Lil Wayne is one of the biggest rappers in the world today; he is also one of the most productive and most overrated.
Tha Carter IV is Wayne’s ninth studio album and his third release within the space of just over a year. Tha Carter series of albums are considered amongst Wayne’s finest, however number four may be the beginning of their decline. Granted it is an improvement on his recent releases as it sees Wayne return to a focus on lyrical ability, forgetting his woeful attempt to cross over into the rock world on last year’s Rebirth.
The new record has already spawned six singles, the first of which 6 Foot 7 Foot, was released back in March. When an artist releases this much music as constantly as Wayne does, you can’t help but question if the quality of the music is being sacrificed? The answer is most probably a yes as the tracks on this album are hit and miss, the music and production is relatively stripped back allowing the focus to rest on the flows and lyrics, however this stripped back feel can also be considered as lazy. The songs lack chorus hooks or any real deviation from a simple syth driven loop which Wayne spits over.
Opening tracks Blunt Blown and Megaman are perfect examples of this and are weak ways to begin the record. This makes the single 6 Foot 7 Foot the first appealing track on the album due to its catchy chorus hook and Wayne spitting in a more aggressive and energetic way. Lyrically Weezy is offering nothing new, his rhymes about money, blunts and women have if anything become less witty.
Wayne’s talents really should come into question when you look at what happens when you stack him up against other rappers, especially the gusts that he features on this record, all of which outshine him in every instance. Cory Gunz’ fast paced verse wins out on 6 Foot 7 Foot; Drake, who features on She Will and It’s Good, is clearly the more talented wordsmith of the two rappers; and the final track Outro, which features Bun B, Nas, Shyne and Busta Rhymes, drives the point home even more. If you were to take select tracks from Wayne’s last few releases and put them together you would have an excellent hip-hop record but instead Wayne over saturates himself resulting in sub-par albums like this one.