Review: Lil Wayne – “Tha Carter IV” (Deluxe Edition)

2011-08-29

17:33:42

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After numerous delays, the day is now here when the ninth studio album and the fourth chapter of Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter”-saga lands.

Let’s start at the end of this record, on track 15 with the Willy Will-produced ‘Outro’. After a great verse from Bun B, an okay one from Nas and one that’s absolutely HORRID from Shyne (seriously is he ill or something? He sounds like he could drop dead any second), Busta Rhymes wraps it all up with the following: “Tunechi, thanks for giving us a whole another classic with Tha Carter IV“. Well, Busta, I really don’t know about that.

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Well, “Tha Carter IV” is not a bad album. far from. It got great productions from everyone from T-Minus to Timbaland, Weezy’s lyrical game is as sharp as ever but the problem is that it feels a bit tired and forced from time to time. The tunes are great as singles but album = classic? No. “Tha Carter III” is a straight classic. This chapter feels a bit like one of those many movie follow ups with a slimmer budget. Sure, the album got many high peaks but Weezy is also out on some deep waters sometimes.

One of the peaks and one of best tracks is the Diplo-produced ‘Two Shots’ which is one of the four added bonus tracks on the deluxe edition:

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Another one is ‘Blunt Blowin’ produced by DVLP of RedOne Productions. ‘President Carter’ and ‘Megaman’, the production (which is of-course signed Megaman) is mental and it has sort of the same feel like when Weezy went on Doe Boyz-’Fireman’ on “Tha Carter II” six years ago:

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Somewhere in the middle lies tracks like ‘How to Hate’ which is produced by Nappy Boy’s Young Fyre and it’s the other part of the dichotomy that becomes one with the third single off the album: ‘How to Love’. T-Pain’s feature on ‘How to Hate’ is one hot mess on auto-tune and it becomes quite clear that dear old T-Pain suffers from the R. Kelly-complex. However, as a male version of Beyoncé’s ‘Best Thing I Never Had’ it’s a solid, nice witty track with punchlines hard as Chris Brown’s fists.

Let’s talk about the rest of the features then. While Tech N9ne shies on the ‘Interlude’ the rest sadly make the tracks bad. Besides Rick Ross’ gruesomely annoying fatso-breathing on ‘John’ and Shyne’s feature on ‘Outro’ are the ones by Jadakiss and Drake on the Cool & Dre-produced ‘It’s Good’ and the John Legend-featured ‘So Special’ very disappointing. Even if Weezy’s shots aimed for Jay-Z on ‘It’s Good’ are well put the features that sounded so good on paper sadly doesn’t translate well into reality. The Bruno Mars-assited ‘Mirror’ is so emo it’s sad, wish it was just the instrumental signed Reo of the Soundkillers. And yes, while I’m on topic I have to address this, on the whole album of 19 tracks (bonus-tracks included), there’s not a single woman to be found. Hey Weezy, where’s Shanell? Nicki Minaj? I mean, not to feature one single female, not even the ones from your own label, what the fuck is up with that?

So in conclusion, “Tha Carter IV” is a bit uneven with great singles like ’6 Foot 7 Foot’ ft. Cory Gunz, ‘She Will’ ft. Drake but in comparison with “Tha Carter III” it’s not a masterpiece nor a classic. Instead it’s an album that is solid and it lives up to the expectations even if it doesn’t impress much. I miss the Swizz Beatz-produced ‘Dear Anne’ that got scraped. I rather would have had an old track like that on instead of a bunch of tunes that are so-so.

Lil Wayne may claim the greatest rapper title to his left and right all he like, however, “Tha Carter IV” is not the album of the greatest rapper alive.

——————————————————————————————————Release Notes—–
Artist: Lil Wayne Title: “Tha Carter IV“	Label: YM/CM/Universal: 29/8-11
Grade: ❤ ❤ ❤ X X	Buy: Listen:
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