Carter,' 'Pac-Man' ('my ghosts is blue'), 'The Fireman,' 'Heatman,' 'Weezy F. He was self-mythologizing, giving himself an abundance of nicknames over 22 tracks: 'Young Tune, the big kahuna' 'a gorilla, but lighter,' 'Mr. Ten years, four months, and three days after the 1995 Source Awards, Lil Wayne released an album that contained a track with that title, and to borrow a phrase from one of his future protegés, nothing was the same for the South in the decade that followed. What it took was one brash veteran younger than most rookies proclaiming himself 'best rapper alive,' no asterisks, no regional qualifiers, nothing. The Dungeon Family, UGK, and Scarface all became household names to small sects of devotees, but for the most part, the recognition they all deserved from the rest of the country came after their respective heydays. The South, as André 3000 famously announced, did 'have something to say,' but without one nationally-recognized lyrical genius, it struggled to achieve widespread respect.
Filled with bold, entertaining wordplay and plenty of well-executed, left-field ideas, Tha Carter III should be considered as a wild, somewhat difficult child of Weezy's magnum opus in motion, one that allows the listener an exhilarating and unapologetic taste of artistic freedom.OutKast's 'Best New Rap Group' acceptance speech at the 1995 Source Awards has been cited again and again as the turning point for Southern Rap, the moment when it became viewed as more than a novelty and began its gradual game of catch-up to the East and West Coasts. You can fault him for not connecting enough on the album and further complicating his unmanageable body of work with this disjointed effort, but Wayne's true masterpiece is the bigger picture and how he's flipped the script since the first Carter rolled out. As the track flows from political commentary ('My whole city's underwater, some people still floatin'/And they wonderin' why black people still votin'/Cuz your President's still chokin') to despair and onto some moving 'keep your head up'-styled verse, it proves Wayne can go deep and connect with his audience if he chooses.
Just like on Tha Carter II, Robin Thicke ends up the most complementary guest, coating Wayne's post-Katrina tale 'Tie My Hands' in warm buttery soul. Carter,' and with Babyface laying the stylish swagger all over 'Comfortable,' Wayne gets the opportunity to convincingly vibe in the land of true class. Giant meets giant when Jay-Z stops by for the velvet-smooth hangout session 'Mr. Carter,' when the football reference 'And you ain't Vince Young/So don't clash with the Titan' dances on a David Axelrod sample and an unexpected jazzy production from Swizz Beatz. It wouldn't be the electro-bumpin' 'Lollipop,' an infectious track that contains the wonderfully Wayne line 'I told her to back it up/Like burp, burp.' You certainly wouldn't want to lose key cut 'Phone Home,' where the maverick adopts an alien voice and drops 'I could get your brains for a bargain/Like I bought it from Target.' Another Weezy special from way outside the hip-hop universe comes in the striking 'Dr. 5 - the 'classic' argument could be considered, but figuring out what to sacrifice from this high-grade jumble is difficult.
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4 - just one of his mixtape series that made it to a Pt.
Had he included another easy-access single like 'Rider' from The Drought Is Over, Pt. Tha Carter III is instead a surprisingly casual album that takes numerous listens to sort out, and only part of a puzzle that is scattered across mixtapes, guest shots, and Internet leaks. His 'best rapper alive' quote is discussed to death, but if that claim includes creating perfectly crafted full-lengths in a 2Pac style, the evidence won't be found here.
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There's his complete annihilation of the mixtape game, the ridiculous amount of guest shots he granted since Tha Carter II made him a hip-hop superstar, that photograph of him kissing his mentor, Birdman, rumors of addiction to the sizzurp, plus the gargantuan ego and aggravating aloofness (Wayne will ignore all incoming beefs and infuriate challengers even further by offering the lethal 'I don't listen to your records'). How Tha Carter III came to be 'the most anticipated rap album of 2008' is a story that involves the usual delays and promises of a masterpiece, plus a whole lot of bullet points that could only exist in the absurd world of Lil Wayne.