NR Essentials #23: Lil Wayne - Tha Carter II
 

 

Lil Wayne
Tha Carter II
2005, Cash Money Records

It's been no secret on this forum that I'm a giant Lil Wayne fan. But what may be lesser-revealed is that other than Outkast and the very occassional stray single, I was a complete hater of Southern Hip Hop for a long time. I just didn't get any of it. The beats sounded so cheap to me. The dialect and slang was so foreign to me. None of it made any sense to my ears, so I just shrugged it off. Stopped even paying attention.

After THA CARTER II was released there was a 2-year barrage of Lil Wayne mixtapes hitting almost weekly. It seemed like every magazine, blog, website, etc was giving the dude high praises. I couldn't comprehend that someone who's name began with "Lil" could be hip hop's great savior. And then a weird piece of serendipity happened: my wife bought Robin Thicke's 2nd album. She told me there was a song it I might like with a rapper. Guess who it was?

Nothing could have prepared me for "Shooter." It was loose and bouncey. It was playful and aggressive. It built up subtly until Lil Wayne let out a manifesto equivalent of HG Lewis' theme from 2000 Maniacs. "so many doubt cuz I come from the South but when I open up my mouth only bullets come out" is "the South will rise again."

the song was enough to convince me that maybe this Lil Wayne character really was worth paying attention to. I picked up THA CARTER II and was hooked Fast. Within months I tracked down the rest of his albums, as well as a pile of mixtapes, etc. But just as important, I became a full on convert to Southern Hip Hop in general. To this day the genre makes up the majority of my listening, and this album is almost exclusively responsible for that.

Opener "The Mob" is is a slow, bass-heavy 5-minute verse. Unbelievable every time I hear it. The three-parter "Fly In"/"Carter II"/"Fly Out" is just as sick with no choruses. There's the single "Fireman" with it's sirensynths, "Mo Fire" with it's reggae tinge, "D Boy" with Cash Money fam and digs at Jay-Z (presumably also apparent in "Best Rapper Alive"). There's money songs, sex songs, emotional songs... everything is here. It's a sprawling album that needs to be digested slowly. In parts. It's amazing. And needs to be in yr collection if you like hip hop. At all.

Should've done

Gucci Mane - Trap House

though TRAP HOUSE may be a great album, it had no effect on my own personal musical brain-growth. The Essentials series outlines albums that had some sort of profound effect on me personally, not in the history of music itself.

I think the Fly In/Carter II/Fly Out tracks are brilliant. As a whole, though, the album kinda wears me down, but it's not too bad, and your review is great.

thanks man.

Personally, the only track I don't like on it is "Grown Man." Everything else I think is fantastic. But like I said, the album grows on you in sections. When I first got it, I didn't like "Hustler Music" at all. But now it's one of my favorites on there for instance. You kind of tend to like certain clusters of songs, and then another cluster, and another... So great.

Also should note that DEDICATION 2 with DJ Drama is like NR Essentials #23.5 if you know what I mean. These are like sister albums. And its' an incredible mixtape. Basically the mixtape that I compare any other mixtape to. And both albums have great Chopped N Screwed versions as well.

(thanks to you mainly NR) I had exactly the same experience with this as the lighting bolt moment about non-Outkast Southern hip-hop. It was, likewise, Shooter as much as anything that really provided the click too. Stunningly good track. Also, responsible for probably my favourite ever hip-hop youtube live clip.

As an album, it's a really crazy stew, which is a large part of it's appeal. There's a run from Receipt through to pretty much the album that, as a whole, is one of most consistent (quality wise) yet shockingly schizo (style wise) runs on any rap album I can think of. Really mindblowing. Receipt is one of my favourite ever soul fueled hip-hop songs, Shooter is pure simmering funk goodness, I'm A DBoy, in the verses especially, bangs about as hard as anything I can think of... it goes on.

