Review Summary: A mixture of all of the elements that represent Lil Wayne at his best.
It's release day and I'm feeling pretty anticipated for Tha Carter III. I step inside Best Buy and see that the album is set at a descent price so I grab it with N.E.R.D.'s new album. I go up to the register to make my purchase and while I do this, I am in wonder of what beholds with my first listen of Tha Carter III. Will it be the classic that Lil Wayne proclaims? Does it stand the test of time as a stand out cut of 2008 and will live on in the history of Hip Hop as a classic like Illmatic and Ready To Die? Well I've come to the conclusion that hyping up an album is not always the best selling strategy.
We start off with a pretty good track titled "3peat" which shows off Weezy's freestyle skills. I'll admit that some of the punch lines are pretty stale like the Viagra metaphor but overall it's not the worst jump off for an album receiving as much praise as Tha Carter III. The album continues on with the track "Mr. Carter" featuring Jay-Z that ends up being one of the more disappointing tracks. The beat is decent but it doesn't sound like Lil Wayne put any effort into his verses which is a bummer considering the fact that Jay-Z is on it.
"A Milli" starts to blast once "Mr. Carter" is complete which starts to pick things up. The track is a monster and shows Lil Wayne at his finest with a slowed down syrupy beat. I won't go on with the track because everyone including your mom has heard it so much that even a Lil Wayne hater can spit the song word for word. I don't want to give out much detail of the worst track of the whole damn album "Got Money" but I will say that if you heard one song obsessing over money with no creativity, you heard them all.
The rest of the songs on the album are top notch except for the average "Lollipop." The production of the album as a whole is mellow and slow throughout and shows Lil Wayne at his weirdest, horniest, and overall hilarious. He can be a serious dude when it comes to certain topics most notably with Katrina. To show compassion on the terrible events, Weezy drops one of his most emotional songs "Tie My Hands" featuring a very teary eyed Robin Thicke.
Lil Wayne has proven to be not only to be one of the best acts in music, but has also brought just flat out fun tunes to the public. He can be as lyrical as he wants to be on tracks like "Dr. Carter" which is a creative concept that points out how to better oneself as an emcee from the words of Lil Wayne. “Lollipop” is admittedly, a pretty catchy track but is full of clichés that have no meaning.
The guest appearances on this album are your typical rappers and singers. Bobby Valentino does his sirens on “Mrs. Officer” while Babyface repeats himself on the repetitive but catchy “Comfortable.” Some of the best songs on the album though are the posse cuts “La La” and “You Ain’t Got Nuthin’.” They feature solid verses and surprising improvement by everyone except Busta Rhymes. Sorry Busta but your verse is so wack that it sounds like you combined words together in a hope of sounding on par with Wayne.
While this isn't the best album ever made, it is a fun listen that wields its fair share of great songs and catchy random lyrics.
