Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III Is So Good, You Guys
And you heard it here (not-even-close-to) first. But I couldn't wait anymore for a video or a whatever to babble about it. For all the goodness the leak cycle's been springing of late, it's Lil Wayne's latest that's on endless loop in my player, and in my head when the phones aren't plugged. In today's NY Times, Jon Pareles says "Tha Carter III is Lil Wayne's determined push into pop," and nobody that's taken a spin through III is arguing. The wordplay runs deep -- you can throw darts blind at a lyric sheet and never miss a line worth quoting. From "Mr. Carter":
Man, I got Summer hating on me cause I'm hotter than the sun / Got Spring hating on me cause I ain't never sprung / Winter hating on me cause I'm colder than ya'll / And I would never, I would never, I would never Fall / I'm being hated on by the season / So fuck ya'll who hating for no reason
Right. See also: any song on the album, the endless disses ("you're like a bitch with no ass, you ain't got shit"), the boasts, the disillusionment with the state of the art (e.g. "Dr. Carter"). He's funny, he's pop-cult savvy, and he's getting emotional ("But I wear my heart on my sleeve like it's the new fashion"). The beats are silly good, too, and to underscore Pareles's point, there are more tracks to contend for Summer Jam status on just the album's first half (which I can't barely even get beyond, they're so repeatable) than the rest of the pop field combined. Thank the producers -- everyone from Kanye ("Comfortable," which has a croony Babyface hook, and the gospel-y "Let The Beat Build") to Just Blaze (sped up vocal sample style on "Mr. Carter") to Swizz Beatz (the already mentioned, awesome, game-assessing skit-song "Dr. Carter" -- see Fluxblog for more on that one).
Jay-Z's on board, sorta. "Mr. Carter" is the torch-passing song, in which Sean gives it on, to Dwayne, in a guest verse or two ("Young Carter go farther, go further, go harder. Is that not why we came? And if not, then why bother?"), and then Lil Wayne insists (like he does) "next time you mention Pac, Biggie, and Jay-Z don't forget Weezy, baby." Which may seem like an act of humility from Hov, but where Weezy's got "A Milli," Jigga's got, like, "A Billi." Naturally.
Anyway, you can hear most of Tha Carter III here. I tried doing this on Gabe's Videogum post but it didn't really take, so we can do it here: If you have a favorite line from III, post it. I just wanna see how quickly we wind up transcribing the entire album.
Posted at 5:22 PM by amrit
Tags: Lil Wayne
abracadabra, I'm up like Viagra
Score = 3
fuck all y'all who think lil wayne is wack. He is the best rapper alive. So fuck all y'all bitches who's haters and aint gon get no where in life cause you a muther fuckin hater. Y'all listen to his music and shit and then repeat that shit. And now y'all bitches wanna hate on nigga. Shid don't get mad cause he doing his thang and he's succeeded and life. So for all my haters FUCK Y"ALL BITCHES
Score = -3
People need to stop with all this "it's a classic!/it's the biggest disappointment ever!" nonsense. Tha Carter III is one of the most entertaining hip-hop records in years, and if it doesn't crown Lil Wayne as the king of the genre (or the "best rapper alive"), it will undoubtedly be rattling out of speakers all summer long. It's not a classic, but it also just came out - how can something be considered a classic unless time has had an opportunity to act on it?
Best Track: "Dr. Carter", by far.
Arthritis in my hand from writing.
But I'm a doctor they don't understand my writing.
So I stop writing.
Now I'm like lightning.
And you ain't Fish Young so don't clash with the Titans.
Fast and exciting.
My passion is frightening.
Now let me put some more vocab in your I.V.
Here take this Vicodin
Like it and love it
and confidence has no budget so pay me no mind
I don't walk like I talk it cause I'm running
I don't do it cause I done it and I'm in the emergency punnet (?)
