The Great Lil Wayne Debate: Is Tha Carter III A Classic?
Intro by Jonah Weiner
Opinion: Nick Sylvester
Opinion: Robert Christgau
Opinion: Jonah Weiner
Opinion II: Nick Sylvester
Opinion II: Josh Eells
Opinion II: Robert Christgau
POLL: Which track on Tha Carter III do YOU think is the best?
My fellow Wayniacs,
I’ll start with a confession. As much as I love them, I’ve always found Lil Wayne’s mixtapes a wee bit exhausting. Brilliant and unrelenting, they’re best when dipped into judiciously, like an America’s Next Top Model marathon or the stash of Thin Mints in your office kitchen. Which is why Tha Carter III may be the first Lil Wayne album that I can play all the way through. Yeah, Everything Is a Mixtape, and Paul Is Dead, and Weezy Is God, and All Your Base Are Belong To Us. But this capitalist cash-in does just what an album is supposed to do: It hangs together, it flows, it lives, it breathes. For me Wayne’s biggest weakness has always been his suspect taste in beats — the reason those two flame-themed singles Jonah mentioned never took off the way they should have. With Carter III Wayne finally has a slate of A-list tracks all his own, while making fewer concessions to capital-P Pop than you’d expect an artist as weird as him to have to. And while I’ll agree that jacking Fergie and T-Pain is a tad cynical, if it means more songs as irresistible as “Lollipop,” well then, carry on, sir. (Although just for the record, I prefer the remix.)
I’m not sure I buy Nick’s claim that Wayne’s stream-of-consciousness raps defy parsing, or that he doesn’t privilege lyrics over beats (or at least sounds). Sure, anyone who rhymes enemy with sympathy with energy with Eric Bienemy is a guy who gets off on hearing himself croak. But Wayne futzes with words in a way that only a true language lover can — punning without shame, jumbling syntax, even mangling pronunciation when it suits his purposes. Eff a Martian; he reminds me of another little green dude who also lives on a planet all by himself. (Same eyes too.) This is all the more impressive for the fact that Wayne does it all while seemingly high as freaking balls. It’s the reason he’s always rapping about Funyuns and soufflés and eating stars. On “Don’t Get It” you can even hear him toking up — which may explain the lovably bizarre ten-minute monologue about mandatory drug sentencing and how Al Sharpton’s race-baiting is tearing America apart.
That rant takes me back to a point Jonah made glancingly: Could Wayne be hip-hop’s Obama? He’s certainly got the herb-love. Also, as Bob has pointed out elsewhere, a guy who’s spent most his life as a professional musician couldn’t possibly have sold half the coke or murked half the bodies that Wayne claims in his raps — but that doesn’t mean I don’t get goosebumps hearing him talk about it. Rhetoric over reality! Deval Patrick, get at him! Wayne’s label is predicting a first-week turnout of a milli, which sounds like record-company bullshit, but these days who knows? Can we reasonably expect Carter III to be the biggest cross-demo uniter since, like, “Umbrella”? Yes we can!
Oh, and Nick, good looking on the Will Smith tip. (Although considering how much Wayne loves sharks, I bet he prefers Oscar to Jim West.) The Willie-Weezy comparison is actually one Wayne makes himself, in one of my favorite lines from “A Milli”: “Boy I got so many bitches like I’m Mike Lowrey/Even Gwen Stefani said she couldn’t doubt me.” Unless he’s talking about this guy…
As for my favorites: “Phone Home” is the best song about E.T. since Neil Diamond’s “Heartlight.” “Mrs. Officer” is the best song about fucking police since “Fuck Tha Police.” “Dr. Carter” is ingenious — but a 2-out-of-3 patient death rate? Lil Wayne is not a very good doctor! The only song I skip is “La La,” and that’s because it reminds me of a troubling encounter with Disney’s It’s a Small World ride.
One thing I’m curious to hear from you, Bob, is your take on Wayne’s sexual politics. Here’s a guy who’s never been shy about pleasing the ladies (check two of my favorite mixtape tracks, “Pussy Monster” and “Prostitute,” neither of which made the album), but who’s also got a stubborn antifeminist streak. As someone who’s never let anyone off the hook for misogyny, how do you feel about Wayne’s treatment of women in song? Also, isn’t “Let the Beat Build” incredible?
Extraterrestrially yours,
Josh