Speaking of a DBoy, I was once falling asleep in a lecture, and kept mistyping my notes. It got so bad that I accidentally pressed to play button on my Mac. Turns out that while running late for an earlier lecture, I'd shoved the laptop in my bag half way through the chorus of DBoy, which I'd been playing at top volume just to get me out of the door. Of course, it blazing out across the 200 person filled lecture hall, 'I'M A DBOY! BITCH I'M A DBOY! OH I'M A DOPE BOY!' before I could stop it, causing pretty much everyone to turn and look. This rendered me one crushingly embarrassed nerdy white guy, and is still a subject of jokes among my friends. Worth though, because DAMN, what a track!

'8 AM open my eyes
Yeah kick my bitch tell her open the blinds
And I'm, over the stove at 9
Yeah I'm cookin breakfast for the block then I let her cook mine'

As someone who hasn't really clicked with later Wayne yet, I often end up having non hip-hop, or certainly non mainstream hip-hop, fan friends really rag on me for liking Wayne, on the basis of like Prom Queen or some shit, and I'm just like 'No, you don't get! Tha Carter II man! Tha Carter II!!!'. Every time I've actually managed to break through their scepticism enough to play them like Shooter or Receipt though, I get the same reaction, which is like 'Damn, THIS is what Lil' Wayne used to sound like?!'.\

Classic, classic album. Thanks for the original recommendation.

I just can't tolerate Lil Wayne. I''m glad he's in jail, at least he won't be releasing any more music for a while.

1. whaaaaaaat?
2. I'm sure he's got a stack of mixapes recorded and ready to come out in the meantime.

Honestly, I have a feeling he'll release more music now.

^Redman.

I don't mind Lil Wayne, he has an awesome vocal style, but his music is a part of this new era of hip-hop/rap, the likes of Jay-Z etcetera etcetera.

I just typed this long ass response and am too stoned now to retype it. Fuck. I'll tell you tomorrow.

For now, great review, bro. Adam, you're right about Fly In/...

Sleep time.

I'm not trying to start anything but I can't stand Wayne. I just don't see it. His lyrics are weak and he barely has any flow. It seems like he just gets good producers and even then, none of his instrumentals seem all that good to me. He just seems like another 50 or jay z (new not old) to me.

incorrect.

Where's get the the Carter? From New Jack City? Great movie btw. Probably the best pit of acting both Cube and Judd Nelson have ever done. Of course though the movie is Wesley Snipes' show.....

"The World is Mine"

actually yes. I mean his last name is Carter. So there's that. But on THA CARTER (frist album) he describes "tha Carter" as a house/structure therefore certainly a reference to New Jack City.

All my buddies diss me for liking Lil Wayne but fuck 'em.

People tend to hear "Lolipop" or some stray guest verse and think they know what Wayne's about. Once you submerge yrself into his ridiculous body of work, yr part of the cult. You know something that outsiders don't.

Haha word, I think the amount of guest appearances on shitty rapper's songs that he's done has really damaged his cred as a "true rapper" but whatever, I don't care about the "trueness" of his cred... I like him and that's it.

Correct.

Although he did make me snicker once when he said "I have so many toilets...I can shit all day".

guy, you like ICP...

So do you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-0f2Ibf1KQ

How is that not a fresh rap track?

You guys are all just jealous of their brilliant entrepreneurship.

"A Milli" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTF6N7EWzOA

Young Money
Ya Dig

A millionaire, I'm a young money millionaire
Tougher than Nigerian hair
My criteria compared to your career this isn't fair
I'm a venereal disease like a menstrual bleed
Through the pencil and leak on the sheet of the tablet
In my mind 'cause I don't write shit, 'cause I ain't got time
'cause my seconds, minutes, hours go to the all mighty dollar
And the all mighty power of that ch, ch, ch, ch chopper
Sister, brother, son, daughter, father mothafuck a coppa
Got the Maserati dancin' on the bridge pussy poppin'
Tell the coppers hahahaha you can't catch 'em, you can't stop 'em
I go by them goon rules if you can't beat 'em then you pop 'em
You can't man 'em then you mop 'em,
You can't stand 'em then you drop 'em,
You pop 'em 'cause we pop 'em like Orville Redenbacher!!
Motherfucker I'm ill

