Artist launched Tha Carter VI and is pleased with her own reputation, but she cannot prevent the audience from choosing classics
Two years ago, Lil Wayne launched a collection that covers the whole career, I am music. It seems an impossible task to summarize three decades of music dating from its feverish debut as part of the duo BGZ In 1995, they cover a record number of entries in the Billboard Hot 100, as well as dozens of official mixtapes and numerous unauthorized leaks, and consolidates it as one of the most prolific and influential acts of its generation.
But I am music widely ignores its initial material announced – there is nothing of its first three albums and forget the ribbons of Dedication and Dought. He opts for the aquatic friend the size of an arena who quotes his work since “Lollipop” He launched him to mega star. Say whatever you want about your pleasant but mature, successful five times platinum of 2011, So Carter IV. Few would say that their collaboration with Bruno Mars, “Mirror”it is a highlight of all time.
I am music meant a dissonance that marks the catalog of Wayne After eight times platinum THA CARTER IIIof 2008. Fans still celebrate it as the watery cadenous jokes that remodeled the hip hop of the 2000s in his image, while embodimenting Dirty South’s lyricism at his best. But he has long evolved into a pop avatar. The qualities that once made him so familiar and loved, from his vocal tone of New Orleans to his relentlessly funny rhyme schemes, were completely absorbed by the genre’s firmament. If Wayne It was a concept artist, perhaps could reorganize these attributes in a masterpiece less dependent on gross skill. But it seems cursed to produce the same ‘old Rhythm’ n ‘blues, though not as vibrantly as in his glorious past.
Instant reactions online Tha Carter VI Since his debut in streaming services last Friday, 6, negatives have been mixed, which seems unfair. It is not as completely discouraging as Funeralof 2020, not as distressing as I Am Not a Human Being II2013, the latter launched amid his widely publicized Lean addiction and looked like a request for help. Wayne It seems happy, like a former boxing champion happily punching a bag of strokes in his recreation room. There is an attractive joke in tracks like “Cotton Candy”where he uses cocaine metaphors next to 2 Chainzand “If I played guitar”where he sings on a spicy pop-rock track. The final number of the album, “Written History”opens with the voice of Muhammad Ali around “The Rumble in the Jungle”and Wayne It positions itself as a sport legend fighting for one last ring. Unintentionally, he sings: “I’m like the Brady at 45, bro “, despite the last season of Tom Brady In NFL it was not finished well.
But athletes’ careers do not fail because they stop moving; It is because they do not move with the same speed and creativity of youth. Wayne Still have its jokes: “I still swallow the rappers I heard, they are appetizers,” he boasts in “Welcome to Tha Carter”. Perhaps inspired by how its 2018 track, “Uproar”which is based on the EZ ELPEE for the 2001 hit of G. DEP, “Special Delivery”it became a staple of ESPN broadcasts, Wayne Fold the Old School hip-hop references.
In “Bells”he is inspired by the Rick Rubin to “Rock The Bells”by ll Cool J. in “Banned from no”enjoy the keyboard fanfare Swizz Beatz of “Banned from TV” used by Nore. “I was raised with UGK/When these bitch says ‘Weezy F.’, Weezy F. says Uck, bitch! “Island Holiday”a warm interpolation of the 2001 anthem of the Weezer, “Island in the Sun”. To “Loki’s Theme”he alludes to a verse of Ice Cube 1988 single from Nwa, “Gangsta, Gangsta”: “Wait, right, left, right, left, you are banguela/break his nose, right hand full of mucus.”
The problem with Tha Carter VI It’s not relevant-Rap Old-Head made by 40- and 50-and-ladies prospered for years-but a feeling that nothing is really at stake. This was not the case with So Carter V2018, where Wayne He seemed visibly moved by the numerous trials he endured. When he baked, “I’m not number 1, it’s true/I’m number 9-27-82” “Don’t Cry”with the participation of XXXTENTACION he seemed relieved because he was still alive, regardless of his position in the constellation of the genre. Here, there is no comprehensive purpose beyond the desire to continue dazzling us as before. At best, this leads to “Cotton Candy”, “Hip hop” And if we are charitable, “Written History”. Also results in terrible cuts like “The Days”where Bono sings on an EDM beat; “Peanuts 2 N Elephant”where he riffs on an amateur and clumsy beat of LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA that personifies the BFF phenomenon of celebrities in its worst version; and “Mule Komin ‘In”a duet with your son Lil Noviwhere he rap “this is lil mule, this is my son, he is my youngest … he is having sex with his daughter, I am having sex with his wife.” And, like the mediocre IZ IT A CRIMEfrom Snoop Dogg, Wayne only superficially mentions its support to Donald Trump. “I’m a red elephant like Donald Trump, but still act like a donkey, like, ‘ha, what?'” “Peanuts 2 N Elephant”. Take the conclusion you want.
“I can be nothing, just me … Don’t try to make me someone else”, sings Wayne in “Bein ‘Myself”a long-awaited meeting with the former Cash Money, Mannie fresh. Refusing to revisit the vintage leap of peaks as “GO DJ” and “Tha Block is Hot”, Mannie makes a loop of a melody of “(I’m) Just Being Myself”from Dionne Warwickand Wayne He convincingly argues why we should let him be himself and stop demanding that he evolves into a different kind of artist. “Get out of my lawn because your garden chair is not yet a throne,” he sings. No one should question him for being happy in Tha Carter VIinsurance of your reputation as one of the best that ever did it. But Lil Wayne You cannot prevent your audience from choosing the classics.
Article published on June 9, 2025 at Rolling Stone. To read the original in English, click here.
+++ Read more: Lil Wayne complains about the list of the best rappers: ‘I’m number one’
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
