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Speech Is My Hammer...

Viewing Posts Tagged "Lil Wayne" View All

Lil Wayne Is Who We Thought He Was! (c) Dennis Greene

May 31, 2008 | Tags: Lil Wayne, Tha Carter 3

Finally, the highest anticipated album of the year is on the streets. And guess what? It’s exactly what I thought it’d be: a dope, 4-star album, but certainly not the five-mic classic that merits “Best Rapper Alive” accolades. I think I adequately covered my theory on the homie in my first Lil Wayne Blog, but I’ve still got some messages for both the stans and the haters of Weezy.
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Stans:
Hopefully, this shows you that your savior is mortal. Everything that you love about Weezy F. is on full display here: that unmistakable voice, the nimble delivery, swag in spades, the comical punchlines, and the moments where he goes the fuck in and murders concepts. The problem is, when given the golden stage—press everywhere from XXL to GQ, a street buzz not even closely paralleled by any of his peers, cosigns by every rapper that matters, and production from the game’s premier knob twisters—he still couldn’t make a classic LP. EDIT: I know, it's still a "classic" due to it being the "album of the summer" and all that, but he failed to make an album whose actual quality matches up to the hype. To his credit, he’s still put together a dope album, and there are definitely some potentially classic songs here. But he’s got duds, filler and formulaic T-Pain songs just like anybody else does. It’s possible that homie’s prolific output has finally caught up with him: substituting “La La,” “Got Money,” “Playin’ With Fire,” and maybe even “Nothin On Me” [1] with highlights from his torrent of mixtapes may have pushed Tha Carter III over the hump.

Haters:
Go ahead and say he’s overrated, because he is. But like I said in my last blog, Lil Wayne’s hyperbole is something that’s understandable because of all of the other elements he brings. And if Tha Carter III does anything, it’s establish the dude as a bonafide talent. Even though he doesn’t make the classic that your stannish enemies thought he would, as I said in the last segment, he’s still put together some fantastic records here: “Dr. Carter” sent chills up my spine with the way he meshed conceptual originality with the style and aesthetic that he’s trademarked, and I’ve continuously maintained that “Comfortable” would’ve been a better single choice than “Lollipop.” He knows how epic “Mr. Carter” is and he shows it by going bar for bar with almighty Hov [2], and “Tie My Hands Down” is a passionate, well-constructed record that you’d be hard-pressed to justifiably hate on. And if you weren’t so busy scrutinizing his lyrics, you’d realize how potent the "style over substance" approach can be while listening to “Let The Beat Build.” Most of you (haters) that I spoke to about the songs they’ve heard have said something to the extent of, “Wow, this isn’t even half bad!” I agree.

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[1] Maybe it’s just me, but I thought was this joint with Juelz and Fabolous the album’s most disappointing song? Considering the previous collaborations between duos of them (Cassidy’s “6 Minutes of Death,” Juelz’ “Make It Work For Ya”), this was really forgettable. And one of Alchemist’s more disappointing beats in a while. Wasn’t a terrible song, but disappointing.
[2] Until Wayne’s last verse, that is. But hey: Lebron’s still a legend for this year’s Game 7 faceoff with Paul Pierce even though the Celtics took it, right?

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

Speech Is My Hammer: TransDX Express Edition

April 03, 2008 | Tags: The Roots, 50 cent, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Guilty Simpson, Black Milk, Elzhi, jay electronica, Michigan

What’s good people?

With the homie Shake hyperlinking me from his side hustle, I figure I should at least give y’all an update today. Just because I haven’t been posting for the past few weeks, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been paying attention. So here are my condensed thoughts on a few things that have happened since my last post. Look at it as a “Several blogs for the price of one” type deal. And I purposely avoided the topic of everybody in hip-hop going to prison; shit really gets me down.