A million here, a million there
Sicilian bitch with long hair
With coke in the derriere
Like smoking the thinest air
I open the Lamborghini hopin' them crackers see me
Like look at that bastard weezy
He's a beast, he's a dog, he's a motherfucking problem
OK, you're a goon but what's a goon to a goblin?
Nothing, nothing -- you ain't scarin' nothing
On some faggot bullshit call him Denise Rodman
Call me what you want bitch, call me on my sidekick
Never answer when it's private, damn I hate a shy bitch
Don't you hate a shy bitch?
Yeah I ate a shy bitch
She ain't shy no more, she changed her name to me bitch
hahahaha, yeah, nigga that's my bitch
So when she ask for the money, when you through don't be surprised bitch
It ain't trickin' if you got it
But you like a bitch with no ass, you ain't go shit
Motherfucker I'm ill, not sick
And I'm OK but my watch sick, yeah my drop sick, yeah my glock sick and my knot thick
IM It!
Motherfucker I'm Ill!

Yeah
See..
They say I'm rapping like Big, Jay and Tupac, Andre 3000 where is Erykah Baduh at? Who that?
Who that say they're gonna beat Lil' Wayne
My name ain't BIC, but I keep that flame man
Who that one that do that boy?
You all knew that
True that swallow
And I be the shit now you got loose bowels
I don't owe you like two vowels
But I would like for you to pay me by the hour
Ha ha, and I'd rather be pushing flowers
Than to be in the penn sharing showers
Ha, Tony told us this world was ours
and the Bible told us every girl was sour
don't play in the garden and don't smell her flower
call me Mr. Carter or Mr. Lawn Mower
boy I got so many bitches like I'm Michael Lowry
even Gwen Stefani said she couldn't doubt me
Motherfucker I say life ain't shit without me
Chrome lips poking out the coup look like it's pouting
I do what I do and you do what you can do about it Bitch
I could turn a crack rock into a mountain, dare me
Don't you compare me 'cause there ain't nobody near me
They don't see me, but they hear me
They don't feel me, but they fear me.
I'm illie
C3
3P
Hahahaha

VS.

"Posse On Vernor" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTrQqex3YHEInsane

Insane Clown Posse!
ICP! about to take you way back! way back that is, to Vernor!

Posse, Yeah!
Me and Shaggy 2 Dope in the home away from home
In the black bucket hearse with the rusty grill a chrome
Pickin up the homies, we get em one by one
If you aint psychopathic ryda boy you cannot come (bump)
Everybody's lookin if you jealous turn around
Fuckin with them levers got us hoppin off the ground {*Honk*}
We getting good grip from the 50 series tires
The alpine's bumpin but I need the volume higher
Cuz the 808 kick drum make you wanna get some
I got a scrotum full a balls I'll let your girlie lick them
Every time we rollin Twiztid's gotta roll a joint
I almost died from inhalation comin back from Cedar Point
Hookers and zombies in every direction
Lookin for the things wavin for some action
The wagons kinda crowded though
tha whole car was leaning back
Jamie tryin to keep it steady with the greeny on his lap
Rude Boy wasn't lookin, we hit a crack head
Flippin off the windshield, the motherfucker's dead
Zombie cut in half, no kind of regret
Insane Clown Posse rippin up shit
Woo! Woo!

17 Psychopathic Sodiers Roll
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (Yeah, come on)
Down riverside that's how we ryde
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (ICP!)

Runnin down baseheads seven more scored
Half an hour later we was getting kinda bored
Jump Steady's dangerous, Dougy is 4 Rilla
My homie Shaggy 2 Dope is the bitch hater killa
Billy's on the left side causing helly greif
Leavin haters bleeding crawlin pickin up they teeth
Tom Dub is the skinny guy
People think he's funny
But he be leaving out at night and coming back bloody
Cruisin Delray boy these streets is cold
Cigarette lighter broken window stuck unrolled
Rippin Michigan we saw nothing but thugs
Mean muggin hoes shoppin distributin drugs
Hittin 3 and 7 and that ass just dropped *Honk*
Squeakin and we sparking
But the wagon don't stop
Michigan and Livernois
Rudy broke left, Jamie shot a vernor
It's time to get wrecked
Junky on the corner, needle bout to shoot
With a rebel flag and some cowboy boots
The closer that we get, the clearer it became
It was Kid Rock yellin "What's my Name!?"