Score = 2
I think this album is a big peice of shit, I think weezy is a retard with mediocre punchlines and an overly intoxicated, not intoxicating flow. I think the album art is affending, that he would even have the balls to put a babys face on his album in refrence to such monumental and incredible works like "Ready to Die", and "illmatic". Those albums are ridiculous, you guys should listen to them sometime, cuz you've obviously never heard em if your hypin up this over post produced, glammed out, ghetto fab garbage. Fuck Weezy, I don't know the guy personally but fuck 'em his sucess should only be credited to the current dumbing down of america, you people are programmed to like this retarted non-sense, can't you see? "Tha Carter lll" should just drop the same night as the next seaon premiere of American Idol. I'm sure you love that shit too.
Score = 5
Why do so many people hate on this young man? He game from the gutter and now has made something of his self. He raps about what he knows and if you don’t like it then don’t listen to it. We are in America and have the write to freedom of speech. We have so much negativity in the world. I’ve never seen so many haters in my life. Again if you don’t like his lyrics, or comprehend what he is saying then don’t listen. Change the station. People may not like the way you do your job, but you are still doing it (that is if you have a job). Give him a break; he is not on the street corner poisoning our communities with drugs.
Score = 2
Well said.
Score = 2
Boy I got so many girls like I'm Michael Lowry
Even Gwen Stefani said she couldn't doubt me
Score = 3
Flow so sick make u wanna throw ya food up/Ice water chest and my wrist like a pool cup/2 twin snipers I give ya ass a crew cut
Score = 1
"Safe sex is great sex
Better wear a latex
Cuz you dont want that late text
that "I think I'm late" text
So wrap it up
but but he so sweet,
she wanna lick the rapper "
Score = 3
A very honorable message to young people, Lil Wayne. Who needs sex ed in the 5th grade? just give um a Lil Wayne record. He's a clever SOB. This track rocks.
Score = 1
hi
lil wayne is horrible. if you like ANY of his music, you suck at life. horribly. okay
Score = -46
Lil Wayne can suck my cock. He sucks. A LOT. This album has a fucking horrible cover and is horribly overrated album.
Score = -34
no brake lights on my car-rear/career
Score = 2
Other things Joe and Evan hate: sunshine, fun, music, laughter. Please go off somewhere and die.
Score = 14
or just die. simply.
Score = -3
it fast and easy
Score = 0
worst album of the year, hands down. fucking horrible.
Score = -20
Yeah, to the left to the left
If you wanna leave be my guest, you can step
Feeling Irreplacable listen to Beyonce
But ok ill put you out on your Bday
Score = 0
"wayne quit"
Score = 0
1. It's Vince Young not Fish Young. I'm in the Emergency On It, not punnet.
2. It's Cool Cup not Pool Cup. 2 twin "clip"pers, not snipers. (Guns have "clips")
My favorite bar is easily the one the author quoted.
" Man I got summer hatin' on me cuz I'm hotter than the sun, got Spring hatin' on me cuz I ain't never sprung, Winter hatin' on me cuz I'm colder than ya'll, and I would never, I would never, I would never Fall. I'm being hated by the seasons, so Fuck ya'll who hatin' for no reason.
Score = -1
PHONE HOME!
can't go wrong in my book w. an E.T. reference!
Score = 1
Ima venereal disease like a menstrual bleed..
Score = -3
"Taste my words/Swallow my thoughts/and if it's too nasty, spit it back at me."
Score = 0
Album of the year without a doubt, this thing is incredible!!!
"I don't have a spine
I don't fantasize
I just mastermind
Then go after mine
you see I handle mine
I dismantle mine
I told a tool box bitch its hammertime!!!"
Score = -5
my favorite parts are when he experiments with cadence.. i dont have my cd next to me right now but i think i can approximate my two favorites:
"in the wave pool, at blue bayou, and i waved, fool, as i blew by you."
"i get bread like cold cuts, you know what, your girl go down and never go up"
Score = 3
I aint kind hot I'm sauna
I sweat money and the bank is my shower
Haha and that pistol is my towel
Ha so stop sweatin me coward
sick
Score = 0
"And I would never, I would never, I would never Fall"
What a cadence. I just love the guttural urgency in this line. Especially the way the rhyme just weaves around the beat.
