Many moons ago, there was this. Then there was this. Now Jonathan Bradley looks back at what many believe is the best Lil Wayne album. As Cheech Marin said upon witnessing the rising of the Titanic in in Ghostbusters II: better late than never.
At the bottom of the bayou, rising up from the mud and murk, lurks something animal– a shark, a lion with a throaty roar, and a raw hunger. “Let’s eat,” he exults, “and talk about all the niggas we cut.” But you know what? Let’s not fuck up our lunch. Let’s talk about the thick guitars and swampy rhythms over which Dwayne Carter exhales–scungy, grimy-ass, mudded-up sounds for a crusted-over vocal, like setting gasoline on fire. “Deep down in the dirty, there lies us,” he says, storming the barricades. His origin story is fundamental; he’s from “the sky, where the thunder’s crying.” It’s primal, sifted out and soaked up from the history of his region: “You heard it right here if the game was ever told/Lift up your toes and look under the rug/Trust me, that’s history under all that dust.”
That’s just the first track, five minutes of hot spitting. Sicker than a hospital, he is. New Orleans “gangsta gumbo” from a city where “you ain’t tryin to see how far that black back lane go.” Sweaty, violent and intoxicating, loping hyena-like across the track. He approaches rap with the appetite of a carnivore, tearing off chunks of language, chewing them and savoring the taste. Tha Carter II is a tactile album, from its bass thumps to its guitar growls and more than anything else, its protagonist’s feverish imagery–both base and boundless.
But none of this is swagger or show. It’s a young man reveling in his newfound excellence, exultantly aware that he has entered his prime and relishing in his proficiency. He “nowadays know[s] life ain’t no more road lights,” but he’s still ready to punch at the top level, as “the best rapper alive,” brimming with vitality and energy and confidence. “The heart of the South, pumping and beating,” soaked in the region like “Jazz Fest, Mardi Gras.” Here is the changing of the guard–rap’s regional battles turned into a decisive victory lap for Dixie (“baby, I’m just jogging”)–one that came before T.I., who, with King, did the same, except by crossing over. “I don’t care who at the top of the stairs, I’m stepping up,” says Carter, except now there’s only him at the top of the stairs. “That’s life, y’all/Sometimes you gotta learn to swim with no life guard.”
So this ain’t the decade’s best rap record — that’s The Blueprint — but apart from that, nothing can touch it. It’s assured, and rightfully so. Twenty two tracks and none inessential, not even the South Beach fantasy of “Grown Man,” because even the fraud-laden sentiment of that song is the truth-talking of a youngster suddenly appreciating the strength of his own sexuality.
After years in the trenches, after the white lace, Mannie Fresh-escorted Cotillion that was the first Carter, the Wayne of Tha Carter II exercises his powers at full strength, while they were still earthly and elementary, before he span off into the linguistic game-playing hyperspace of Dedication 2 and Da Drought 3 and the underrated Lil’ Weezyana, and, oh yes, our actual Passion of the Weiss-endorsed Weezy magnum opus, Tha Carter III. This is what Wayne would hear if he phoned home now: “the chalk’s only for the art, homie. We trace ya after we erase ya.”
But let’s talk about what a lonely album this is. Guest spots from then-not-as-creepy father figure Birdman, then-forgotten gangster Kurupt and then-unknown protégé Curen$y, but mostly it’s just Weezy, out in the weather shielded with only his words. No feeling, no — “Sometimes I want to drop a tear, but no emotions from a king” — even if “Reciept” is a love song marvelous in its swirl of reticence and romanticism. As the man says: “All I have in this world is a pistol and a promise, a fistful of dollars,” or maybe it’s, “Be a competitor or get out the weather/Me? I got an umbrella and a Beretta.”
