Click here to view all of Benz0's reviews

Lil Wayne: THE CARTER II

“Radio stations stop being rapper racist and region haters…...This is Southern face it, If we are too simple then y’all don’t get the basics…” - Lil Wayne, “Shooters”.

Ever since Poison Clan and The Ghetto Boys dropped their fist albums, the South began its long climb towards hiphop respectability. Fast forward 15 years later and now the South is darn near the top region making hiphop thanks in part to super groups like Outkast, super soloists like Ludacris and the emergence of Louisiana super crews like the Cash Money Records crew. So it’s fitting that Lil Wayne now continues the legacy of the Cash Money Records and the South by representing a new breed of Southern lyrical assassins that take their craft VERY seriously. When Lil Wayne dropped THE CARTER he served notice to the world that he was here to stay and not just some cute sidekick from the Hot Boys. Now he’s dropped THE CARTER II and it signifies him throwing his hat into the ring as one of the top contenders to the rap throne. He’s cut his Mannie Fresh umbilical cord and ventured out on his own conceptually and lyrically.

On this album there are no Mannie Fresh tracks to brace any potential lyrical failures. So now it’s sink or swim on Lil Wayne’s own lyrical strength and he’s easily backstroking the competition with this newest release. A lot of times precocious teenage stars flame out after their initial success but Lil Wayne has stayed focus and patient and carefully honed his skills to such heights that he’s now easily the best rapper to ever be signed to Cash Money Records. He’s established his own identity and now he’s so good lyrically that he literally seems to be skating over tracks now leaving skid marks. This past weekend at the All Star Game festivities me and my boy Toine were rocking this Carter II album incessantly down in Houston.

Then the chics we were scooping up in the Hum V knew every lyric to the album as well. Only other CD that got as much play that weekend was that Get Rich Or Die Trying Soundtrack. But it's moments like those that let you know how tight an album is. Let’s break down this milestone album by Lil Wayne and see how he’s grown to be one of the “best rappers alive”.

Last album Lil Wayne smartly copied the typical layout of a Jay-Z album by having an intro and outro featuring potent lyrical freestyles that nicely sandwiched a slew of hits in the middle. This time around the album layout is no different as Lil Wayne continues to take us on a journey through the mind of Mr. Carter (His last name is Carter) and starts and ends the album with hard hitting freestyles.

Starting the slew of hits in the middle of the album is his lead single “Fireman” which is a cleverly crafted club banger featuring a fanatical siren sound that weaves in and out of the song as the intensity escalates. It’s this song where we see how easily Lil Wayne now skates through a track wearing “no shirt, tattoos, and a couple of war wounds.”

Peep the brilliant lyrics from this song: “You catch my girl’s legs open you better smash that, don’t be surprised if she asks where the cash at…I see she wearing those jeans that show her bu&& crack, My girls can’t wear that..why?..That’s where my stash at...Been handling the game so long my thumb’s bruised, your new girlfriend is old news..You ain’t got enough green and she’s so blue..”. Equally impressive on another level is the silky smooth “Lock and Load” featuring Kurupt. The chorus carries the song as it’s sung at low slow pitch that compliments the easy flowing track.

The backbone of the album however are the hard hitting no-nonsense tracks in which Lil Wayne sets out to destroy the competition with lyrical assault after lyrical assault. Those songs include “Fly In”, “Money on the Mind”, “Greatest Rapper Alive’, “Oh No”, “Hit Em Up”, “Weezy Baby”and “Carter II”. Carter II has perhaps the best lyrics as Wayne spits “Photo phobia, No Kodak moments, Fed walls with my picture on them, I ain’t even in my high school yearbook, I don’t do too much posing, got a cool killer look, career crook, get your career took, I’m back like a brazier hook”.

After you calm down from the hard hitting street songs though we are treated to some songs that show off the musical maturity of Lil Wayne as he spits lyrics to a hiphop reggae track in “Mo Fire” that sneakily is one of the best songs on the album. Then we have the powerful “Hustler Musik” that is carried by a soulful chorus featuring the following words: “Baby you gotta know that I’m just here doing what I gotta do for me and you and we eating, so b&&&& why the &^%$ are you trippin, I’m taking chances, my head to the sky, my feet on the ground, my fingers to the judge, if the money don’t move then I won’t budge…”. But the grand finale of the album that makes this one special is Lil Wayne’s ode to his dad.

He usually dedicates a song to his deceased father but this one is especially sincere as he spits “Standing on stage in front of thousands don’t amount to not having my father..Straight Patron out the bottle to my head, my ni&&a dead now and all the things I never said I gotta say it now, I should have said it then, now I gotta talk to clouds…Trust me you’re beautiful dead, we living with the ugly, I just tell my pops wait for me I’m coming..”. Whoa. Powerful stuff there! Read that again if you don’t feel them words yet!

Now this album does include 2 songs for the ladies and the R&B thugs but thankfully they aren’t that cheesy and I can actually tolerate them as the lyrics in the songs are on point. Not much filler material on here either but the skits are pretty stupid. Overall I am very impressed with the album and there is enough creativity, tight lyrics, and great musical production to push this album into the MUST HAVE category. Yes that’s what I said. I feel this album is a MUST HAVE.

You got your club bangers on here, your straight traditional lyrical hiphop songs, your powerful reflective songs and your creative musically diverse songs on here as well. Scoop the album y’all and get reacquainted to the New South. Welcome to THE CARTER II and enter at will. (Special shout out to my man Princeton Nash in Augusta, GA for hipping me to how tight The Carter II was!!..One time for Augusta, GA!! and shout outs to my alma mater A.R. Johnson High School!!!..).

Benz0
Contact Benz0: BenzWritings@Hotmail.com