LA Times: Lil Wayne-Tha Carter III Review
Before the Wayne stans slink out of the woodwork, let me be clear: Tha Carter III is a good album. A three-star effort on the Times scale or in more rap-friendly terms, a four- mic album back when the phrase meant something. Yes, my review might be slightly overly critical. Then again, when you call yourself the “greatest rapper alive,” and can’t go 16 bars without insecurely boasting that you’re in a league with the Nas’, Jay-Z’s and BIG’s, you are intentionally subjecting yourself to a different rubric.
Point being, if you are constantly trumpeting your world-beating dominance and originality, you are not allowed to call a song “Get Money.” That is, unless you can make it better than “Get Money.” To paraphrase the Notorious L.L.O.Y.D. Bentsen, I have seen Biggie Smalls., Mr. Weezy F. Baby. and you sir are no Biggie Smalls.
So no, this is not Wayne’s Blueprint/Ready to Die/Illmatic, if anything it’s his Volume 3…Life and Times of D. Carter. I’d continue here but the review is linked below and the Times was gracious enough to let me ramble for 800 words, so there is that. Besides, this is the Internet and there is a comment box below and maybe just maybe you have an opinion on this Wayne fellow?
LA Times: Lil Wayne-Tha Carter III
MP3: Lil Wayne ft. Jay-Z-”Mr. Carter”
MP3: Lil Wayne ft. Kanye West-”Lollipop Remix”
Video: Junior Mafia-”Get Money” (Because I mean…)
June 9th, 2008 at 1:25 am
see, guys? jeff weiss is capable of saying nice things about weezy!
for the most part, i totally co-sign what you wrote about the record, especially about “let the beat build” being an album highlight. here’s what i disagree with you on: “lollipop” is merely mediocre, not terrible. with the exception of the capital one metaphor, juelz completely eviscerated weezy on “nuthin’ on me.”
“slit your throat/have you smiling with your neck/say cheese(!!)”
June 9th, 2008 at 6:11 am
I just wish Wayne would put the fuckin’ cup down and focus.
One.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:39 am
I couldn’t help but notice you forgot to mention Tha Carter III is a classssssssssssssic
June 9th, 2008 at 9:52 am
What is this “classic” you speak of. I know not of it.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I hear tha carter 3 and feel like i’ll never hear something as hard as BM JR again. “Sweet potato ass nigga you lemon merengue apple custard//
Cherry jelly don’t make me get the bisuit busta”
June 9th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I gave Tha Carter II a much needed spin this past weekend, and couldn’t stop smiling or tilting my head back to the beats. I have somehow let myself not listen to a single leak of this album. Waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail sometime this week. This one better bring it. [And I mean at least entertain me for 45 minutes bring it] Just saying.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Disco-
You keep mentioning that you think the Carter III is classic which to me is crazy talk but do you care to explain?
I mean while I think thee album is merely ok, I can understand why someone might even say it’s good or even great but classic? C’mon now. I think our standards have been lowered over the last decade due to a dearth of legitimately classic albums.
I mean in my opinon it’s basically Supreme Clientele, Blueprint, The Fix, Stillmatic, A Long Hot Summer, Kanye West’s entire discography, The Marshall Mathers LP and maybe Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. And the only ones that I can say with absolute certainty is Supreme Clientele and Blueprint. And I’d hesitate to say the Carter III is even as good as Get Rich Or Die Tryin’
June 9th, 2008 at 11:13 am
And you know I got to give you props for posting that Junior Mafia classic. The line “what you say, what you say, uh!” will be in my head all day. Trust.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Barry, you should explain yourself. Saying he captured a moment does not count either. Calling this a “classic” is pure crazy talk. Write a post on it. You know I’ll publish it.
Carter II is a significantly better album. This one already has diminishing returns.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
The Carter III is a classic for the same reason Get Rich or Die Tryin’ is. It’s captured a moment, will sustain that moment and pushes hip-hop forward until the next one. It’s balanced, fearless and most importantly, it matters.
The Carter III is about making room for more. Lil’ Wayne is challenging us to make space for him so we don’t allow ourselves to get stuck on Mount Rushmore. We don’t honor previous classics by preventing truly original artists like Weezy from making a contribution with our inconsistent standards and purist cynicism; that defeats the whole purpose of what music is about.
