If there were one recording artist I could write about, it would be Lil Wayne. If there were two words I could use to describe Lil Wayne, mind blowing. But I ask myself why does it seem to be only my age group (18-25ish) that loves Lil Wayne, and pretty much everyone older, cringes when they hear his name. Many people, like my mom cant stand his constant use of profanity, along with drug references, and degrading phrases aimed towards women. I will be the first person to agree with all of those, because he does do all of those things, quite often. However, if people would just take the time to listen to some of the creative, funny, and catchy rhymes he makes, “mic check 2-3 I’m different like blue pee, and my girls be half naked like betty boop beep,” I think people would enjoy his work a lot more.
Recently, twenty-seven year old Dwayne Carter Jr. plead guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon. For this he will be sentenced to about a year in prison, come February. But that’s not slowing him down, only one week after pleading guilty he came out with his new mix tape, entitled No Ceilings. “Prison in February and I aint in no rush.” With less than three months til he goes to Prison, he could care less. He has three albums expected to come out in the next month or so, The Rebirth, Tha Carter IV, and Young Money Fam. The first two are works of his own, while the third album is collaboration with his label, Young Money Entertainment.
The best term I can think of to describe this mix tape would have to be “Da Drought 3 on steroids.” For those of you who are unfamiliar with Da Drought 3, it is Wayne’s mix tape that came out in 2006, and was just him rapping over anyone and everyone’s beats. Big name tracks like The Black Eyed Peas “I Gotta Feeling,” and Jay-Z’s “Run This Town,” along with Kid Cudi’s, “Make Her Say,” are all tracks that Wayne destroys on No Ceilings. On one of the tracks he says “Yo beat aint safe haha,” sarcastically because odds are hes going to rap over it, for free. That’s what so crazy about these mix tapes Wayne is always giving out. He makes zero profit off them, despite them being some of his most popular work. He literally does it “because I’m different, and because I can,” which he states it at the end of one of his songs.
No one in the rap game is even close to Wayne, with the exception to artists on his own album, i.e. Drake and Nicki Minaj. Unlike many concept albums like Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” this mix tape is punch line after punch line, “New Orleans Coroner, his name is Frank Minyard, f*** with me wrong you’ll be waking up in his yard.” Again, he curses like crazy, but you cannot deny the creativeness. This is why he continues to dominate the rap game.
Thursday, July 3, 2025