In light of the New Orleans Saints winning the Super Bowl last night, I felt like showcasing a New Orleans artist somehow. That being said, I present to you one of the most hated on rappers alive: Lil' Wayne.
Why Lil' Wayne? Well, old Lil' Wayne is surprisingly really good. Maybe it's not so surprising, actually. I think it is just that everyone is quick to judge him by his latest mainstream releases: Tha Carter III, a more mainstream approach by Wayne, and The Rebirth, which was a drastic shift from rap to a rock album... I know, right?
Unlike my other "Critical Release" albums featured, this one is a lot more recent. Tha Carter II was released in the late quarter of 2005 under the Cash Money/Universal label. It is Lil' Wayne's first album that does not feature production from fellow New Orleans MC and producer Mannie Fresh, who, in my opinion, gave Lil' Wayne a trademark southern sound.
What makes this album stand out? To me, it is that although it achieved mainstream success with singles like Fireman, Hustler Musik and Shooter, it was also, and this could be argued, Lil' Wayne's last studio album where he just flat out spits hard consistently. I say this could be argued because of Tha Carter III, but really, his style changed, and to me it sounds a lot lazier.
Lyrically, Tha Carter II sticks to the fundamentals. That is, talk about the streets, talk about the love, the struggle, and some fame. And as you would expect, his lyrics are loaded with metaphors and similes - original, yet not overly complicated to decipher - that undoubtedly makes his music easier to relate to. Production, like I said, does not include Mannie Fresh, which is perhaps one of my only complaints about this album. Nevertheless, Heatmakerz, T-Mix & Batman, The Runners, Robin Thicke and company do a solid job on a variety of different style beats. Some well sampled tracks by Heatmakerz, who have done a lot of work for the Dipset squad, also, one of my favorite beats coming from the south by T-Mix & Batman on Hustler Musik.
I know it is easy to hate on Lil' Wayne. However, a lot of this hate is post-Carter III (among a few other mainstream singles and features), which leads some to hate Wayne blindly, without giving his older material a chance. I chose Tha Carter II today because this, and the original Carter got me into Lil' Wayne, and I really enjoyed his older studio releases and mixtapes like Da Drought 3 and DJ Drama's Dedication series.
Check out some tracks from Tha Carter II:
Carter II (including intro & outro)
And don't forget the singles I linked above.
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