Maybe it’s time we realized Liquid Swords and Illmatic and all those great records actually happened a very long time ago. Maybe it’s time we were honest with ourselves: do we talk about these classics so much because their quality can never be matched or because these are the records that captured a moment for us, sustained it for a while and now we find ourselves in the position as critics/bloggers/fans to submit the work of our generation into the canon? If the second is true do we have to do it at the expense of the past [Run-DMC is dated!] or the future? (Lil Wayne needs an editor!]. That benefits no one.
Ultimately, I admire Lil Wayne and Tha Carter III because he’s made it clear he wants to be the best -not the most successful or the most important, but the best.
And he wants to get better.
He’s not the last hope, just the latest, and if we just shut the fuck up and let him make history we make room for him and the allow for the possibility that the greatest rapper we’ll ever hear we haven’t heard yet. I prefer that. If you’re just sitting around waiting for some transcendent artist to release a transcendent album you’re going to be too cynical to notice it when it happens.
It’s happened. Tha Carter III is a classic.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Jeff:
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE publish my next Beat Generation ASAP…all haters will be silenced.
June 9th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Alright tomorrow it shall be. I was going to wait until Thursday but fuck it.
June 9th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
disco: very well-written, and i have to commend you for standing up for an album you feel is a classic. i sort of disagree with your stance on the album, but your comment was pretty inspired.
as for your question about liquid swords, illmatic, et al.: it’s safe to say that those albums, and albums like only built 4 cuban linx, reasonable doubt, ready to die, etc. are all classic albums because they’re quality HASN’T been matched, yet. there’s a reason why hip-hop purists still talk about those records, even though all of them were released over a decade ago.
the thing i share with you is an admiration of weezy’s desire to be the best rapper in the world. he’s even said himself he doesn’t care about the success or the fame [although, i’m sure at least some of this is bullshit– there are more than a few radio-ready moments on the record], he wants to be the greatest.
i also agree with you on the idea that classic rap records are slipping under our noses because we’re unwilling to look past mount rushmore [see also: royce the 5′9″’s death is certain]. unfortunately, the carter III is not a classic record, in my opinion.
June 9th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
I’m with Weiss on this one - so-so album, certainly not classic. ‘Let The Beat Build’ is without an awesome track, and by far the album highlight, but is this not more to do with Kanye’s beautifully paced soul production than Wayne’s incoherent ramblings?
June 9th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
you’re far too generous with this review, in my mind. only in an environment where, as DocZeus puts it, “standards have been lowered” (which is understatement i think) could this be considered a good album. it’s okay at best, and hugely disappointing considering the build up.
maybe it’s just that people have had time to soak in “Lollipop” and have come to terms. you know, you’d heard that shit already, so it wasn’t like one huge letdown all at once.
this is a 2-star album at best. then again, i don’t really follow the LA Times ratings, so maybe i should shut up. perhaps it’s reserved for albums considerably worse than this.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
classic
June 10th, 2008 at 10:25 am
This album is just okay. I wish I had not wasted my money buying it though. The song “Dr. Carter” has a nice concept, but other songs on the album he songs like he is taking a shit while making a song. I like The Carter II and that album made me like Lil Wayne but ever since then I haven’t heard anything from him that makes me even imagine to consider him the best rapper alive. Has he forgotten about Jay-Z, Nas, and Eminem. On the Lollipop remix Kanye destoryed him and probably without even trying. I wonder has the standards of rap went down that we allow him to call himeself the best rapper alive without providing solid proof. I think he can be really great, but maybe he should forget about freestyling since all he is doing is incorhernt raps and take some time and consideration about what the hell he is saying. I bet if I came out rapping like this the whole world would say I suck.
June 10th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Good write up. Anyone who thinks C3 is a classic is clearly drinking from Wayne’s sizzurp sippy cup.
June 10th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
[…] passionweiss.com […]
June 10th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Im not sure what some of you are listening to this is a classic album, that one who enjoys real hip hop can love from start to finish. Some of you also dnt pay attention that this is like the 3rd draft of the carter 3 seeing how this album has been leaked so much that he had a plan and a direction for this album which he had to change and try his best to revamp and if any of you are artist you can only imagine the level of frustration that, that can put you on.
