Not since Busta Rhymes’ flurry of activity back in 2004 have we seen one artist make so many moves in such a small amount of time as Lil Wayne. Following the release of Tha Carter, Lil Wayne started his own crew Young Money, and then proceeded to appear on too many mixtapes and albums to count, including everyone from Avant to Chris Brown to OutKast to Cam’ron to DJ Khaled (and that’s just off the top of my head). He topped the platinum sales of Tha Carter with last year’s Tha Carter II, an album that helped further establish southern legitimacy in terms of lyricism, all the while repping for the embattled hurricane Katrina victims in his home state of Louisiana. Then there was/ is the ghostwriting feud with Gille The Kid, a slew of banishments from local venues and even rumors of romance between he and the Birdman, Sr.

So it was with cautious optimism that I got into Like Father, Like Son. If you heard Tha Carter II, then you encountered a Lil Wayne that was all about distinguishing himself from the legions of other southern rappers on the scene while simultaneously trying to elevate the status of his genre beyond trendy club dance-move tracks currently saturating radio airwaves from coast-to-coast.

Like Father, Like Son has neither of those heroic qualities. Although he’s billed second on the album he is clearly the featured persona, dominating virtually every track with talent, charisma and quips that are sure to entertain. I found it refreshing to hear Weezy return to the youthful, uninhibited improv-style of rhyming. His flow on this album is somewhere between freestyle and pre-fab, which lends an un-polished feel to it. This is a very good thing. Lil Wayne is at his raspy best when he sounds like he’s distracted in the booth, almost as if he doesn’t really need to try that hard. He excels by not taking himself too seriously. The focus is still there, however, and he dabbles in the content that made him a Cash Money Millionaire on tracks like “Get That Money” and “Over Here Hustlin’.”

There are tracks that you won’t miss; namely, “1st Key” and the title track. The former because it’s dumb and the latter because it borrows a little too heavily from other rapper’s rhymebooks: “Birthdays was the worst days/ now we sippin on Louie when we thirsty.” And both are perhaps a little too autobiographical, with Weezy laying on the I-owe-my-whole-life-to-the-Stunna perhaps a little too thick. “Don’t Die” is on life support: dismal at best, confused at worst. Wayne mentions his recent banishment from South-Beach hot spot Wet Willies in the hook, but I’m still not sure what Baby is talking about… mostly Phantoms, Maserati’s, G-4’s and the like. “Ain’t Worried Bout Shit” should have been titled “Ain’t Talking Bout Shit,” or at least “Ain’t Stressing Bout Shit (since that’s what Wayne actually says in the hook).” Similarly, “Out the Pound” recycles several tried and true Cash Money clichés: diamond in the back, shine in the summer, 20-inch rims…etc. Oh, and “Leather So Soft” is a lullaby. Continued on page 2 »