The Leak

Over the course of 2006 and 2007, Lil Wayne flooded the market with mixtapes that allowed his unconscious to run wild. *The Leak* is the only officially-released album of this ultra-prolific period, and while it isn’t as uproariously ingenious as the mixtapes that preceded it, or as willfully eccentric as the album that followed it (*Tha Carter III*), it represents the point just before Wayne’s confidence and creativity coincided in sizzling climax. “I’m Me” swells with confidence, and knowing that he now has his audience in the palm of his hand Wayne once again shows that he is unafraid to push his rhymes to the brink of insanity: “And you have all witnessed, but I am not finished / Keep your mouth closed and let your eyes listen.” “Gossip,” “Love Me or Hate Me,” and “Talkin’ About It” are the songs of a crown prince who already knows the throne is his. Wayne delivers *The Leak* like a warning to his audience, as if challenging the public to oppose a personality as audacious and inexorable as his: “Stop analyzing, criticizing / You should realize what I am / And start epitomizing.”

This EP-- ranging in quality from absolute bangers to intriguing sketches-- hit online stores like iTunes and Amazon on Christmas Day with zero fanfare, and it seems to tell us little about how Weezy's forthcoming Tha Carter 3 might eventually sound