Still, these nods to contemporary rap and pop, which arrive early in Tha Carter IV, can’t compare to the album’s later moments, though it’s fun to hear him try and rhyme roughshod over the limp electronic pop of “Can’t Be Broken.” He sounds better alongside Snoop Dogg on “Dope Niggaz,” which resurrects the “Bumpy’s Lament” sample made famous on Lil Kim’s “Drugs” and Dr. At the very least, it gives Wayne a chance to drop one of his goofily great punchlines: “They started French kissing so he didn’t see moi.” Travis Scott fades into the background of “Let It Fly.” Kendrick Lamar – who once recorded C4, a mixtape homage to Wayne’s 2008 blockbuster Tha Carter III – joins in “Mona Lisa,” a bizarre, confusing yet ultimately fascinating lyrical fantasy about a woman who cheats on her boyfriend with the man of the hour. The late, controversial emo rapper XXXTENTACION adds a pained squall to “Don’t Cry,” one of the album’s highlights. The other breakout star from his Young Money adventure, Drake, doesn’t make an appearance due to reported scheduling issues. “I am not number one, it’s true/I am 9-27-82,” he says in reference to his birthday on “Don’t Cry.” When one of his Young Money students, Nicki Minaj, croons alongside him on the yearning “Dark Side of the Moon,” it sounds bittersweet. He has rarely sounded as vulnerable as he does here.
The Lil Wayne who appears here sounds chastened, questioning his current standing in the rap lexicon. Still, the tumult of years passed undoubtedly left its mark. Lil Wayne is back on center stage, back on top. It doesn’t matter that his first retail album since 2013’s desultory, depressing I Am Not a Human Being II is haphazardly sequenced, with the best tracks arriving somewhere in the middle and the end, and that its 87 minute running time can barely be consumed in one sitting. His place on rap’s postmillennial Mount Rushmore is assured. He is as much of a hero to a certain generation of rap fans as Jay Z and Rakim once were. If the celebratory reception surrounding the long-delayed Tha Carter V proves one thing, it is how much Lil Wayne is truly beloved.
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(As LeBron James said when asked about Lil Wayne’s comeback, “Where’d he go? He didn’t go anywhere.”) But as Cash Money blocked efforts like 2015’s Free Weezy Album and 2017’s Dedication 6 from appearing on streaming services, forcing fans to scour for online downloads, Lil Wayne began to appear like a relic from the Datpiff era, his indefatigable work habits falling on increasingly deaf ears. Through it all, Lil Wayne kept recording, releasing mixtapes and making guest appearances. Most tragically, there was a lengthy legal dispute against Cash Money Records and his onetime mentor Bryan “Birdman” Williams, a man whom he once affectionately referred to as daddy, over the right to finally release Tha Carter V their fallout had all of the trauma of a bitter, acrimonious divorce. There were reports of health problems and emergency hospital visits that led some to wonder if his death was imminent. Lil Wayne” co-headlining tour unexpectedly evolved into a poignant torch-passing affair.
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It finds the man who once called himself “the best rapper alive” – and who, for a few years in the late 2000s, indisputably lived up to that boast – finally emerging from five years of personal and professional chaos. The best thing about Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter V is that it exists.