Despite having the funniest fucking album cover in the history of rap music (this kid should've been Kenard from The Wire), Tha Carter III is the most anticipated hip hop album in a long fucking time. Personally, I've gone through a whole separation anxiety, psychologically torturous love/hate relationship with the album. I kept flip-flopping between genuine excitement, cautious worry, and outright "fuck that nigga. I'ma start fucking with T.I. again."
Well, thanks to Wayne's useless verbal war with mixtape DJs everywhere, the album is officially available on the internets. Some of my friends are being decent people and waiting until the June 10th release to actually purchase the album. They've waited this long, I suppose, so it makes sense. I'm impatient, though. This album could potentially be vital to understanding the hip hop landscape in 2008, so I couldn't wait any longer.
The first thing I'd like to say about the album is "I FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!!!"
I kept saying, again and again, it doesn't matter how good this album is going to be, WE'VE WAITED TOO LONG AND IT WON'T FUCKING MATTER, and I'm right. If this album had come out 6-8 months ago, people would be creaming over it like Peter North. It hasn't even officially dropped in stores, and there's already a backlash among the hip hop bloggerati. You've got people hating on the auto-tune on "Lollipop" or complaining that TCIII has too many guest spots.
The truth of the matter is it's a solid album. A very strong release with an above average number of decent tracks. Is it the monster we all wanted? No. On a scale of Godzilla 2000 to Cloverfield it's the dragon Sean Connery voiced in Dragonheart. The thing that kept nagging me as I began devouring the 18 tracks Lil' Wayne has seen fit to bestow upon us was the sense of what could have been.
I couldn't stop thinking about all of the 5-star tracks that could have lit this album aflame if they hadn't been independently leaked for no reason. I suppose in today's market landscape, the notion of a single track being placed in the context of an album is fairly unimportant, but you can hear on this track list spaces where "Gossip" (which will be available as a bonus disc called "The Leak" with the deluxe edition of TCIII) or "I Know The Future" or "Reppin Time" or "I Feel Like Dyin."
Okay. Enough bitching. On to the positives.
Wayne has assembled the kind of perfect line-up of producers that most rappers kill for. He's got Cool & Dre, Just Blaze, The Alchemist, Wyclef Jean, Swizz Beatz, and Streetrunners. The two producers with the most tracks are Kanye West, who brings above average beat heat, from the strangely outtake sounding Robin Thicke guesting "Tie My Hands" to the woulda-been-a-radio-hit-10-years-ago Babyface-guesting "Comfortable." Banner, typically an underrated producer, contributes the two funniest songs on the album (unintentionally) "Phone Home" an song that turns the classic Wayne line "We are not the same, I'm a Martian" and turns it into a whole riff on E.T., and "La La" probably my least favorite track on the album, and not just because it's fucking retarded and features Busta Rhymes (no, wait, it's EXACTLY that.)
Initial singles "A Milli" and "Got Money" with T-Pain sound alot better in context than they did on their own, the former benefitting greatly from no longer featuring Cory Gunz. There's a feeling of rehash in some of Weezy's lines, but the one reusage I dig is on "Playin' With Fire" when he reuses the last verse from "World Of Fantasy." Its an album highlight, and really stands out. The Jay-Z guest track, "Mr. Carter" is my current favorite. I just like hearing Wayne try out the soul-sample route, which works surprisingly well on the final, 10 minute track, "Misunderstood."
Juelz and Fabolous help out on "Nothin On Me" and it leads into to Kanye-produced "Let The Beat Build" pretty well, and although I can see it being a fairly successful radio hit, the song "Mrs. Officer" with Bobby Valentino, an entire song about Weezy fucking a female cop, comes off as kind of ridiculous (if unfairly catchy.)
What it all boils down to is a solid B+. I like it. If I HAD paid for it, I wouldn't be disappointed, just a little crestfallen that it wasn't the 5 Mic-er we were all expecting. For all I know, this thing could sell 20 million records and win a fuckton of grammys. This is, after all, something of a premature evaluation, so who knows? I say get the fucking thing and make your own opinion, but if you can, just skip that "La La" bullshit.
Lil' Wayne f. Jay-Z - Mr. Carter (produced by Juat Blaze)
Lil' Wayne - Let The Beat Build (produced by Kanye West)
Lil' Wayne - Playin' With Fire (produced by The Streetrunners
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