This is unquestionably Wayne's transcendent moment on the album. The acknowledgment of his arrival as THE best rapper alive (sorry Kanye) and the man charged with the unenviable task of saving an art form.
Score = -1
"And I would never, I would never, I would never Fall"
What a cadence. I just love the guttural urgency in this line. Especially the way the rhyme just weaves around the beat.
This is unquestionably Wayne's transcendent moment on the album. The acknowledgment of his arrival as THE best rapper alive (sorry Kanye) and the man charged with the unenviable task of saving an art form.
Score = -6
I'm trying hard to get into it. Will give it another shot, I guess.
Score = 0
"And I would never, I would never, I would never Fall"
What a cadence. I just love the guttural urgency in this line. Especially the way the rhyme just weaves around the beat.
This is unquestionably Wayne's transcendent moment on the album. The acknowledgment of his arrival as THE best rapper alive (sorry Kanye) and the man charged with the unenviable task of saving an art form.
Score = -8
This one gets me every time:
"I don't O U like two vowels."
Is there any other mainstream rapper turning the English language into his personal plaything like that these days? Cause if there is, I haven't seen him.
Score = -2
"Blame Oliver North and Iran Contra /
I ran contraband that sponsored /
Before this rhyming shit, we was in concert."
- "Blue Magic", Jay-Z
I'd say Jay-Z has the whole wordplay thing down even better, honestly.
Score = 2
still think wayne is WAAAAAAY overrated. i enjoy the album, but it certainly isn't "hell hath no fury," but what is? anyhow... personal favorite (from "a milli"):
"a million here
a million there
sicilian bitch with long hair
with coconut derriere
i'm like smoking the thinnest air
i open the lamborghini
hoping them crackers see me
like 'look at that bastard weezy'"
Score = 1
when I popped "A Milli" into my 96 Lumina - I had no idea the audio system had it in her!
Score = 2
"As I hit the kill switch, now that's how you let the beat build, biiiiiitch!"
Who says it better?
Score = 2
I don't really care about the content of the record. The cover alone makes it one of the greatest albums of all time.
Score = 1
You guys are into it because of the irony, right? Because I'd be worried if you actually enjoyed it for artistic reasons.
Score = -5
lil wayne fans you are all dumb as fucking hell, and i hope each of you realize that you dont know hip hop let alone good music. Given this guy has improved since he first dropped i will never support his album his songs his verses....he is the reason i dread hip hop now, the reason i dont listen to radio stations, the reason why real artists like myself cant express the art in the form it was really intended. But i guess to all you im just a hater right? well i hate the fact that people with no talent get on and people with more talent than lil wayne could ever possess in three different lifetimes dont. Dont make sense to me, but im a hater right>?
Score = -11
not a hater, just someone with no concept of what "talent" or "real artist" means.
Score = -2
'scribe yr name, casper!!
Score = -3
"like I'm from College Park, but I'm from Holly Grove/now all my blood screams sup-woop & da-da-doe"
Score = 1
..and that Atlanta Hawks reference sounding spot-on with Outkast gets me e'ry time.
Score = -2
Tha Carter III is damn good and if you keep in mind the 5 tracks from The Leak earlier this year I think it makes a pretty amazing overall body of work. Wayne is easily top-5.
Score = -1
damn i hate a shy bitch / don't you hate a shy bitch? / yeah, i ate a shy bitch / she ain't shy no more / she changed her name to my bitch.
unhhh.
Score = -1
Nigga sumthin sumthin, I got a rash and I ain't frontin/whip a haiku out don't know what that means/but nigga feelin black when I open dem jeans
Score = -1
I love you Wayne, you can do me any day, we'l have great sex and you can wrap it up in a latex but you're so sweet i wanna lick the rapper. you're the greatest and i dont care what punks think. in your famous words, 'fuck ya'll for hatin for no reason'!
