Weezy Like Sunday Morning

by Chuck Eddy

Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III sold well over a milli in its first week, and it’s been out nearly a month. And in the current stupid climate, that makes it almost ancient history by now. If you’re inclined to ever have an opinion about the thing, chances are you already have one and yours is worth as much as mine—maybe more. What took me so long is that, sometime in the past two years, having a Lil Wayne opinion changed from something fun into just another music-critic obligation; all those biz-bucking unofficial releases – which I realize have some great songs, but which I have neither the time nor money nor energy to keep up with – didn’t help. And now Tha Carter III seems destined to wind up Weezy’s most overrated album for the same reason 2002’s 500 Degreez is his most underrated album – because of how much they sold, or didn’t.

Still, I like a lot of it. Some of it, a lot: for instance, the first half of “Phone Home,” where Lil Wayne raps like an extraterrestrial. And that ridiculous verse in “Mr. Carter” (featuring Jay-Z, who uh, sounds like Jay-Z) where he declares war on the seasons. And "La La La," which has skateboard memories and reggae and la la las, and “Dr. Carter,” which has electrocardiogram beeps and a rhythm (apparently from David Axelrod) reminiscent of the Chakachas’ 1972 Belgian proto-disco classic “Jungle Fever” and Weezy weezing like a septuagenarian Borscht Belt surgeon. And there are also plenty of pleasant parts that leave no real impression when they’re not on anymore: tracks eight through 11, with Robin Thicke then Bobby Valentino then D. Smith, makes for a nice, bluesy, soul-gloom segment. And I like that he samples “Don’t Let Me Misunderstood” in “Dontgetit” (where he endlessly rambles about Al Sharpton though the purple haze in a self-satisfied voice that I swear reminds me of Gil Scott-Heron), though I wish it was the Animals or Santa Esmeralda version instead of that more nutritious Nina Simone rendition. And I like that he namedrops Elliot Ness and Orville Redenbacher and Angela Lansbury. And so on.

My friend Frank Kogan estimates that Wayne's over-boiling brainpan results in approximately one laugh-at-loud line per minute (e.g., "‘I'mma do it again like n*gg* backwards." -- see, if you pronounce "again" backwards...), so maybe in five years, I’ll actually think the album is funnier than the 2007 country albums I wrote about here. But for now, I feel like it'd take way more listening energy than it's worth (probably with expensive headphones) to sort through all the half-mumbled holding patterns and fillerbusters and rote hookless thug B.S. (and/or rote hookless T-Pain and Babyface B.S) in order to pick up on all the punchlines.

Also, I could honestly take or leave “Lollipop” and “A Milli" -- sorry. What it adds up to is an album that’s definitely not as good as 2005’s Tha Carter II, probably no better than 2004’s Tha Carter, and not as far removed as people think from 2000’s Lights Out, when Wayne was already doing blatant Mardi Gras blues stuff (see: “Tha Blues”) even though Katrina hadn’t even happened yet. In fact, as uneven 2007 albums by rappers whose names start with Lil go, I’m pretty sure I'd put Tha Carter III in second place -- behind Lil Mama’s Voice of the Young People. But I reserve the right to alter my useless opinion, maybe as soon as next week.

Comments

[william]

finally! I think 4 or 5 of the songs production wise are great. Lyrically, Wayne is all over the map. And I totally agree with the making you laugh part...