Send "Lil Wayne " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 A lot of rappers show a lot of love for Lil Wayne on his new album. "Thanks for giving us a whole 'nother classic with Tha Carter IV," huffs Busta Rhymes. "It's important that you are more than welcome to Tha Carter IV, and y'all enjoy it," advises André 3000. "Cash Money is the company and Weezy the boss," reiterates Wayne's fellow ex-con Shyne. And it's Drake who provides the record's most impassioned verse about his mentor's 2010 prison stint for criminal gun possession: "Rikers Island on this flow, eight months for that pistol/ But at least they had some bad bitches workin' in that shit hole." The man born Dwayne Carter never needed to be propped up like this before. During his Untouchable Era-- from the December 2005 release of Tha Carter II through 2008's Tha Carter III, with several classic mixtapes in between-- Wayne was The Best Rapper Alive because he said he was, and then rhymed his brain off to prove it. He doesn't claim that world-beating title once on Tha Carter IV. And no one else claims it for him.We accepted last year's duo of disappointments-- the aggravated rock turn Rebirth and the unfocused stop-gap collection I Am Not a Human Being-- because they were mere anomalies or appetizers. This summer's Sorry 4 the Wait mixtape was passable, but slight compared to previous off-label bounties like Dedication 2,Da Drought 3, or No Ceilings. So while there hasn't been much recorded evidence to support Wayne's hip-hop supremacy over the last three years, Tha Carter IV was always going to be the true test. As such, it's the rapper's most unfulfilling and worrisome move in a long while....full text |
| Xxlmag |
| Three years. That’s how long it’s been since Lil Wayne first mentioned plans to release Tha Carter IV, the follow-up to 2008’s best-selling Tha Carter III. But a name-drop didn’t mean an album drop, and so IV bookends a slew of specialized releases: 2009’s clique showcase We Are Young Money, 2010’s experimental-rock release Rebirth and EP-style I Am Not a Human Being. Sprinkle in a few mixtapes (Dedication 3, No Ceilings and Sorry 4 the Wait), and there have been plenty of raps but, until now, nothing to properly follow up the album that launched Lil Tunechi into superstar status. The “Intro” is an indication of what’s to come, a stream-of-consciousness flow over a cartoonish-sounding production. Birdman Jr. follows with “Blunt Blowin,” a dynamic lyrical labor where, backed by an update of 1980s dance-pop synths, he spits innovative lines: “Times have changed, but fuck it, get a new watch/I still got the vision like a line between two dots.” The project doesn’t deviate from Mixtape Weezy until the fifth track, “Nightmares of the Bottom,” a melodic change in energy. This flows seamlessly into Tha Carter IV’s fourth and highest-charting single, the ominous, Drake-assisted standout “She Will,” marked by drawn-out, accentuated strings. An “Interlude,” featuring Tech N9ne and Andre 3000, comes halfway through, and the unexpected Bun B, Nas, Shyne and Busta Rhymes–helmed “Outro” eventually brings the curtains to a close. Weezy appears on neither of these, but, with the same beat as “Intro,” they’re like one set—when the three cuts are merged together, they form one of the strongest posse cuts in years; when taken separately, as they appear, the songs inventively stage the album....full text |
| Hiphopdx |
| Depending on how you want to gauge it, we’re witnessing the fourth incarnation of Lil Wayne. First there was the borderline kiddie-rapper. Then there was the circa 2005 version, who made many listeners begrudgingly admit that Wayne suddenly started rhyming his ass off. And of course, there was superstar Weezy—endorser of Auto-tune, impregnator of Pop culture vixens and a man prone to the occasional drug-addled haze, a faux Rock album, and still rhyming his ass off if he felt like it. Through each version, even Lil Wayne’s detractors have secretly hoped for that complete, signature album where he reconciled the superior lyrical abilities found on his earlier mixtapes with the chart success he’s found on his last few solo outings. Unfortunately, Tha Carter IV is not that album. The fact that most of us have spent a week debating what the fallout will be from Wayne’s Jay-Z diss on “It’s Good” instead of the album's wins was probably a bad omen. None of this is to say Wayne’s most recent offering in the “Carter” series won’t wind up as the country’s number one album, and potentially spawn a handful of hit singles. If some of Wayne’s peers had made this album, they’d be looking at their creative high water mark. But after lyrically standing toe-to-toe with the likes of Andre 3000, Jay-Z and demolishing other artist’s best singles via his mixtapes, the stakes and expectations have been raised for Wayne. This time around, he occasionally pushes the envelope with “How To Hate” and the Bruno Mars assisted “Mirror.” The latter is a concept track—a rarity from Wayne these days—and the former finds the Weezy and T-Pain duo flipping the script and lamenting over women that have done them wrong. That’s not to say some of these conceptual risks don’t fall flat on their face. The incredibly popular yet atrocious “How To Love,” finds Wayne exploring one of the few genres he hasn’t tried to crossover into yet—acoustic soul. He’s surprisingly on key as a vocalist, successfully ditching the Auto-tune crutch he used on “Lollipop.” But the Kenny Chesney vibe and corny concept of reforming one of the chicks he just asked to “jump up on that dick and do a full split” a few songs before rings hollow. If you’re not a die-hard Weezy fan, you may constantly find yourself trying to reconcile that opinion with the fact that “How To Love” is the eighth most popular song in the country. Drake and Wayne confirm that they do indeed have enough chemistry to pull off a joint album with “She Will,” but they both revisit old territory as opposed to taking any risks or offering any substance. Weezy recycles his metaphor about life and/or karma being some type of female twice within the opening 45 seconds; then he makes one of his many references to cunilingus, all while continually patting himself on the back for pedestrian bars and punchlines....full text |
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