Tha Carter IV (Cash Money, 2011) by Lil Wayne

Tha Carter IV has been a long time coming and a lot of the hip-hop community shows their support by delivering guest verses for the project.  Eight of the album’s fifteen tracks have guest appearances.  It is safe to say that Lil Wayne was the first artist to become “The Best Rapper Alive” without an album out (between 2005’s Tha Carter II and 2008’s Tha Carter III), but that was three years ago.  And hip-hop has a very short memory.  Since then, Weezy went to jail, put out two other albums, and signed two of hip-hop’s brightest new stars.  They were all noteworthy activities to keep Wayne in the public eye, but they seem to have taken away from his focus on Tha Carter series- which is exactly what got him there in the first place.  Where Wayne’s unpredictably was once an attribute, it is now a hindrance.  While skimming the surface of IV, it sounds like a natural extension of III.  However, upon closer inspection, Wayne sounds lazy and all the energy he is able to muster sounds forced.  Gone are the days of syrup and ganja, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to relive those times vicariously through his music (“So high, I get star-struck”, “Ashed my blunt in my Grammy Award”).  Not to say that Tha Carter IV doesn’t deliver, it does.  It is just that the highlights of the album rarely feature Wayne.  Other than the solo song “President Carter”, the set’s standout material all comes courtesy of its various features.  The album’s best cut, “Interlude”, doesn’t even feature a verse from Wayne.  Instead, Kansas City’s Tech N9ne and the legendary, also unique (and unexplainably uncredited) Andre 3000 drop show-stopping verses.  I’ll bet that Tech N9ne benefits from Tha Carter IV more than Lil Wayne does.  Lil Wayne always struck me as an artist’s artist.  His wordplay, flow and image never failed to be somewhat abstract.  And Tha Carter IV was supposed to be Wayne’s victory lap.  But it instead hints that his reign may be over…for now.  Considering it took him five solo albums in six years to hit his stride while remaining relevant through the height of Roc-A-Fella Records, Eminem and 50 Cent, Nelly, and, most notably, the tension at his own Cash Money Records, I’ll be the last one to ever count him out for good.