Or maybe it’s “Fuck bitches, get money.” It’s cold out there, so you better be round someone who can spit fire.–Jonathan Bradley
Download:
MP3: Lil Wayne-”Tha Mobb”
MP3: Lil Wayne-”Oh No”
21 comments
Trey Stone says:
November 16, 2009 at 4:14 am (UTC -7)
good writeup, and i know i’ve probably made the same argument way too many times on this blog an others, but in my not so humble opinion pretty much everything Wayne did after this is easily better, and a preference for this speaks more to East Coast biases than anything. i dunno, i guess i just don’t see how Wayne’s flow, wordplay, overall craziness or the production here can touch anything from “Dedication 2″ forward, even though yeah i realize the mixtapes use other rappers’ beats. and Wayne mixtapes are the most fun to play just cruising around to different places at night cuz he’s just talking shit, serious, bullshitting or otherwise. Brandon’s made this point on his site a bunch of times, including in that post-lyrical series he wrote up, but if you don’t get too fixated on the tattoos, syrup and frog voice a rapper like Wayne is a lot more relatable than someone like Nas, Little Brother, Lupe, whoever, since people generally aren’t having deep thoughts all day.
anyway that’s my take, just gotta stick up for the BRA dude
Zilla Rocca says:
November 16, 2009 at 8:41 am (UTC -7)
This album was Gillie Da Kid’s tour de force.
B. Michael says:
November 16, 2009 at 9:30 am (UTC -7)
What a great description of an underrated album!(And apt, too, since Pitchfork reviewed the latest [lame] Weezy mixtape, today.)
I’ve never understood early Wayne since I’ve thought his main appeal lay in Space Jam aesthetics and nonsense rhymes, but hearing this again with scales off my ears, it sounds fresh, pointed, and hungry.
Tray says:
November 16, 2009 at 10:43 am (UTC -7)
“a rapper like Wayne is a lot more relatable than someone like Nas, Little Brother, Lupe, whoever, since people generally aren’t having deep thoughts all day.”
Um, Nas’s work isn’t deep thoughts 24/7. Or even close. Lupe is predominantly pseudo-deep thoughts, yeah. But don’t lump in Nas with self-consciously ‘conscious’ rappers; he’s never been that. Well maybe on his last album, which was a disaster. Anyway, I prefer Carter 1, more of a cohesive, solid all the way through type of album for me, whereas Carter 2 is brilliant in spots but slacks down the stretch and is somehow, for me, a really exhausting listen. I also prefer Wayne over Mannie Fresh than over a melange of generic East Coastish stuff.
Disco Vietnam says:
November 16, 2009 at 11:54 am (UTC -7)
Gillie Da Kid : The Carter II as Obama : Muslim
chris says:
November 16, 2009 at 1:13 pm (UTC -7)
(Wayne clearly was on Ghostwriters for a spell)
No amount of revisionism is going to make Tha Carter II a good album. There are like 7 good tracks on the whole record, and that’s from the perspective of someone who enjoys the dude’s work. It just seems really odd that, like the second The Streets album, people are really deadset on pretending, for whatever ideological reason (not liking mixtape-Wayne of superstar-Wayne as much as on-the-cusp-Wayne), that these things were/are all better than they were/are.
I love “Money on My Mind”, “Fireman” and “Mo Fire” as much as anyone else, but calling the rest of the filler the record is laden with “indispensable” is just flat wrong.
Deen says:
November 16, 2009 at 1:49 pm (UTC -7)
It was a good album when it dropped and its a good album now. This album is the only reason why most heads even pretended to check for Weezy in the first place.
Nice write-up.
Sach says:
November 16, 2009 at 2:15 pm (UTC -7)
I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this when it dropped because I hadn’t really checked for Wayne since his debut. Then critics started jocking his mixtapes which I found tremendously overrated, by the time C3 dropped I was ready to hate on him again but low and behold, I thought that album was dope too.
Did any of his trend jockers care about no Ceilings? At this rate he’s going to win the 2009 Clipster award for disapearing white fanbase.
Trey Stone says:
November 16, 2009 at 2:51 pm (UTC -7)
Christ tray, just shut the fuck up for once, no one cares
Trey Stone says:
November 16, 2009 at 2:53 pm (UTC -7)
and i still don’t get why people are stuck on the whole ghostwriting thing. is it that crazy that a rapper wouldn’t be at their peak when they were a teenager. not to mention that Wayne’s post-”C2″ stuff especially is so random and train of thought that it doesn’t sound written
Abe Beame says:
November 16, 2009 at 3:24 pm (UTC -7)
I love No Ceilings. If you’re the type of fan who needs to see an artist progress and evolve with each new release I can see eyes glazing over at it but for me it’s great competent rapping with an energy we haven’t seen in a while. If he’d waited through a Sigel-esque malaise than dropped this I bet there’d be more white people on his dick than Gooch right now.
