NFL
By Rick O’Donnell
Lil Wayne is considered one of the best rappers of all time. He’s been a staple in the hip-hop community since fans heard him on Juvenile’s Back That Azz Up and popped off his own solo album, The Block Is Hot. His career would catapult him into the GOAT conversation in a lot of people’s minds. So when people heard he had a new album about to drop, the hype became real.
Unfortunately, The Carter Vi isn’t living up to the hype. The problem with the album is simple. The majority of the appeal to a Wayne album is he makes it seem effortless. Unfortunately, this isn’t the same “effortless” we’re used to getting. The album felt rushed and incomplete. It’s almost as if they set out a due date they couldn’t reach and stuck to their deadline full steam ahead.
The tracks almost seem as if he’s rapping over someone else’s album. Either that or it feels as if he was attempting to put together a soundtrack that went with the tone of a movie, but neither exactly are up to par with his usual flow. Certain songs that did have momentum seemed to end abruptly leaving me thinking “oh, guess the song is over”. I think the hardest part about the album isn’t that it’s “bad” it just wasn’t the same quality most are used to getting when Lil Wayne puts out a “”Carter” album.
The Carter VI made me glad it came out in days when you can pay for a music subscription to hear a whole album and not pay the $16.99 at Media Play like we used to. I expected so much more out of this album and was excited to get off of work to hear it. Maybe that led to the disappointment, knowing what my expectations were going into it. Hopefully after sitting with it for a bit, I can go back and listen to it with a clear head and perspective and see the direction he was going for.
This isn’t a diss on Lil Wayne either, he’s definitely a great rapper. However, with the work he’s put out in the past, people expect more out of him. While it’s true he’s not as young as he once was, there are plenty of rappers from his era or before that are putting out quality tracks on par with what he’d put out. If I were him, I’d go out and drop a pt II that goes back to the lab, maybe throw on some key features, and do a few collab remixes. The album isn’t all bad, it just sounds like it needed more work.
