Average Rating: 5.4/10
Overall Rating: 5/10
1. Intro (7/10)
2. Blunt Blowin’ (4/10)
3. Megaman (3/10)
4. 6 Foot 7 Ft. Cory Gunz (4/10)
5. Nightmare From The Bottom (7/10)
6. She Will Ft. Drake (5.5/10)
7. How To Hate Ft. T-Pain (1/10)
8. Interlude Ft. Tech N9ne (9.5/10)
9. John Ft. Rick Ross (5/10)
10. Abortion (6/10)
11. So Special Ft. John Legend (6.5/10)
12. How To Love (6/10)
13. President Carter (5/10)
14. It’s Good Ft. Jadakiss & Drake (6/10)
15. I Like The View (6/10)
16. Mirror Ft. Bruno Mars (9.5/10)
17. Two Shots (4/10)
18.Outro Ft. Bun B, NAS, Shyne & Busta Rhymes (7/10)
Lil Wayne has had a pretty tough time since Tha Carter III came out. First the We Are Young Money came out, a collaboration album under Wayne’s supervision came out, and I think we all know how bad that album was, then Wayne attempted to do a rock album, Rebirth, and the results where laughable to say the least, then he went to prison, after that he released I Am Not a Human Being when he came out, which was a mediocre album at best. But now, he seems to be getting himself back together, he collaborated with Eminem, Tech N9ne, and some more respected artists in the rap game, but the real question is, can he regain what he had in Tha Carter III, can he improve it? Or will he let me down like what he does most of the time?
Let’s take a little look back at Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter albums. Wayne released his first Tha Carter album in 2004, which was honestly a mediocre album to say the least, but Wayne’s best album at the time, his second carter album, Tha Carter II came out in 2006, and it was pretty much the same as the first Carter album, but with very minor improvements, but it also sounded like every other album in Wayne’s career, then two years later, in 2008, Wayne managed to actually do something different, he made Tha Carter III, and in that album he tried a lot of different stuff, he did deeper tracks, more meaningful tracks, and generally some really different tracks than what we are used to him doing, it really gave him a lot of potential. So let’s see how will he do with the fourth installment to his Tha Carter series, with the fact that he is now sober, and he has a bigger crew with him, can he do it? Can he make the best album of his career? Or will he fall flat like in his last two albums?
Tha Carter IV was mainly an album that went through Wayne’s success since Tha Carter III, so most of the album just talks about how successful he was becoming, how successful his label Young Money was getting, and on how his skills in general as a rapper and an artists expanded and grew into something much bigger then what I think anyone expected. The concept was a bit of a letdown, because Lil Wayne went through a lot more in the last few years, and to be honest, I expected a much deeper and realistic concept than success and money.
As I mentioned, Lil Wayne had some tracks here where he just talked about mostly his success and how he and Young Money expanded financially and commercial. One of the most notable tracks that followed that concept was “Blunt Blowin’ which was a track with a few bad punch lines here and there, but at the same time it wasn’t a terrible song, mainly because of Wayne’s flow, he flowed perfectly with the beat, and honestly that made a huge difference for the track. “Megaman” basically talked about getting money, it was a poor track due to it’s many bad punclines. “6 Foot 7” was a so-called sequel to 2008’s hit “A Milli”, it mainly was Wayne just bragging about his success and on how successful he is in a very random manner, and as a result, the track tried too hard to sound like A Milli. Making it a poor track at best. “John” was another track about success, it was Wayne and Ross bragging that they can get anything, and that they make a lot of money because of there music, so people will remember them ‘like John Lennon’, it was one of the worst on the album in my opinion, mainly because I felt like it tried too hard to have a Gangster rap feel, and “Abortion” was another track on success, it was mainly about how he got up to the point where he is right now, and as a result, it was a mixed track, it had a great rock-influenced beat, a lot of great lines, but the only issue is that the name has very little to do with the song itself.
What’s funny on the album is that some of the album’s best tracks did not feature Lil Wane. “Interlude” was a long awaited track with Tech N9ne, as usual Tech kills it, and the surprise guest, Andre 3000 did his usual job, which is easily killing the beat. The album’s Outro was another great track did surprisingly did not feature Wayne, however, it featured Busta Rhymes, who did a great job as usual, NAS who rapped one of his best verses in a long time, and Shyne, who honestly had a very forgettable and a really bad verse with a voice that sounded like an old man with his tong out who lost his breath, and is a reason why the song is really not one of the best on the album.
The album did have some emotional tracks though, even through all that talk about money and fame. “Mirror” was a more emotional track which featured Bruno Mars, it was about Wayne talking to himself on the mirror and talking about his problems, and as a result it was a really deep track and one of the best on the album. “So Special” was a more emotional styled love song which featured John Legend, it featured a lot of bad punclines, however, it’s slow production and strong hook saved it from being a disaster.
Aside from showing that he was vestal when working with other rappers, he also showed that he can expand his own skills by himself, or people who are already close to him. “How To Love” was a more soulful track, about girls who work as strippers or prostitutes and how they don’t know how to love no matter how hard they try, the track wasn’t near being the best on the album, but it did show a lot of expansion due to Wayne actually singing and not using Autotune, he didn’t have that much of a great voice, but it wasn’t a terrible song though. “She Will” was another track that shows expansion, while being flawed; it featured slower rapping and good rhymes, however, the hook was boring and the punchlines where poor. “How To Hate” a really poor attempt at making a hate track towards a girl, Wayne and his old friend T-Pain tried going for T-Pain’s R’n’B style, and as a result, it was a flat out Autotune filled emotionless mess, and “Nightmare From The Bottom” was a really good track, it had a ‘positive vibe but negative concept’ type of feel, it was a track where he talked about from being at the top then falling all the way to the bottom, the song was also a metaphor, what he means from ‘the bottom’ here is hell, so basically what he was saying on this song that he felt like he had a nightmare form hell during that rough period, and as a result the track was really a stand out for the album, but not the best Wayne song to come out.
Tha Carter IV was a letdown. In this album, Wayne continued what he has been doing since Rebirth, which is making more bad music, Tha Carter IV was probably the best album to come out since Rebirth though, the album’s flow was listenable and it actually had a concept, however, lyrically, the album was terrible, Tha Cater IV suffered from bad punchline after bad punchline, the album was just a showcase of poor punchlines and ironically the album’s best track did not even feature Wayne. I think Lil Wayne should stick to Tha Carter III’s style instead of exploring, I mean, Tha Carter IV had it’s moments, but overall it’s an album to forget.
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