12.22.2010

Lil Wayne


Lil Wayne
I Am Not a Human Being
Cash Money, 2010

I've never been a huge fan of Lil Wayne and even less a fan of Cash Money. I always felt like Lil Wayne was kind of a douche and Cash Money is known for not paying royalties to producers. Double douchey. I like the fact that he attempts to come across as being absolutely out of his mind and will readily admit that he has some great tracks. I still bump "A Milli" because it's a fantastic track, but that's mostly because of Bangladesh's otherworldly production skills (most recently the work he put in on Nicki Minaj's "Did It on 'Em"). But on the whole, I've never been that impressed. I also find it laughable that some critics are quick to call him "the greatest rapper alive." But most people know that's total garbage. I think. Anyway, Lil Wayne's rhymes are clever, but that's about it. Album sales don't dictate lyrical ability.
I Am Not a Human Being has some decent tracks. The opener "Gonorrhea" had me thinking "okay, maybe this will be at least as good as Tha Carter III. " Unfortunately, it all quickly began to sound the same. It's not terrible, but not memorable either. It's good music to listen to when I don't want to think about anything. Kind of like Gucci. For mainstream hip hop it's alright, but I'll take Wiz Khalifa over Wayne any day. Turns out this is nowhere near as good as III but INFINITELY better than Rebirth, which I'm not even going to touch here. So in the end, I wasn't that surprised. It's pretty much what I would expect from Tunechi. Mediocrity.