Score = -6
every fucking line of it. although, these two would have to be my favorite so far:
and I’d rather be pushing flowers,
than to be in the penn sharing showers
and
"and you ain't vince young so don't clash with the titans." (always nice to hear your team and franchise qb get a shoutout on the hottest joint of the summer.)
weezy baby!!!!
Score = -3
The other day, my cousin Brandy summed up why people like Lil Wayne in the best way I've heard in a long time. This is a quote from her:
"He's one of us. He wants to do what he's good at, which is rapping, and smoke. I want to do what I'm good at, which is styling hair, and smoke. That's about it. He has crazy hair and a slew of tattoos and so do I. It's like looking in a mirror when I hear him rap. He knows what's going on in this generation, because he is this generation and his listeners and living it right along with him."
Score = -3
I tell the novice that he's an Optimo blend of Kool Keith ['Black Elvis / Lost in Space'-era] and Jimi Hendrix's LSD-laced sweatband.
Score = 0
He so sweet shorty wanna like the rapper!!!! dont hate on weezy the kid is sick thats why haters are throwing up.
Score = -3
unless this is a joke, this new fad of hipsters enjoying gangsta rap for its percieved glamour or irony is pretty racist, in my opinion. and metaphor raps were played out in 1995 - when most of you think hip-hop was created. go back to liking pavement and weezer, please.
Score = -2
He's trying to reach you. There's no irony here.
'Jon Pareles says "Tha Carter III is Lil Wayne's determined push into pop," and nobody that's taken a spin through III is arguing.'
Score = -1
do YOU hate Al Sharpton as much as weeeeezy, jerk?
Score = -1
osh-kosh-bgosh posh spice husband couldn't kick it like i kick it
Score = 3
lil wayne sucks dick sorry fellas he has no flow, is retarded, and has horrible beats. sucka dick fellas
Score = -2
I HONESTLY HAVE ALOT OF FAVORITE LINES IN EACH SONG ND THERE ALMOST ALL LISTED ON HERE BUT THE ONE THAT STUCK WITH ME IS WHEN HE SAYS..../"FUCK ME IM ALL ABOUT WE LIKE PARIS"/ON TRACK # 13......LMAO THATS GENIUS BEING SAID THAT PEOPLE ALWAYS CRITICIZE WAYNE BUY SAYING HE CANT RAP ABOUT ANYTHIN BUT HIMSELF HE PROVED U WRONG ONCE AGIAN WITH THAT LINE SO KEEP HATIN ON HIM..
Score = -9
I never thought about CAPS LOCK REPLIES before.
Score = 3
SG, you've been hustled hard. But I think that was the intention. This album kicks.
Score = -2
u look so cute';';;';';';';';';';';';';';';';';';';';'
Score = -2
I love how inexplicably the at best decent rapper Lil Wayne has become every non-hip hop lover's favorite rapper, endorsed by hipsters and other people that are under-educated on the genre
Score = 3
Agreed... and I thought Clipse were overrated.
Score = 1
I'm convinced this is an experiment and inside joke by Pitchfork to see if they can get hipsters to listen to anything if they give it a lot of hype. Point is, this is stupid, ridiculous music, and I don't really see why people are praising it. I mean, have you heard that Lollipop song? Are you kidding me?
Score = 6
what does prickfork™ have to do with any of this.. ?
Score = -4
totallllly agreed. the more you mention pitchfork the more famous and obnoxious you make them.
Score = 3
i'm sayin' - it's the whole buckwheat/aunt jemima/blackface complex recycled. pop culture looooves them some shuckin' & jivin'. and record labels know this. it's all good if lil wayne's demographic supports him, but when college kids are finding it entertaining and charming because of its irony, i can't help but want to vomit. "LIKE, OMG the beat is SO HOT! And DID YOU SEE HIS BLING!?" meanwhile they're still using the N word in private conversations.
Score = -2
Ack, Stereogum! You got Hip Hop message board all over my white boy strums site! I'm usually here to avoid these silly Weezy arguments that wreck the Hip Hop forums.
It's just Weezy, take him or leave him. The hype about how great he is is obviously overblown, but he's better than some others. Middle of the road.
