The Next Spot: Lil Wayne-”The Carter II”
November 16th, 2009
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.
