Artist: Lil Wayne
Album: Tha Carter IV
Released on: August 29, 2011
Four time Grammy Award winning rap artist, Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter is back with long-awaited “Tha Carter IV”.
The album starts with “Blunt Blowin” and at first, I was thinking where is this going until the hook came in and then my memory was refreshed and I thought classic Wayne. The track really reminded me somewhat of “Go DJ” and I loved it. I loved the instrumental to “MegaMan”, Wayne’s verses were strong, yet reminiscent of “A Milli”, so it was another song that was kind of where he’s already been and what he’s already done. “Nightmare Of The Bottom” was another typical track, I honestly wanted more out of this song, but I did not get it. The track “How To Hate” features T-Pain and I felt that T-Pain’s intro was way too long, it seemed more than a feature with the amount of bars he had and I was thinking
when is Wayne going to jump in. I felt the track was okay, the lyrics were somewhat bitter yet Wayne was rapping about how he’s moved on from prior relationships and ex-girlfriends.
“John” featured Rick Ross and the instrumental had a southern hip-hop feel to it. I enjoyed Ross’ contribution, but I really didn’t feel Wayne gave his best until his 3rd verse. Finally on “Abortion” Wayne came around and gave me what I was looking for, I loved the track lyrically and sonically, although the instrumental sounds like something Jay-Z already did, so I can’t exactly call it original, but I did fully enjoy it. I loved the unlikely collaboration with John Legend on “So Special”. The hook was crazy and I felt Wayne’s verses were hot also.
With “President Carter” I could feel Wayne’s flow and felt it was a hard track, something I would definitely want to hear while riding in the car. And the track that has everyone buzzing is “It’s All Good” where Wayne is joined by labelmate Drake and Jadakiss. In all honesty, I felt like Kiss took the song lyrically and I’m saying that in the most unbiased form. Another notable mention is the bonus track “Two Shots”, the instrumental is almost nonexistent and I loved that element, coupled with Wayne’s rhyming, I felt the track was quite beastly. It really was a track that should have made the original cut.
I was searching for ferocity on “Tha Carter IV” and I rarely found that, the LP was cool, but I wanted more and expected more from an artist that has so much street credibility and industry clout. I love Wayne and I wish I could have given this a higher rating, but it honestly is not deserving of it.
Rating: 3.5 earphones out of 5