Carter 2 actually makes for an apt comparison. With 1 (probably with Gillie on the pen) he established a new found seriousness and an ability to make the kind of solid, hungry punchline trap rap that plays in New York. 2 was more of the same with grander ambitions, less thematic and conceptual, a more open grab for mainstream appeal. I like it but not as much as the inebriated experimentation that ended up launching him into the stratosphere. I don’t know if I’d call that work overrated but I think he definitely suffered from over saturation.
Jere says:
November 16, 2009 at 3:53 pm (UTC -7)
No Ceilings is fine. Blows Dedication 3 out of the water. Will probably be better than Rebirth.
Disco Vietnam says:
November 17, 2009 at 12:33 am (UTC -7)
Gillie Da Kid : Carter 1 as Obama : Born in Kenya
Abe Beame says:
November 17, 2009 at 8:45 am (UTC -7)
On what authority are you so certain? You have heard 500 Degreez right?
spirit equality says:
November 17, 2009 at 1:46 pm (UTC -7)
none of the lines you quote here are particularly noteworthy. tracks like “fireman” are particularly forgettable singles that dropped out of dj rotation for a reason (i.e. lack of replay value).
i think supreme clientele can go up against blueprint for album of the decade, btw, even though it took me years to get over the fact that sometimes ghost makes no cotdamn sense at all.
simon says:
November 17, 2009 at 2:31 pm (UTC -7)
dude abe, there are way more white people on weezy’s dick than on gucci’s right now
Victor says:
November 17, 2009 at 8:10 pm (UTC -7)
I’d place quite a few albums above The Carter 2. It is undenaibly Wayne’s best studio lp, but i think people are underestimating the quantity of good music which has dropped in this decade.
The Blueprint is probably my favourite album of the noughties as well but even then it isn’t far above the competition. Supreme Clientele, fishscale, cuban linx 2, below the heavens, the black album, God’s Son, Stankonia, Madvillainy heck even though Stillmatic was uneven stuff like Rewind blows most tracks till this day out of the water.
@Spirit equality, part of Supreme Clientele’s attraction are the loosely connected bars. The links can be tenuous but by and large they are there.
Nas not a Deep Thinker? That is his whole style man! “Even my brain’s in handcuffs” he uttered on his debut. If that is not deep thinking what is? Nas is based on social commentary and i think that a handful of critics maligned his last lp unfairly. There is nothing poor about Queens Get The Money or The Slave And The Master. The thing about that record is that it polarised opinion due to its content and the delivery of said content.
As for Wayne ultimately though i agree with Trey Stone pretty much. There is a reason why Jay highlighted the “mixtape weezy”. Dude was pretty unstoppable in that period.
Trey Stone says:
November 18, 2009 at 8:55 am (UTC -7)
for sure. from a cohesive album standpoint, “C3′s” probably his best since it’s basically mixtape Wayne made palatable to a popular audience, but when you’re in a don’t give a fuck mood, his mixtapes are the best
Trey Stone says:
November 18, 2009 at 10:20 pm (UTC -7)
one last thing, in “D3′s” defense it’s a fun mixtape as the faded post-”C3″ victory lap, even though yeah it’s obvious he wasn’t exactly trying 100% there lol
wes says:
November 19, 2009 at 2:11 pm (UTC -7)
i’m late to this party but i just wanted to say dedication 3 has some bangers on it, especially “bang bang,” “”stuntin’,” “get bizzy” “magic” and “dedication 3″
it’s a weak tape for wayne standards but i think 75% of that falls on the features’ shoulders. also, if you hate auto-tune wayne, it’s an easy tape to shit on, too. but still…
Jay-g says:
March 5, 2011 at 11:35 pm (UTC -7)
I’ll be honest I stopped reading after Blueprint being the best album of the last decade. An album with “That Nigga Jigga”and “Hola Hovitio” can be nothing better than very good.