Zug Island Toxic Sludge Warrior
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (Yeah, Come on)
?? back down to Southwest
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (What you got?)

Now cruisin down Vernor
My wheels spin slow
Runnin with the hatchet is the only way to go
Some girlies by the Carnival was lookin for a ride
We tried to pick em up
But we had no room inside
We put em in the trunk, we put em on the hood
Some sat up with the Rude Boy and puffed on his wood
Our crew is gettin bigger, and there's way to many freaks
The muffler's draggin and the tailpipes squeak
Now these hoes are gettin hungry
Monoxide's treatin
We stopped at Xochimilco's for some mexican eatin
The restruant was closed, this ho was like "Damn it."
She said "Go back the other way we'll stop and eat at Seven."
Now seven's the place, it's a little run down
But they got the best Chilly Cheesy in town
Faygo on tap, any kind you choose
After midnight though the place is bad news
Alex dropped a twenty and didn't even miss it
This ho from another crew she picked it up and kissed it
Her boyfriend's trippin and jumpin on her case
My homie Billy Bill had to bust him in the face
We never like a punk, who beats on his girl
If ya don't have a game, then let her leave your world
Ain't nothin to discuss, the bitch left with us
She fucked everybody now I hard she lives with Russ
Now I'm runnin with a hatchet, and you walkin with some dudes
The Psychopathic Family is givin you the blues
Hate us all you want, cuz we don't get upset
Insane Clown Posse, bitch represent! (Come On)

Psychopathic holdin it down for Southwest
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (Yeah! Whut!)
Dumpin dead bodies behind the Del Ray Café
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (Southwest buddy!)
Fuckin bitches on the grass on in Paton Park
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (ICP!)
Forks up, forks down, forks all the way around
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (Yeah! Come on!)
Killas, stalkers, outline body chalks
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!)
.. Turn you right back right around
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (Wicked Clowns!)
titty bars and grippin cars
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (Yeah! Come on!)
Inner City Posse's still alive, bitch!
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (Southwest! Southwest!)
Home of the original wicked clown
THE POSSE'S ON VERNOR! (Southwest! Southwest!)
Hanging out the window flashing ??
ICP p p p


Is there really THAT MUCH of a difference in skill?

Lil Wayne just annoys the hell out of me (just like ICP annoys most of you). He could get shanked in the gut, and die tomorrow and I couldn't care less.

I was gonna mention how he could diss Weezy but praise ICP all the same. Find that sort of weird... may I remind everyone...

FUCKIN' MAGNETS, HOW DO THEY WORK?
magic all up in this bitch

And that Weezy track has a lot of literary value actually... I don't see that really in that ICP song you posted

Yeah, I never said I liked any of their new shit. "Miracles" fucking sucks.

What is Weezy F. Baby's literary value?

Dude he's totally up there with Hemmingway and Kafka, THINK ABOUT IT.

I'm not saying Miracles doesn't 'suck' (though I'd not use that term). But seriously, in terms of quite how astonishingly bad it is, I'm amazed. It's not 'so bad it's good' - it really is amazingly shit. It's not irritatingly bad (or, at least, I stopped getting annoyed by that sort of thing ages ago). It's phenomenally, world-beatingly bad.

What I'm saying, essentially, is that it's quite fascinating how most 'bad' music is bad because it's boring, or uninventive or something. Whereas that ICP song really is phenomenal in how bad it is. I'm actually at a bit of a loss as to how to describe quite how awful it is.

For those who haven't heard it, it's here. I particularly like the moment of 'what's my most profound face?' at 1:28. The worst line in the song is from 1:51-2:00.

I don't really have an opinion either way on ICP vs Wheezy. Both sort of exist in a world that is quite alien to me. But by God, it's quite a feat of awfulness, that Miracles song.

Glice, that was the post of the year.

