Last night, I walked into a record store and bought Lil Wayne’s newalbum, Tha Carter III. It felt a little surreal. Wayne’s fans have been thinking about this day through so many endless months of postponed release dates, mixtape teases, scene-stealing guest appearances, and leaks of varying quality; I sometimes think the only entity more absurdly, entertainingly prolix than Weezy himself is the blogosphere hivemind when it talks about Weezy. I’m certainly guilty of over-parsing the guy’s pre-release tea leaves myself, having swung in the past 12 months between dizzy worship, grudging admission that not everything hetouches is gold, and sheer bewilderment at the wholephenomenon. So what are we supposed to say once the thing we were gabbing about all that time is finally here?
Well, for one thing, Tha Carter III seems to be selling a lot of CDs. Some people are saying it’s on track to maybe crack the fabled million-sold mark by the end of its first week, and they’re not even kidding. (The CD was in such high demand before it came out yesterday that some unscrupulous retailers even quietly sold a few copies as soon as they came in stock, enough to land Tha Carter III at No. 171 on the Billboard charts today — the week before it’s even supposed to show up on the chart at all.) So while I know I’ll be mulling this music over for a long time to come, for now I’m content to know that Wayne’s proved hip-hop’s naysayers wrong yet again. Not only is rap a vibrant, expansive artform, it can still be a monster of a commercial force in the right hands. Even to a guylike me, who doesn’t really care about the labels’ profit margins at the end of the day, that’s a profoundly satisfying result.
And the contents of that little jewel box that everyone’s beenrushing out to purchase? Yeah, they’re both exhilarating and maddening,in precisely the way Wayne always is. As many others have noted, he’sbasically extended his stream-of-consciousness mixtape mode into themajor-label event album format. That makes for a wildly scattershotlisten, with plenty of unnecessary clunkers to go along with thesurfeit of clever couplets and off-the-wall song concepts. I’m prettysure Tha Carter III is not as good as that playlist you (oughta) have in your iTunes with the best bits fromThe Drought is Over 2 and Da Drought 3 and Dedication 2. Noris it even close to the thought-out lyricalmasterpiece that I still believe Wayne is capable of making if he eversits still long enough. But it’s certainly way better than most rapalbums in the past year. Anyway, dude told us he’s an alien ("like Gonzalez"!), and I guess super-advanced extraterrestrials don’t have to make any sense at all to usearthlings. So let somebody else do "perfect." This is Wayne, for better or for worse, following hisown voice out to all kinds of places.
Or maybe this just means Weezy has thrown mybrain into a self-consuming tailspin, again. Who knows. Any fellow obsessives outthere want to help me figure out which way is up?
Comments (1-30) of 57 Add your comment
many look to albums such as biggie’s ready to die or nas’ illimatic to tell them what a classic is suppose to be. the problem with criticing wayne with that criteria is that wayne is not your typical rapper. “my criteria compared to your career isn’t fair”. He’s so unorthodoz, all over the place with with his word play and figurative language that it it takes a minute fter some lines before u get what he said and how relavent it really is. with that being said, i, just like p.diddy and other personell in the hip hop world, dubb this to be a classic album full of diversitym creative concets and well…wayne. the carter 2 lyrically was better than this. but wayne aimed for a classi here and hit the bullseye. of course for an album to be labelled classic it takes time but i’m going to go out on the linb and say in about a years time ppl will look back on the album songs like tie my hands, comfortable, playing with fire, mr carter, dr carter, phone home and dun it a classic
man shut up
yo i just bought the album and its missing some tracks i bought it at hstings have yall hurd anythin like that happen. its missing lolipop and lala with yung dro
The fact of the matter is this: Dwayne Michael Carter is the best rapper alive. He rips every song he makes, and he destroys every song he features on. Love him or hate him, he’ll tear up any track, with all 9 hands tied behind his back. That being said, I have been kinda disapointed with his more recent material. Not majorly, just noticably. I’m glad he’s doing so well, a man who’s been in the hiphop game so long deserves the type of attention he’s getting.
There are a few albums each year that really spark the rap communities eye, not only in the pre-release but after as well. Wayne has ultimately been the poster child this year as a lot of people have been waiting to either praise Weezy, or hate on him. A good album in my opinion usually has more than a few hits, and I beleive this album is exactly that. There are about 5-6 songs that I believe are amazing, but the rest are good to so so. Wayne is definitely the freshest rapper out right now, he is definitely the most original rapper out since Eminem. I think if he takes this album to the next level with his next (I hope), he will definitely be in the ropes with Biggie and Pac and the rest of the greats (if he hasn’t already grasped the hip-hop community in that regard, which he has in my mind). His songs not only feel good, his lyrics bring a smile to a lot of faces with his jokes and metaphors. He is the realest rapper out right now, and I don’t think he will let his fame fall.
