Lil Wayne may have finally found the side project that derails his string of success.
Instead of being a Rebirth, the rapper's attempt at rock music comes off as more of a generic facsimile of a mainstream record.
There are some familiar elements to the record: Weezy's raspy, cough-syrup-coated voice, guest appearances by notable performers such as Eminem and lyrics that reference pop culture icons such as Michael Phelps.
Unfamiliar are the guitar and drums, the tracks produced by musicians such as Travis Barker, the uneven performance that is defined more by its negatives than its positives and the lyrically-aimless wandering through songs.
The album's sole highlight is its opening track, American Star
a coming-of-age story in part about New Orleans, where Weezy was born and raised. At one point, he croaks, Born and raised in the U.S.A./ Where the government is watching what you do and say showing that he still harbors mistrust of the government, likely in part because the government is putting him in prison for a year on charges of attempted possession of a weapon.
Unfortunately, the rapper can't chalk this record's lack of overall quality up to being distracted by his court proceedings because it was finished before he was sentenced. Weezy has nobody but himself to blame for this hyperactive experiment, which fails to add anything new to the genre as a whole; instead, it plays a musical game of cut-and-paste from the music that has been on the radio for years.
Lil Wayne made his mark by being creative with his rhymes and innovative with his beats. On this album, though, he is too busy to focus on what has made him successful, crooning lyrics like, I could see her in my life/ She would've had the world if she were mine/ But she had other plans/ I could not understand/ Her and her stupid friends/ Varsity's biggest fans.
You Belong With Me this isn't.
There aren't enough artists taking chances in music today so Lil Wayne deserves credit for that, but somewhere around the fourth crashing, cacophonous song of Rebirth, one can't help but wonder how much better Tha Carter IV would be if he hadn't been distracted by this side project.
Adam Wagner is a sophomore studying journalism.
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Culture
Adam Wagner
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