Then some of you have to nerve to call his flow incoherent? because you dnt have the mental capacity to understand what he is really trying to say. The big thing is that this album is something completely different from what most had planned but is that a bad thing…?? NO, it’s just another way for Wayne to show you that he is the “TRUTH” and yeah the carter 2 was great for its time but why make another carter 2 when this is the carter 3?? When this one show so much more growth of wayne as an artist and even more versitility and originality you cant take that away from this album…
June 10th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
As of now..LiL Wayne is my favorite rapper. However the Carter 3 was dripping in wack sauce. I burned it and then gave it away. It was that weak. You cant call this album a classic when you can put in the drought mixtape, or the leak mixtape or the Carter 2 and those among other things he released are just as good or BETTER then the carter 3. Classic’s dont have songs that blatantly scream for radio play with weak un-inspiried lines. “Im not a chicken but my semi cock”. Go to Ohhla.com and read the text to this album and tell me you think those words are the words of the BEST RAPPER ALIVE…get outta here with that.
LiL wayne let me down with this album. Hopefully he follows up with another dope mixtape sometime soon
June 10th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
I honestly hated it when I first listened to it as it is not the usual Wayne. But for all you guys who dont like it, PLEASE listen to it more than once. It really begins to grow on you and now I love it (with the exception of “comfortable”, which is a terrible song).
TAKE BACK YOUR COMMENT ABOUT MIXTAPE DJ’S AND GO BACK TO ACTUALLY DOING MIXTAPES WAYNE PLLLLLLLEASEEEEEEE!
June 11th, 2008 at 7:43 am
OMFG! All of you are true haters. You probably hate Kobe Bryant too, don’t you. Lil Wayne says he is the best rapper ALIVE. He knows he isn’t the best ever. He worked his ass of on this album. Show some respect. Those of you are so foolish as to say that Lil Wayne’s lines make no sense, why don’t stop fuckin’ hatin’ and try to listen to what he is saying. Ever heard of metaphors? Stop trying so hard to find one wack line. Tha Carter III is without no doubt a classic. Obviously you don’t know what hip hop is about. Tha Carter III will be remembered many years from now. Lil Wayne is the best rapper alive and works the hardest at what he does. Look at all of the high quality content we have gotten since Tha Carter II. Mixtapes, Tours, being featured on countless great tracks, and it keeps going. His flow goes so hard and is very unique. Lollipop is still dominating charts worldwide. R.I.P Tha Carter series, you will be missed.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I need a project bitch, a hood rat bitch… now THAT is classic.
June 11th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
drinking + lil’ wayne = awesome to the power of infinity
June 12th, 2008 at 2:10 am
[…] ALREADY!” on the heels of the most talked-about rap album of the year by far, my man jeff weiss weighed in, sparking one of the most– no pun intended– impassioned comment threads in […]
June 12th, 2008 at 4:57 am
what? are yall fucking idots or something”do u listen to music or do u just skim through it?(jay-z) weezy is a fucking beast do u hear these lyrics this shit is crazy of course its a classic” dont fix your lips unless u bout to suck my dick,swallow my words, taste my thoughts, and if it taste nasty, spit it back at me woooooooo the homie is crazy man there is not a rapper in the game that can put out shit like weezy he can just be on the hook and the song will be hot. rolling stones gave his album 4 and a half stars are u serious no rapper has neva done that including illmatic, ready to die, or none of jay-z’s albums
June 12th, 2008 at 4:59 am
and he has the best selling single ever lolipop hes on another level man im telling u we are not the same i am a martian and the dr. carter track omg hes resurrecting hip hop this shit is ridiculous
June 12th, 2008 at 5:02 am
it is hands down the best album of the year u dont need to skip a track. he kills this shit” i keep a 44 and a k like 8 stacks omg bitch im a bomb like tic toc hahaha how ever u want it he can bring it he slows it down with robin thick and b valentino thats for the ladies that shit is so hot and smooth ass hell then him fab and santana murder the track if u dont think this is a classic yall are still stuck in those old days that shit is wack now man hes a beast
June 12th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
[…] body of work fails to live up to the “greatest ever” hype because it lacks focus, consistency, and a willingness/ability to […]
June 12th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
[…] been contemplating on this one for a while now. Weiss likes it. Pitchfork likes it. And many others feel the same way. […]
June 13th, 2008 at 12:06 am
I got summer hatin’ on me cuz i’m hotter than tha sun, got spring hatin’ on me cuz i ain’t never sprung,winter hatin’ on me cuz i’m colder than ya’ll,and i would never i would never i would never fall…..You can not fuck wit shit like that!!! and thats jus track 2!! i don’t care wat any of ya’ll think but this shit is a classic…only true lovers of hip hop know wats up!!