Chris DeLine

Granted, some of the bangers on Tha Carter III have been out there for a while; “A Milli” dropped on Da Drought is Over 5, “Lollipop” has for weeks been on heavy rotation on just about every pop-based radio station, “Mr. Carter” leaked a few weeks back, etc. – but there is still an unequivocal essence of freshness when finally hearing these songs as a whole. That being said, Tha Carter III doesn’t necessarily serve as fulfilling cohesive unit, it acts as more of a collection of moments…which is really what Lil’ Wayne is all about when you think about it. With a continually shifting focus Weezy has taken his self-proclamation as the Greatest Rapper Alive and at least made a solid attempt as going down as one of the most prolific. With that however there is a continual shift between styles, patterns and themes. Something that works given the context of a twenty-something song mixtape, but it becomes less effective given a formal, polished release. Or maybe Wayne is just trying to reflect the nature of the environment which he is a product of – a society riddled with various revolving doors continually making it harder to focus on a single idea for more than an instant. If that is the case, it is there where Tha Carter III succeeds. Wayne’s one-liner’s are second to none, they hold little weight at times, but show enough linguistic ingenuity to make you believe that there is a Wayne we still haven’t seen. With the exception of “Phone Home” (which still has some sense of quality in its utmost absurdity) the first half of the record is proof that Wayne is doing his part to live up to the massive weight on his shoulders, “And next time you mention Pac, Biggie and Jay-Z don’t forget Weezy, baby.” Time will tell, but with Tha Carter III, Wayne is honestly attempting to prove that he might be right.

[This post was first published by Culture Bully.]