Lil’ Wayne’s latest album, “I Am Not A Human Being II,” might be where Mr. Carter went to die. Since his stint in prison, the on and off codeine syrup abuse and the less than impressive release of “Tha Carter IV” Lil’ Wayne has lost his potency. And ironically IANAHB II doesn’t include a track without Wayne rapping about his effectiveness. Can Wayne hang up his skateboard long enough to lay down a track that isn’t exclusively about fellatio?
The album opens with an inspiring classical piano background and Wayne rapping loosely about sex and homicide. It jumps into “Curtains” next, where he leads with “I ain’t nervous, I swear to God I ain’t nervous,” but maybe he should be because the lyric quality throughout the rest of the album is seriously lacking.
The best tracks are featuring other artists such as Drake, 2Chainz, Detail and Future on “Days and Days,” “No Worries” and “Love Me”. But on “Hello” Shane Heyl makes an already bad song worse. His vocals are more than unimpressive, and overstated. It used to be Wayne that could carry a song and make it popular just by jumping on the track but now that trend has reversed. It’s surprising that his performance on studio albums would be less than par when his work on mix-tapes like “Sorry For the Wait” were really strong. He rapped with conviction and lyricism on “Tha Carter III” and his collaboration with Birdman on “Like Father, Like Son.” Although numerous singles like “Lollipop” and “John” sold well in the itunes marketplace.
IANAHB II lacks in execution because the tracks surrounding those ready-for-radio singles don’t deliver the same Wayne punch. “No Worries” and “Love Me” are going to get great circulation on mainstream hip-hop stations, hell they already are, but the rest of the album sounds like the last few scraps of rhyme at the bottom of Wayne’s hip-hop barrel. He earned the nickname “Weezy” for multiple reasons, but the one that always stuck with me was the emotion Wayne injected into his voice in songs like “Shoot Me Down,” “Misunderstood,” “I’m Me” or “Let The Beat Build.” He challenged other artists and his audience because he constantly challenged himself to create something new, novel and raw. But now the rhymes roll off his tongue like overused, under-developed ramblings of a mind strung together by blunts and codeine syrup.
On “Beat The S***,” Wayne doesn’t even try something inventive. Every line in the hook ends with “p****-a** n****”, and his only verse on the track is more of the same with tired tag-along rhymes. Not to downplay Gunplay, who is featured on the track, but his ill-equipped verse about pitching a fit in the club is the silver-lining to “Beat The S***.”
I’m disappointed. I remember scouring the Internet a few years ago looking for anything from Lil’ Wayne that had been leaked from any of his upcoming works, but now it’s Lil’ Wayne that’ll be looking for me, his audience. I don’t want to think that Wayne threw together an album because he knew his name would sell records on it’s own, but that’s what IANAHB II is telling me. The passion is gone. What happened to “I am music?” Perhaps his persona has eclipsed itself, maybe he’s burnt out as an artist, but I hope not.
According to MTV.com, Wayne professed that after “Tha Carter V” is released he plans to retire, but he has other collaboration plans in the mix with Drake, Birdman and possibly a resurrection of Big Tymers before he calls it quits. I can only hope that whatever Wayne decides to do next it’ll do better than IANAHB II.