Who dropped an album today?
I'll give you a hint: I hate him.
That's right!!! Mr. Dr. Lil' Weezy F. Fireman Carter Make-It-Rain-On-Dem-Hos Wayne himself!
Here's what I thought of
Tha Carter III
Before we begin, I did honestly try to go into listening to the album with an unbiased view of Weezy...
... and right off the bat the bias was kicked right back into place.
Sometimes, I'm not sure how Wayne's lyrics come off to other people as real lyrics. I continuously see reviews of his shit where people describe him as "surreal" and chalk it up to that. "Surrealism" isn't necessarily compatible with being completely and utterly fucking nonsensical. Wayne is not a surrealist. Don't get it twisted, he's not a verbal Dali. He's someone who tries to sound deep by starting
Tha Carter III with something like "they couldn't stop me, even if they stopped me" to fool you into thinking there's some strange esoteric meaning behind it, when really, there's not. He just doesn't understand that not every ironic phrase is cool, and not every phrase that comes out of his mouth is on the level of some "what's the sound of one hand clapping?" shit.
Generally, the album is full of Wayne's unfocused, banal rambling that happens to sometimes, kind of rhyme; self-serving metaphors; and, as always, money. His albums continuously feel like mixtapes, because he prides himself on doing one take of a song that hasn't been written or rehearsed, and it shows. Everything he does is a freestyle, and that's admirable, but lacking in quality, especially when he frequently gets offbeat and meanders, sometimes stumbling on words in his final product.
Frequently on the album, Wayne comes off as lazy, which (if I can say one thing about the man) he isn't fucking lazy. Also, quite often, a song is ruined by one thing or another that, if considered for even a second, is a glaring issue (for instance "Got Money" has a chorus that seems to be a guidebook for getting robbed in the parking lot; or that "A Milli" has one of the most god-awful fucking annoying beats ever). Speaking of "Got Money"... the beat is conspicuously similar to "Cyclone" by Baby Bash and T-Pain.
And, before I go onto a part of this review you thought you'd never see, I'll say some shit about the song "Lollipop". I know that song has people on Wayne's dick like it's
All Eyez on Me,
It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back, and
Cuban Linx all rolled into one and condensed into five minutes, but I have a surprise. It's fucking not. The concept is cliché and done to death. In fact, it's so done that ICP did it. It's so done that Lil' Kim did it. It's so done that 50 did it... TWICE! And to speak on Weezy's singing vocals for a second... they're terrible. His singing voice, to me, sounds like someone you can't take serious. It's the same reason that Dave Chappelle could never be a singer or rapper in his normal speaking voice. When Wayne sings, his nasally, stressed syllables grate against my head like a key against the side of my car. Not anyone's car; my car... personally violating ME. I honestly think that most people like the song because of the video. And I honestly think that the video is just as predictable and repetitive as the song itself is, but I also think that muthafuckas love the video because of the dice-themed lollipops. Those dice candies, I truly believe, are the reason that people like "Lollipop".
Surprisingly, and to prove I came into this trying to be as unbiased as possible, I'll say some good things about the album. It ended.
...
...
...
Just kidding, I actually have some good things to say about it.
Swizz Beatz comes in on production for "Dr. Carter" and stretches himself quite a bit with a completely different style than I'm used to from him. Also, strangely enough, the beat isn't the only high point on this song. Wayne sounds focused and halfway decent on this track too.
And honestly, without Robin "I wish I was Justin Timberlake" Thicke on "Tie My Hands," I'd probably keep the song somewhere hidden on my iPod.
The final track on the album, "DontGetIt" is actually pretty good... but the majority of it is him talking about mandatory sentencing laws, the cost of jail versus college for the state, sex offenders, and Al Sharpton. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if he just spoke on records, I'd be more inclined to like him. Essentially, the ramble poses some questions that have been tread on before, some less so than others, but ultimately it's nice to hear him speak semi-intelligently on an issue or two... especially when it's ten straight minutes.
Best Tracks: "Dr. Carter," "Phone Home," "Tie My Hands," "Shoot Me Down," "Playing With Fire," and "DontGetIt"
Pros:
- Quite a few songs have interesting, if not good, beats.
- Wayne seems to be more focused more frequently on this album, ranging his subject matter to beyond himself and his bankroll.
- Sometimes he uses his quirks that I detest for good. On "Playing With Fire" he has the lines "They say you're nobody 'til somebody kills you/Well, where I'm from you're nobody 'till you kill somebody" while lowering is voice to a more sinister tone, which made the line. Nice delivery, Mr. Wayne.
Cons:
- He has the audacity to compare himself to MLK and Hitler at various points in the album.
- Sometimes Wayne's tracks tend to degenerate into cacophonous noise with him talking over himself rapping over himself singing over a beat.
- Most tracks are, as I've said, done in one take vocally. Most of the time, it shows. Ed Wood did things in one take too, it doesn't make you good.
Overall Score: 60%
