Tha Carter III
In an industry that becomes more inhibited and conservative with each passing year, Wayne is one of the few million-dollar pop stars who refuses to color inside the lines. This album’s jarring collection of styles is what makes it exciting, and what makes it so definitively Wayne. No one could make Weezy choose between the Jamaican infusions of “Mrs. Officer” and “A Milli,” the vintage soul of “Mr. Carter” and “Dr. Carter” and “Let the Beat Build,” and the pop subversions of “La La” and “Lollipop.” They are all equal parts of Wayne’s personality, and *Tha Carter III* accords them all equal space. Wayne is the most quotable man in music, and he uses his voices in ways that makes other rappers appear timid and banal.
Nine years after his first solo LP, and on the heels of an unprecedented glut of increasingly remarkable mixtape and internet leaks, Lil Wayne produces Tha Carter III, the epic culmination of a lifetime of eccentricities. This is Wayne's moment and he embraces it on his own terms.
Lil Wayne isn't necessarily the greatest rapper alive, but he's definitely the most inconsistent. Depending on the verse and the song, he can sound like a track-devouring force of nature or a stoned amateur fumbling his way through the English language. Both Waynes show up throughout his feverishly anticipated new…
How Tha Carter III came to be "the most anticipated rap album of 2008" is a story that involves the usual delays and promises of a masterpiece, plus a whole lot of bullet points that could only exist in the absurd world of Lil Wayne.
It’s a difficult thought to transcribe from Lil Wayne-ese to HTML, but if you ask me, the most mind-boggling lyric on Lil Wayne’s hotly anticipated new...