The Roots:
This Roots’ song with Patrick Stump joint wasn’t as bad as some of my homies have said it was, because Black Thought still ripped, and with an album that’s obviously going to be album of the year (or at least Top 5) with songs that have leaked - “75 Bars (Black’s Reconstruction),” “Get Busy" (feat. Dice Raw, Peedi Crakk and DJ Jazzy Jeff) and the title track with Mos Def and Styles P - one commercial pander isn’t bad. Just as a point of comparison, every dope Eminem album had at least one mainstream blunder, but the rest of the disc was always high quality hip-hop. That said, I’m not mad at them axing “Birthday Girl” from the final cut and making it an iTunes-only selection, and this “Rising Up” joint with Wale and Chrissette Michele (which they’re apparently using as the single, now?) is perfection. See Jay's post for more, I agree with what he said (which makes sense, 'cause he has the only opinion that matters anyway).

50 Cent/G-Unit:
I really respect the fact that G-Unit’s flooding the market with mixtapes again. Even though 500,000 in the first week isn’t something to balk at, I’m glad to see that 50’s not complacent: Return of the Bodysnatchers v1 and Elephant In The Sand were both fire, and the G-Unit: Gangsta Grillz Edition with DJ Drama is sure to continue the winning streak. Fif’s mixtape game—especially last year’s G-Unit Radio 25: Sabrina’s Baby Boy—has always been on point. BTW, “The Mechanic” > The Massacre + Curtis. But get shit right with Buck, man; he's the best artist y'all have right now.

E-Beef/Blogging:
Like the homie Meka said, this ATL blogger beef shit is pretty disappointing. We’ve had our share of disagreements, but that resulted in biting accusations, name-calling and old-fashioned roasting. But gay rumors? Word? I’m not going to scold the two in question, both because it’s not my place and I don’t know what fueled it, but I’d encourage both parties to just settle their issues (sort of like me and the aforementioned Soul Brotha have) and keep on keeping on.

Speaking of blogging, I’m going to get my plug on real quick: fellow DX bloggers, go over and join TheUrbanBlogger. My homie Necole Bitchie, who’s site was recently pegged in two Top 40 lists of urban blogs on the Net, started the site as a networking opportunity for black bloggers. I love the idea, and I might even join the squad soon, but I wanted to big up the idea first.

Weezy:
I’m as much of a Lil Wayne supporter as the next man, but homie’s fuckin’ up. He's got what's possibly the most disappointing single I’ve heard in a minute (why not use "Comfortable," featuring Babyface and prod. by Kanye West?) and this Drought Is Over 5 was equally underwhelming. I’m seeing dude live this Sunday though (and Common on Thursday, great week for me), so we’ll see if I change my mind. Shout out to his latest artist, Nicki Minaj (link not safe for work, BTW) Either way, The Wam > "Lollipop."

Jay Electronica:
What do you guys think of Jay Electronica? This kid’s Internet buzz has been incredible with cosigns from the likes of Just Blaze and label head/alleged wifey Erykah Badu, and while I like what I’ve heard, I’m not ready to crown him as “The Next” and shit. Maybe I need to give it another listen, cuz my man Alias is hailing him as that dude, and he hates on everyone. Act I was pretty crazy though, esp. the “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” shit. As for the much-chastized show with Erykah and Mos the other day, hopefully he just learns from it and moves on.

Hov:
Jay’s got a $150 million deal with Live Nation? Shit! If he’s not a hustla, what you call that?

The Mitten:
My state is taking over this hip-hop shit. Black Milk & Fat Ray’s The Set Up is one of my favorite albums of ’08 so far (see “Take Control” for all the evidence you need), and Guilty Simpson’s Ode To The Ghetto was every bit as dope as the hype around it implied. And the list of projects that are in the works is overwhelming, frankly: Elzhi’s solo is on the way, Slum Village’s next LP, Buff1’s next album, Invincible’s long-awaited LP, Royce’s solo projects, Random Axe (Guilty Simpson + Sean Price + Black Milk), Cold Steel (Elzhi + Phat Kat), the Royce + Elzhi + Black Milk album (they’ve even performed tracks together!). And Eminem’s working with Primo? And he’s cool with Royce again? And I’ve got my own site about Michigan hip-hop coming soon? Oh, wait…