I'll say this, though, if you don't consider yourself a Hip Hop head (and you would know if you were), then stay away from proclamations about how he's the greatest rapper ever. You're making yourselves look silly. And qualifying a statement like that by comparing him to Kanye West is extremely fucking laughable. Even hardcore Kanye fanboys pretty much agree that he's a terrible rapper. His skill is in his beats.
I know the first rap album that touches you seems like a magical experience, but don't forget that the music has been going on for almost 30 years now. Just because you never liked it before doesn't mean that no one in the past has ever been any good at it. Check your egos, please. There's enough of that already in Hip Hop.
Score = 14
Three Feet High and Rising.
Score = -2
Honestly dude, 10 lame comments? You're trying a little too hard. Go play outside or something.
Score = 8
Actually I am a hip head, and I think Weezy F. Baby is the best ever!! He is much better than Common, and Mf Doom, two of my favorites.. Better than Nas and Ghostface who are one dimensional but also favorites of mine!! Way better than 2 pac who was terrible and is the most overatted rapper in the history of the world!! As for Biggie and Jay Z, he's better than them two, both unreal mc's, but neither were ever willing to let loose the way Weezy does and pretty much say whatever he wants in whatever voice, speed, or impression that he wants.....
I think he's jjust hard for hip hop heads to like, because he's one of the only top tier mc's that has no real concern with saying something positive for the "kids". But As far as Lyrical wordplay goes, he is really on anther level than everyone in the genre, or everyone is music really.
Score = -6
i really hope this post was a joke to get people like me riled up. to say that weezy is better than nas and MF DOOM is completely absurd, they've been consistent and innovative for years, not just one or two albums worth. but anyway, lil wayne's positioning was brilliant, not his music. think about it, he seperated himself from club shit by actually making his rhymes more complex and at times clever, so he can't be compared with the mindless stuff that comes from guys like akon and fifty. But, he keeps it accesible with good, but fairly common samples and remixes, so it's not too underground to be heard by both hip hop and rock or indie fans alike. So in that sense, Weezy is absolutely brilliant because he's getting respect from all over the music world without losing any valuable weed money. However, just by reading people's favorite lines on this board, he's not doing anything out of this world. He uses some clever word play (some of it really just isn't) and has a solid flow. But there has been and there still are better rappers out there.
Score = 7
"Way better than 2 pac who was terrible and is the most overatted rapper in the history of the world!!"
what bitch! no b.s. u can die for that reckless shit! tupac made music that lives forever and is the world's favorite rapper, go to africa, south america, china, russia anywhere people are going thru real struggle and tupac is the NO.1 rapper. you better check your soft ice cream ass before u talk sh-t about any of those rappers you named..but TUPAC LIVED HIS SHIT BITCH!! u aint living nothin which is why you like cartoon ass rappers. tupac would slap the sh-t out of any of those rappers u named except BIG but they already took it there so u know how real they are. every rapper after TUPAC & BIGGIE IS A FAKE FUCK WANNABE, INCLUDING JAY-Z!! learn some history ho!
Score = 1
Anyways yall, this is hot. The most creative, conceptual rap record since RedMan. Don't expect the typical weezy here... expect the same crazy rhymes of Lil Wyane but with the clever song themes of Eminem.
Still.... A Milli, the only song like his mixtape stuff is the best on the album.
Score = -1
Fucking awful. Retards shouldn't be allowed to rap, sing, act or do anything but stay chained in the basement. You seriously have the intelligence of a cum stain if you think this is good hip-hop, rap or even music. Have fun at your day job mongoloids.
Score = -2
I'd be willing to debate the intelligence of a cum stain - just need a touch more information, such as the size [standard 10cc..?] and freshness of said nectar.
Score = -4
K, you've really got to chill it on the commenting...or become more clever.
one or the other, man.
im just surprised people are still into that grossly overrated clipse album.
Score = 1
lowercase k, dick.
Score = -5
Still here. Still pathetic.
Score = 0
earthquake, anyone?
Score = -1