s barrage of mixtapes and stray tracks. It felt like a privilege to witness what was happening there: A rapper working at the genre’s highest pop-cultural levels, finding new places to push his voice and actually letting the public hear these continuously mutating ideas. In the years since, no rapper has fired me up the way Wayne did during those months — not even Wayne himself. Whatever was animating him in 2006, it started to drift away around the time he discovered Auto-Tune. He’s done plenty of great stuff in the past four years, but it’s been a rocky road.
Since 2009, Wayne released a couple of pretty-good mixtapes, a relatively strong album of outtakes, and an utterly disastrous mook-rock experiment. He also served a few months in prison on a gun charge. None of that should make us confident about Tha Carter IV, Wayne’s first proper mostly-rap LP since 2008. So it’s both a relief and a frustration to learn that Tha Carter IV is a solid, fun, event-rap album, nothing more or less than that. 2006 Wayne is never coming back, but this one will do.
Like the last Carter, the new album finds Wayne playing the A-list rap star, which means he has to strike a balance (sometimes awkwardly, sometimes brilliantly) between bloodthirsty tough talk and emotively sugary my-life-is-complicated stuff. Two of the strongest tracks, the chaotic “Six Foot Seven Foot” and the bludgeoning Rick Ross collab “John,” are months-old advance singles, and the latter is really just a reimagining of Ross’s own “I’m Not A Star” anyway. Wayne himself doesn’t even appear on two other highlights, which is weird. “Interlude” (with Tech N9ne and André 3000) and the posse cut “Outro” (with Bun B, Nas, Busta Rhymes, and a sadly decrepit Shyne) essentially serve as well-curated compilation tracks, chances for Wayne to display his taste and his connections rather than his rapping ability.
As for the parts of the album that actually qualify as new Wayne tracks, I much prefer the pieces that keep him in snarly, gangsta-rap mode. “It’s Good” has Wayne throwing some pretty severe darts at Jay-Z (“Talkin’ ’bout Baby money? I got your Baby money / Kidnap your bitch, get that how-much-you-love-your-lady money”) in response to Jay’s “H.A.M.” subliminal (“I’m like really, half a billi, nigga? Really, you got Baby money? / Keep it real with niggas, niggas ain’t got my lady money”). And yes, that means Wayne semi-explicitly threatened to kidnap Beyoncé, which is ’90s style rap-beef fury that we rarely ever hear anymore. (The same track features Drake talking more about Wayne’s prison term than Wayne himself does on the whole album. I don’t know why that’s funny, but it is.) “President Carter” samples Jimmy Carter’s inaugural oath to great effect. The opening troika of “Intro,” “Blunt Blowin,” and “MegaMan” feature Wayne rapping hard, sans guests and interruptions, always a good time. Wayne’s rapping on these tracks is more lead-footed and simplistic than the mad brilliance he was once capable of, but he sounds invigorated on all of them, and the tracks match him well.
Wayne’s more pop-friendly tracks have a way of sneaking up on me, but on first listen, they’re something of a drag here. I still haven’t found much to like about the weirdly moralistic Auto-Tuned power ballad single “How To Love.” Its companion piece, the T-Pain assisted “How To Hate,” is just as thin, and its bitter relationship-talk is nearly as queasy as the kidnap-your-bitch stuff on the harder songs. “So Special,” on the other hand, is a well-executed bit of radio-rap with a gigantic John Legend chorus, though it’s less memorable than plenty of other tracks of its type. These songs might grow on me eventually. For now, they’re the things I skip past when I want to hear “It’s Good” again.
So there you have it: A mixed bag of an album that overcomes a few boring parts and stands as a fairly fun listen overall. That’s probably the best we could’ve hoped for from an attempted-blockbuster Lil Wayne album in 2011, but it still feels a bit hollow.
Tha Carter IV is out August 29 on Cash Money/Young Money/Universal Motown.
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Needs more codeine.
Sounds like Nas did some of this beat selection.
I’ll bet the producers wish it was Nas that picked these beats. Then they’d at least get paid.
forgot payment – most of these beats should be grateful to even be rapped on.
Review went easy, this album is mediocre at best. It’s sad, Weezy is capable of so much more. But it does hit the key points right on the head: the best songs were clocked in months ago, the next best songs don’t even have Weezy on them! I also really like that John Legend chorus.
