Rebirth

Rap...Rock. Usually when you hear those two words next to each other people are usually referring to a mash up (ala Jay-Z/Linkin Park Collision Course) or Nu-Metal (ala Rage Against The Machine and sadly...Limp Bizkit -_-), But in Lil Wayne's case it's literally Rap and Rock infused into one style. It's kind of hard to explain but I guess you could say that Wayne used approaches the songs on this album as a rocker but maintains his swag as a rapper. Now I won't lie, the moment I heard about Lil Wayne making a "rock album" I laughed the idea to scorn sure that it would be a train wreck. Then Prom Queen dropped and I became interested in hearing how the rest of the project would sound. After countless delays my anticipation for the album began to dwindle substantially and by the time he set a real release date I honestly no longer cared. So the other day I was on Blazing Swarm (check em out, dope music site) and I saw that the album had leaked so I downloaded it and gave it a listen. Now I'm not the biggest Wayne fan in the world but I can honestly say that I'm really impressed with how well done this album actually is. You can tell that either Wayne listened to a lot of rock during the recording process or was already a fan or rock music before hand because it's not just him rapping over beats with guitars in them. Each song on the album sounds like a different subcategory of rock. One song may have a grunge/alternative feel to it, the next will sound like metal and then the next will sound like pop/rock, so on and so forth. Reportedly Wayne did some of the guitar work on the album and if this is true not only might that explain all the delays (due to him training) but also makes me gain respect for Wayne's work ethic. As expected Wayne whips out the ole Auto-tune for all of the vocals on the album but to me it's less of a distraction and more of a way to creatively enhance the distortion in his already raspy voice and give the songs more umph. Lyrically this album is surprisingly diverse. While it's no masterpiece, Wayne definitely stepped his songwriting skills up for the album to make the song lyrics actually sound like something you'd hear in a rock song (with the occasional rapper slang thrown in for good measure). On songs such as Prom Queen, Paradice (a play on the words Paradise and Pair of Dice), Runnin and Drop The World (which features a passionate verse from Eminem that sounds like something off of the Eminem Show) you see Wayne showcase his storytelling ability as he crafts some of his best songs thus far. I know a lot of people are going to be really confused by this album and probably even more will shun it without actually giving it a try (and i can't say I blame em) but for those of you that decide to give it a listen I think you'll be in for a pleasant surprise. Ballsy attempt Mr. Carter, I applaud you for not being safe and taking a risk. I give the album a 3.5 out of 5. Rock on from Krypton

Dueces Up!

-Vision.Air.y-