Dr. Eugene, I brought ICP into this because you were voicing an opinion of Lil Wayne's lyrics and flow. ICP lyrics are generally South Park shock value shit. And their flow is usually just yelling. So... I mean I find them amusing. But I don't think it's especially good.

I always think it's a bit odd how people slag off ICP. I don't like them - but they're not really aimed at people like me. I happen to quite like Current 93, and you should hear the reaction that got from my Mum (she didn't stop laughing for about 30 minutes, I thought she was going to have a cardiac arrest). She did a similar thing when she heard White Stripes - after laughing hysterically, she said, "People don't really take this seriously, do they?"

My Mum's great, by the way. But yeah, the point is that something like ICP is so very, very obviously aimed at an incredibly specific group of people (to whom I can't relate, apart from being from shitty backgrounds in the fuckarse of nowhere) that it just seems like shooting fish in a barrel. Mike Patton, meanwhile, is from a whole different order of utter shitness, much more volatile in its artless wankery.

Dr. Eugene, although it's not the impression you might get from my previous post in this thread, I used to fucking HATE Weezy. As in I regular said he had no flow, was a terrible lyricist, had shitty beats, ETC, and no matter how much urging I got, or how much I tried to listen to his shit, he just didn't click with me at all. A total figure of all that was wrong with hip-hop these days. This on the basis of, say, Lolipop. But then I heard Tha Carter II, and DAMN. I mean I still don't like his new/famous stuff that much, but this album has game.

Do yourself a favour and go away and listen to it a couple of times. Or even just, say, Receipt, if you're really not up for putting much time in, and if you still don't dig him at all, then fine, it's just a taste thing I guess. But I sure felt like an idiot after all of my past dissing of him after I really put the effort in with this one...

Earl that's how I was... but now I'm obsessed with everything he puts out. I'm the only dude in the world who listens to REBIRTH consistently. I love it all.

I got into it at a different time than you too, though. I was familiar enough with his earlier albums and mixtapes and shit by the time CARTER III Came out that I actually have a real special bond with that one too. GOing to the store that day and seeing the chaos and ppl moving from store to store with me in search of the bonus disc deluxe edition at 11AM becuz it was already sold out everywhere. That shit doesn't happen these days anymore. So it was an amzing experience. ANd the album has that feeling all over it. A certain air of acheivement.

But yeah his later work might now be for all. In fact he has 3 disctinct era's: EARLY DIRTY SOUTH --> UNDAGROUND LEGEND --> MOST POPULAR MF IN THE WORLD.,

Have you listened to the Young Money album yet? It's really, really fucking good. Weezy, Drake and Nikki Minaj is really an impressive team. I mean think about MOST crews in hip hop now. It's one good dude carrying a bunch of nobobies most of the time. At least YM has those 3 that are consistently interesting and say shit that makes me say "whaaaat?"

I haven't heard Young Money. Or indeed, any Wayne album outside of this one really, beyond a track or two. My buying/listening range has plummeted since going to uni, which is pretty much exactly when I started to get into Southern hip-hop...

oh word. WELL tell me you downloaded DEDICATION 2 at least????? PLEASE! OMG, it's so tied with this album as my favorite Lil Wayne release. Seriously. It's the DEFINITIVE Southern Mixtape. I love it so much.

I did not. I will do so in the near future though. Got 4 days of holiday left, so just GORGING myself on vinyl (don't have it at uni). It'll be way up on my list of priorities once I get back to uni and the new music bug comes calling though.

I'm listening to The Leak Reloaded. And I'll reiterate on my previous post. His voice is realllly cool... But his music is niteclub shit. If only he put some cooler beats to his vocals. I'm waiting for Beyonce to come in with guest vocals. I mean, I can see the pros of the tunes too, which is why I have a bunch of his albums, but there are definite cons aswell. I can appreciate, but so could a niteclub bunny too.

Edited: The album cover is awesome for The Leak Reloaded.

you only think that cuz yr listening to an unoffical (bootleg) mixtape that focuses on his club-tracks. You obviously have no idea what his real albums sound like.

I'm listening to The Carter II right now, and I'll say the same thing.