This isn't a bad thing, but he's making it easy to forget exactly how unhinged, weird, and brilliant he can be.
Image by Steve Marcus / Reuters
"We are not the same, I am a Martian," Lil Wayne rapped on 2008's fantastic Tha Carter III.
On I Am Not A Human Being II, he's come down to Earth. Way down. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes it easy to forget exactly how unhinged, weird, and brilliant he's capable of being.
Here's the guy who was plucked out of obscurity to become a rapper at age nine, signing with Cash Money at 12, and joining a little group called Hot Boys (which included Juvenile). You can see the 17-year-old Lil Wayne bouncing around in Juvenile's "Back That Azz Up," his voice already froggy, bringing the term "drop it like it's hot" to national consciousness.
No one would've thought he'd go on to become the "Best Rapper Alive," as he knighted himself and willed it to be true. 2006-2009 was Renaissance Weezy; changing the game with Dedication 2 and Da Drought 3, pushing and defining mixtape culture. He was all over the place, strange, and utterly unique. Tha Carter III was packed with monster tracks like "A Milli" that pleased both the masses and critics; songs that showed off his clever, dense wordplay.
Take this line from "Mr. Carter": "Man, I got Summer hating on me 'cause I'm hotter than the Sun / Got Spring hating on me 'cause I ain't never sprung / Winter hating on me 'cause I'm colder than y'all / And I would never, I would never, I would never Fall."
Or he could take a turn for the hilarious and absurd, like on the "Lollipop (Remix)": "Safe sex is great sex, better use a latex/ 'cause you don't want that late text, that 'I think I'm late' text."
Lil Wayne was hard to make sense of, but thrilling to listen to and watch. Syrup and sex never sounded so genius.
