Lil Wayne - Tha Carter IV (2011)
Let's play a fun little game that everyone on the internet who talks about this album likes to play: Let's pretend this album is bad! GRRR LIL GAYNE SUXXX!!!! Man, that made me feel like a dumbass for even PRETENDING to have that opinion! Here's the thing: The album likes to pretend (I guess it's some kind of meme?) that this album is horrible, but they, provided that they aren't being dumbasses ironically, are fucking dumbasses and I'm gonna tell you why: When I was a teenager, I was Lil Wayne hater, I really was. I hated the fucking shit out of him, thought he was talentless, etc, and then, perhaps by chance, I was graced by "6 Foot 7 Foot (feat. Corey Gunz)", and let me tell you somethin' somethin'.. I grew up on Wu-Tang Clan, I was listening to those motherfuckers when I was ten years old. One of my first albums I ever purchased was "Paul's Boutique". I was heavily interested in DJ culture before I was even a fuckin' teenager. What I'm trying to tell you is that I've got hip-hop in my fuckin' veins, and I have rarely, I repeat, RARELY heard a song that surpasses that song in beat, lyricism, and hype. That is the song of a fucking decade that slams as incredibly hard now as it did when it dropped, and even the most mentally deluded "I only care about NEW music" teenager would lose their fucking mind over it. This song is an absolute MONSTER. The beat is one of the best I've ever heard, the lyrics are nonstop clever quotables by an incredibly hungry Lil Wayne, and then Corey Gunz (R.I.P. his career) comes in and fucking slaughters the ending. I don't care how much you like to pretend Army of the Pharaohs can slaughter mainstream rappers, just let me know when they make a song as good as this shit.
I'mma let you in on a little secret: If you get rid of "How to Hate (feat. T-Pain)", "Abortion", "So Special (feat. John Legend)", "Mirror (feat. Bruno Mars)" and ESPECIALLY the God-awful "I signed Drake, so I can be Drake, yeah?" song that is "How to Love", and rearrange the bonus tracks to fit onto the regular tracklisting, then you have a fucking dope album. Sure, I know you're thinking "but that's five tracks.." but consider this: The album, with all bonus tracks, is 21 tracks long. You know what crazy shit you get in there? Great lyrics that are exactly what you've come to expect Lil Wayne for, killer beats that still manage to hold up in 2017, and some killer features (Tech N9ne, André 3000 and Nas, just to name a few) to bring an album worth of the name "Tha Carter IV" no matter what people online will tell you. This album, provided you cut the shitty tracks off, is pretty fucking good, and if you haven't heard it since 2011, then you might just be pleasantly surprised by how good this shit is, especially compared to some of the shit that came later. I like it just as much as I like "Tha Carter III", just in a bit of a different way.
8/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