That John Legend chorus is all types of epic.
The Carter 4 stars. ****
It’s a pretty dire album. I’d rather listen to Shabazz Palaces or Ghostpoet, and you can call me a hipster as much as you like.
This album would be better if it was the new shabazz palaces album.
SHABAZZ PALACES.
I really wanted to like it, but he’s fallen massively from his peak. He’s just not as frantic, insane, and quotable as he once was in his hazy and brilliant period immediately before and during the release of Tha Carter III. Songs like “I’m Me”, “I Feel Like Dying”, “Georgia Bush, “Best Rapper Alive,” and even the Lollipop Remix he did with Kanye are all stupefyingly good. If this was supposed to be his victorious comeback album, it falls flat. I know a lot of friends who have said they’ll give up on him if this isn’t a record that proves he’s worth believing in again. I think some people are going to end up moving on.
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Totally. They should also stop giving Oscars to movies that use CGi.
Did you think that one through? I mean, whatever your stance on autotune is, it’s not like T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Kanye (on occasion), etc. are really trying to hide their use of it. Milli Vanili was just straight up cheating.
Not to mention that all kinds of artist who “don’t use autotune” use a program called Melodyne to correct pitches so that theyre 100% perfect for each track. Based on your comment, the Grammys would probably not exist
You are right, I need to stop posting comments when I’m angry.
*Points and laugh at you*
Yeah, and I saw Bob Dylan use a guitar tuner once. What a cheater.
Anyone else think its bullshit that someone just defended Milli Vanilli?
I’m saying though. People are reaching super hard with their hating nowadays,. I mean at least hate creatively, if you gonna hate.
I never said they were good.
Hey Tom just wanna say I’ve been keeping up with you since your Pitchfork days…loved seeing your name at the end of a review of an album I’ve been anticipating. The way you review albums is so genius to me. Not to mention your great “Out The Trunk” articles. Keep up the good work.
he needs to take a dangerous amount of drugs again…is that what we have all concluded from this?
Lil’ Wayne = a nap.
That’s not how anagrams work, silly.
How many Carters are there?
i believe 4….roughly im not sure though why dont you look at the name of the fucking album
T-Pain’s opening in “How To Hate” may be one of the worst things ever recorded. But as a whole, this is just an album of high peaks and deep valleys.
He needs to make a No Ceilings 2
that would be awesome
yeah it is true most of us can save money on our car insurance by making few simple changes look online for “Auto Insurance Clearance” you will be amazed. In this stupid economy we all need to find ways to save. With high gas prices where else can you save for travelling?
Reviewer:
The intro, interlude, and outro is “one song”
That is why lil wayne wasn’t on the interlude and outro. I dunno, maybe the fact that all three tracks have the same beat would have given you that idea.
and tech n9ne is the best thing to happen to this album.
Exactly, I guess this is why this is a premature evaluation. Because I didn’t notice what was going on until I listened another time, it’s one song broken up.
finally, the collabo we’ve all been waiting for!! Tech and 3 stacks!
My expectations for Tha Carter IV were so low that I couldn’t help but be a little impressed with the album. Sorry 4 The Wait sucked so hard, and while this doesn’t come close to reaching the peak that Tom mentioned (or even No Ceilings for that matter), it’s still something I can click play on and not be ridiculously disappointed by as opposed to Eminem with Relapse or Recovery, Jay-Z with BP3, etc. It’s really stupid rap; rap I’d listen to when I’m not in the mood for Common Market, Viro The Virus, MF Doom, or any other intelligent, contemporary hip-hop. The one thing that truly pisses me off about the lyricism is how many punch lines Wayne uses. He sounds like Big Sean but with harder beats and Blood gang references. I miss the codeine, because it spawned nonsensical gems like, “And when I was 5, my favorite movie was The Gremlins/ain’t got shit to do with this, but I just thought that I should mention” but I don’t think his career is over without it. Besides How To Love, I don’t hate any song on this album, but I certainly don’t love many of them. It’s just alright. I’d give it a “B/B-”.
That kid is staring into my soul!
Damn, I didn’t even know Weezy dropped a new weed tray for the people.
And you can keep Jay-Z please free Weez tho. How dare you question his trends. And what he brought to the table. More than plate paintings, Weezy, more Picasso than Schnabel.