I have paced back and fourth since the day this album dropped, trying to decide if I should review Lil Wayne’s latest grape drink coaster Tha Carter III. I say this because in my year and some odd months at JustPressPlay, I have made pretty bold statements against artists who choose to use their god given talents to spew absolute garbage. Now some of these people had no talent to begin with, and have no business rhyming anyway.
However, a select few of these rappers are actually really good, when they choose to be. I hold Lil Wayne in this regard because as much as I don’t like him, I’ve heard him at his best. I’ve heard him flex the minds of listeners with intricate bars, and continue on his quest to make good of his “Best Rapper Alive” claim. So what the hell happened Wheezy?
First and foremost, the album doesn’t get anywhere near the hype. If you’ve been following Wayne, he’s been touting it as the next Illmatic, Reasonable Doubt, Ready To Die…So on and so forth.. Let me be very clear about this. Tha Carter III is NOT a hip-hop classic. Now before you spam the comment section, let me tell you why.
There are some really good songs on this album. “Mr. Carter” got the ball rolling; Wayne came pretty hard with his first verse, but became lyrically sloppy from there after. Jay-z provided a guest spot, saving the track, and making Wayne look silly. “A Milli” probably stands as one of the most popular songs off the album, and again while it’s not really my kind of thing, Lil Wayne lit up the track.
There are some other really notables, “Dr. Carter”, “Tie My Hands” and “You Ain’t Got Nothing” combine to make up about half of a decent album; but then there’s the other half…
The rest of the album sounds like a drug-induced bender that happened to take place at the studio. “Lollipop” makes uses of T-Pains’ superannoying voice modifier, while “La La” and “Playing With Fire” show little effort on Wayne’s part whatsoever. “Let The Beat Build” could have been okay, but it falls short.
I often found myself getting asked why I didn’t like this album, and maybe I was turning into a hater…Then I realized I had skipped over the track “Phone Home” It starts out oddly enough:
"We are not the same, I am a Martian."
Yes, it’s that serious, and it continues,
"We are not the same I am an alien/Like Gonzales, young college student who done/Just flipped the game like Houston/, I'm used toPromethazine in two cups/ I'm screwed up/And you ain't shit if you ain't neverbeen screwed up."
Sketchy bars aside, none of these songs, and I do mean none, come remotely close to the best stuff Wayne has done. For whatever reason, his best songs seem to never make albums, and generally hit the mixtape scene. While there are some bonus tracks, none are worth mentioning.
So overall I think Wayne did a pretty half-assed job here. Were it not for the aforementioned tracks, it may have even been a great album. Either way, a classic this is not. So let all the haters, Lil Wayne lovers, and jock-riders alike converge and let their comments be hard. Fact of the matter is this could have been better, and you know I’m right. Best rapper alive? Hardly.
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August 04, 2008,
_JC_GUEST_NAME
said:
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you should not be writing reviews you have idea what you are talking about |
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August 04, 2008,
Nathan Armour
said:
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I would like to see a review from yourself on this... narm |
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August 04, 2008,
Chris miranda
said:
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we all kno weezy is tight so shut the f*ck up hahahahahaha |
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August 04, 2008,
Tyler Barlass
said:
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Good review. Your points were stated nicely and without bias. |
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August 04, 2008,
Michael Craig
said:
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weezy can be entertaining to listen to..but in no way is he the best rapper alive..all he does it put words together that rhyme whether they make sense or not..to be considered a great emcee you have to be able to construct a verse that at least makes sense..i can point out tons of underground hiphop emcees with waaaaaay better talent than lil wayne. the only reason people are saying he's the best rapper alive is because weezy says it so much that people believe him, and commercial hiphop is a blackhole of garbage right now. i notice all the groupies of lil wayne say waynes the best rapper alive but always fail to give any reason why. |
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August 04, 2008,
Julian Moorer
said:
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Really? that's all you've got? I complemented him as best i could am im still a b***h? Shh..... Grown folks are talking Chris. |
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August 04, 2008,
Julian Moorer
said:
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It would prolly go something like this. Lil Wayne iz de s**t! Da Carta 3 is SUPA DOP3 and HE IZ THE BESTS RAPPER EVER! Never mind all the great legends that inspired him to rap, never mind that fact that Jay-Z MURDERED Wayne on his own track. Lil Wayne is teh Best!!!!!! Whatever. :huh: If you think you can do a better job Anonymous, im going to call you Anny for the sake of time. Theres Job opening Anny, feel free to apply. |
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August 04, 2008,
wezzy rite hand man
said:
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lil wayne is the best rapper alive but the durgs got to him on tha carter III :angry: |
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August 05, 2008,
Nathan Armour
said:
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I love it, 'the drugs got to him on tha carter III'... haha, fantastic! Good review I say! I can imagine that Julian was aware of the comments he would get every second he spent time writing the review. Awesome!!! narm |
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August 05, 2008,
dylan
said:
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do not write reviews if you are gonna mispell names its weezy not wheezy |
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August 05, 2008,
Julian Moorer
said:
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Im glad you said that, I used WHEEZY instead of WEEZY because Wayne always sounds like he got punched in the throat. it was intentional. B) |
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August 05, 2008,
SteveLan
said:
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There never on tha album cause they get leaked. thats why it got pushed back so many times. He gotta keep doin new s**t so he stepped a side for once and let tha producers do they thang and they did that. How can you hate on a man who work harder than anybody n tha game but still manages to spit quality...its always "wats next, wat he gon say next" and u kno that. Truthfully, i jus give respect when respect is due and tha Carter III is a something i'll always listen to I mean if it can get u thru a two hour drive its a cla*sic...To Me...haha....Now thats how u let tha blog build blog build! |
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August 05, 2008,
Lex Walker
said:
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Yo yo yo, check it. So im like sittin herz laxin n all - u noz - anz i ges n0n uthrr than my main man wezzy juicin' da air round me? dig? s**t u sae what u wan stoopid. da wezzy izz king. im out. HAHAHAHAHAHA i...just...can't stop laughing... man, and I thought country music was synonymous with ignorance. Hey hey, what do country and rap have in common? both of them sing about hoes. Get it? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH |
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August 05, 2008,
ogee
said:
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most people have a misconception of what a cla*sic album is... Like all the other cla*sics this critic has put forward, music comes out as an art.... and in art, a cla*sic doesn't jus pop out of no blue... i believe a good album will catch your ear almost immediately, a cla*sic will grow with you everytime you listen to it... i hav never been a lil wayne fan at all, but with more airplay of the carter 3, i find myself appreciating the piece of work this "lyrical genius" has put up... and at an era when music has suffered greatly due to lack of creativity... C3 stands out.. being a cla*sic that i guess most of you will appreciate with time... n for the record, if you thought his mixtapes were much better, you thought wrong... you definitely the club banger type(which definutely dont make no cla*sics), ask jay-z and nas |
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