Best luck Wayne, and let em keep comparing you to the seasons and hatin you for no reason…
wayne is amazing… those that are hatin make absolutely no sense to me… only thing i wonder is, why isn’t ‘i know the future’ on the album? that track is so hott!!
I feel sorry for all the rappers in the game right now,” get on my level, u need a spaceshuttle or a ladder thats forever”
weezy is smart he coulda released this album last year with better music on it but instead he made them anticipate and rush to the stores i think t.i vs t.i.p was much better and i think lil wayne had put out ten albums worth of material better than this, not to say this isnt good he’s just strategic because to top the bar next time wont be hard because hes already been so diverse think about that one
This CD is definately a classic. Let The Beat Build, Mr. Carter, Dr. Carter, Shoot Me Down & Tie My Hands are better than anything else so far this year. The whole CD goes well together. And Ain’t Got Nothin’ has 3 great verses.
I think Lil Wayne is the best and the hottest of them all, keep up the good work because I enjoy your creativity.
this album is FIRE, thats it and thats all….lil wayne is killing the game right now and will continue to kill the game. Can you honestly say that ANYBODY is holding him right now? He’s a beast. Congratulations….
in my opinion i love the CD! i think anything Wayne puts out is fire!
P.S.
SHUT UP DEREK! YOU AINT SH*T! LET ME SEE YOU SELL 420,000 COPIES OF A CD, THAT LEAKED, IN A DAY!
Lil wayne is the best rapper alive and the carter III is the best album ever so if u haven’t bought this cd u should go and do so to support him.
Yoll…DontGetIT…Mybe never will..
lil wayne is trash, and christina is a hoe
I LOVE WAYNE… everything on his CD is gold..-cant NOBODY do like him-he could get–im his biggest fan and i will beat some A** for my baby
lil wayne here go yo #1 fan i love you and dont stop what you doin because yo new cd is poppin i love it but yeah stay fresh peace and much love keep doin what u doin
im not a big rap fan, but i went to best buy at 10 in the morning to purchase the carter 3 and i was VERY impressed. even though the weather was well above 95, i had my windows down BLASTING his cd!!! there are no fillers. my favorites are mr. carter and the joint with betty wright, i think its called set this stage on fire.
yeah yo this album is fire, but it’s not as good as i expected. wat really pissed me off was that he put comfortable on here!! i expected new songs n then i hear that song, i was mad. weezy put so much hype in it that it would take a masterpiece n anythin less would disapoint. n its not the lyrical genius that i expected. it seems like he’s startin 2 lose it. drugz fukk u up. dont get me wrong im the biggest wayne fan i know… but i was dissapointed. at the end of listening to th album i was like”wait, that’s it”. i honestly thought that dumb azz dj didnt leak the whole thing, then 2 come to find out the only song he didnt leak was comfortable!!! that damn song i didnt even like the 5 versions of it he had on his mixtapes.
elian gonzalez…its a play on words with alien and elian..meanign that kid from cuba who was brogutht o the us…remembers
illegal alien he could of used any hispanic name…
first of all all of u people dat actaully think lil wayne makes hip hop please cmon dis dude is garbage his rhymes is garbage his metaphors are worst all he does is make garbage ass music and half of ya aint really hip hop fans cuz ya like otha music im into hip hop and dats all but yo boy lil wayne is wak he wak he wak dats all open ya eyes listen to someone else except him ya making his head so big he full of himself he ugly he corny he aint real Cmon ya fans of a dude who aint nothing cmon ya fans is messing up[ hip hop status having dis clown think he da best ya bunch of dummies need to wake up LIL WAYNE IS GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!
and to da dumb asses dat said yo this album is fire but he could’ve done betta u make no sense just say his album is garbage cuz it is i knw people dat listen to his wak self and they even said its not worth to download or buy his album cuz its trash
tha cater 3 is “ill” i love it wayne is just gettin hotter by da second his music is gettin “stupidier”
BX, i couldn’t make it past the first sentence of your statement. you write like a retarded person. i would agree or disagree with your statement if you could write english at least at a junior high school level.
work on it. good luck.
this album is great even with just about every song leaking. If it hadn’t of been for the leaks, this album would be one of the best ever
best rapper alive!!! period
not his best but still better than anyone else
Lil Wayne is by far the best rapper the world has ever had. No one comes close to the type of demand people have for his music. HE IS THE BEST RAPPER ALIVE!!!