Lil' Wayne is a polarizing figure in today's hip-hop universe. Many call him the best rapper alive, touting maxims like "Lil' Wayne is your favorite rapper's favorite rapper." Just as many call him garbage, a punchline rapper who doesn't have much else in his repertoire. I'm not going to call him either, but as far as 2007 goes, Wayne ran the game.
The southerner has been shaping and finding his voice over the past few years, ever since he re-invented himself on The Carter. With Da Drought 3, a sprawling 2-disc mixtape that was released online for free, it seems that Weezy has cemented his style, with the help of the year's hottest beats and a whole lotta promethazine. The thing that makes Wayne such a interesting artist is his wordplay, how he stretches vowels and consonants, constantly reworking words and lines in order to create a unique sound. While some write this off as a failure to "ride the beat," I find it to be invigorating.
If there's any theme running through the mixtape, it's the metaphor of eating. Wayne likens himself to a vegetarian, eating "beats, karats, and green" on "Ride For My Niggas" and implores the listener to feed him rappers in the intro to "We Takin' Over (Remix)". This seems to be an extension of the concept of a mixtape in and of itself, in which a rapper takes (bites?) preexisting tracks , then raps (spits?) new lyrics of his own in order to create a brand new song (meal?) Actually listening to the mixtape with this concept in mind adds more layers to it than one would initially expect, especially if one was initially turned off by the general glorification of violence and misogyny that is sadly par for the course in most mainstream hip-hop.
The more disturbing trend is how much lean Wayne seems to be drinking, as evidenced by the amount he references it, and how much raspier his voice has gotten over the years. I'd hate to see one of the most prolific and interesting rappers in the game to go the way of DJ Screw. After all, we've already been waiting over 2 years for The Carter III, I'd hate for it to end up as a posthumous release. But, it's not like Lil' Wayne needs a standard album release to make one of the best albums of the year, does he?
Essential tracks: "Ride For My Niggas", "We Takin' Over (Remix)", "Back On My Grizzy", "President"
"Ride For My Niggas"
"We Takin' Over (Remix)"
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