Review: Tha Carter VI
Also my top 5 of all time
My favorite album is Tha Carter V. It’s one of the rare projects with no skips. My favorite song is probably “Dope New Gospel.” Lil Wayne is, in my opinion, one of the greatest rappers of all time.
I’ve been listening to Tha Carter VI for the last couple of days, and I have some thoughts. I will start out by saying that I am (a) not a music critic and (b) generally have a pretty boring taste when it comes to music. I like rap, and I don’t really listen to much else.
I’m of two minds when it comes to this album. On the one hand, it’s clear that Wayne still has bars. I also like that he’s experimenting with different sounds, like the guitar on “The Days” and “If I Played Guitar.” This was probably my favorite song on the album:
On the other hand, some of the songs just don’t work for me. Lin-Manuel Miranda: loved what you did with Hamilton, but what the fuck was that beat on “Peanuts 2 Elephant”? It was cool to see Wayne rapping with his sons on “Rari” and “Mula Komin In,” but the verses weren’t great, and the autotune was way too much on that second track.
That’s Wayne’s biggest weakness as an artist: consistency. At his best, I don’t think there is any rapper who can hold a candle to his wordplay or storytelling. But at his worst, you get stuff like this from a guy who’s over 40:
“Written History,” the last track on the Carter VI, opens with a sample of Muhammad Ali’s speech before his 1974 fight against George Foreman. In the chorus, Wayne says that he’s the greatest rapper of all time. But I don’t think he can really back that up. Kendrick gave Wayne an opportunity to defend the GOAT title with his second verse on “wacced out murals,” but Wayne doesn’t take the bait on the album. To me, at least, that means he’s forfeited the crown.
And that’s fine! The guy’s in his 40s now and hasn’t been at the forefront of the rap game for a while. One of his proteges is arguably the second-best rapper alive. And Wayne still releases some heat, unlike other formerly great rappers (Eminem, Kanye) whose musical output these days is straight ass.
Which brings me to my top 5 rappers of all time. In order:
Kendrick
Drake
Kanye (the old one)
J. Cole
Wayne
Kendrick at number one needs no explanation. The GOAT and it’s not a debate.
Drake is number two because he’s played a huge role in making rap mainstream, and because, by the numbers, he’s the biggest rap artist in the world. But I do think that he’s past his prime. As he’s gotten more and more mainstream success, I think the quality of his music has gone down. You’re a former child actor from Canada, you’re not fooling anyone with the bars about trapping and mob ties. And when you’re pushing 40, talking about going to the club and paying for Instagram models’ BBLs starts to get old. You have a kid, man; it’s probably time to settle down! Don’t get me wrong, I still listen to Drake a lot. But increasingly his stuff is like the McDonald’s of music: solid, consistent, but you’re not expecting greatness.
Kanye at number three is a bit more controversial, but I put him in the list because his influence on the rap game was huge — autotune, sampling, his use of vocals in production — even though he’s completely blown up his legacy with all the awful Nazi shit.
J. Cole is at number four because I like a lot of his music, and he consistently puts out solid art. He hasn’t reached the commercial success that Drake has or the critical acclaim that Kendrick has. That and tapping out of the beef pretty quickly will always make him the third wheel of the big three. But I like that he’s always made music that feels authentic. And I respect that he has a plan to retire after he drops his next album. Too many rappers try to stay in the game too long, even though it’s clear that they’re past their primes and should make a graceful exit.
Wayne is at five because he’s made some really good stuff and is one of the best lyricists ever. He’s also made some pretty bad stuff. And that lack of consistency hurts his overall ranking in my book. Tha Carter VI was a good album. I’d probably give it a 7.5/10. It’s not a bad one to go out on.