album #16

tha carter III (lil wayne)

Lil Wayne is huge this year, I gotta be honest, I don't think I'd even heard of him two or three weeks ago. But apparently he's been a big deal all year. Of all the albums I've listened to this year, this one is the most contemporary. And it's a long one, like an hour twenty minutes, so it's been a little difficult- not in a bad way, just in a, high-commitment way- to really listen to and digest.

He's got an interesting voice- southern, a guttural rasp. There's definitely some dumb rap cliches all over the album, and some of his most ubiquitous songs, like "Lollipop" and "A Milli" are the most cliche'd of all. On the other hand, there are some wonderful things here- "Phone Home" is just so sublimely Weird- it's not even one of my favorites, but it's just so awesomely Weird. My favorite tracks, of course, are the ones that get the most melodic and/or more poignant and/or most interesting. "Comfortable" is lush, sensual, excellently produced by Kanye. "Mrs. Officer" is funny, sexy, and has a great, melodic hook. "Tie My Hands," with a focus on Katrina, is quite poignant, and it's got a beautiful, soulful vibe. "Please Don't Shoot Me Down" is similarly lovely and interesting- Obama, JFK, MLK samples, and I'm a sucker for that of course. Also I really enjoyed the simple, well-played pattern of "Dr. Carter" and the humor on that track. On top of the fairly high number of hooky, melodic, cool tracks, I gotta credit Lil Wayne for having a fair dose of really fun, playful, snarky lyrics. In between the typical cliches, there's a lot of fun, a lot of cleverness. Also, the rant in "Don't Get It" is pretty smart and funny.

I generally liked it, I gotta say though- Jay-Z shows up on one of the tracks, and it was just an abrupt reminder that- damn, Lil Wayne is okay, but Jay-Z is the fucking King. Now That's a guy that I need to hear some more.