THE YEAR IN WAYNE PART 1

I mean sure everyone does year-end lists and blah blah blah but honestly I don't think I've listened to any one artist or band over the past 2 years more than Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. a.k.a. Lil Wayne a.k.a. Young Weezy a.k.a. Weezy F. Baby a.k.a. Young Tunechi (but don't call him that). Dude moved the most units last year with the whole Carter III/"A Milli"/"Got Money" auto-tune phenomenon and didn't even think about stopping, dropping (at least) a mixtape per quarter in 2009. This isn't to say all this material is great (Public Enemy is of very poor quality with a ton of annoying DJ drops), but three of these, Hottest Nigga Under the Sun, Official White Label and No Ceilings, hold a ton of fantastic Wayne moments.


Hottest Nigga Under the Sun

Lemme first admit that there's some inexcusably awful shit on this mix. Under this category falls "Prom Queen," "Got Me A" and "Rockstar," each cut one of Wayne's bad-decision "rock" songs, featuring some meaty riffage and/or embarrassing noodling. If you're going to burn Hottest Nigga to a CDR, it's highly recommended that you just leave these three tracks off entirely.

This leaves you with 23 tracks. I'm talking 23 solid tracks/verses, each worthy of floating in a purple plume of weedsmoke to hip hop heaven where tops are always dropped and blunts are plenty. Wayne's verse over Santogold's "Unstoppable" works way better as a CDR-starter than the horrific "Prom Queen," bubbling steadily upwards until the cork finally blows. Wayne begs you not to merely understand him, rather he urges you to "OVERstand" him before he tears through bar after bar, finishing the verse by basically making an apology to all his female fans:

"Daaamn, all I got is one dick"

Ladies, there's only so much Wayne to go around.

Next is "New Orleans Maniac," where we see less of the Lil loverboi and more of them murderous boast-raps

"Hollygrove monster, New Orleans maniac
shoot a nigga up until his whole body ain't attached
Hi, my name is best rapper alive
and your mouth is the best crapper alive"

This track also sees him threatening to shoot you til his wrist sore (we are to assume this is a lot of gunshots) and referencing Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Anquan Boldin.

Soon thereafter we're treated to one of the hottest jams of 2009's summer season, "Filet Mignon" (appropriately changed to "Every Girl" for the single). If you don't know the premise of the song, it's pretty much a shout-out to all the babes all over the globe that Wayne wants to fuck, which just so happens to be each and every one of them. That's right, even you. Are you flattered? It's cos Wayne has drugged you.

"Go n throw it back and bust it open like you 'posed to
girl I got that dope dick now come here lemme dope you
you gon be a dope fiend
your friends should call you dopey
tell em keep my name out they mouth if they don't know me"

Disgusted? You should be. But really, dude's a sweetheart ("I don't think you're beautiful - I think you're beyond it"). Then Drake gets all up in the second verse and kills it like

"Every time I thinka stayin wit her
she bring that friend around and make a nigga reconsider"

The next track "Yes" is probably the other most talked about track from the mixtape since it features Pharrell on a (very short) verse and the chorus. The beat rumbles n claps with an "A Milli"-like precision and Wayne just freaks out the whole time. He tells you he'll "fuck you so good" that "you gon need a bed break." And this exchange is worth noting:

"I ask her do she want to fuck
before I ask twice she say YES"

Unfortunately for "Yes," it's blown outa the water by "Hello World," where Wayne again shifts to that version of Carter where he brags about killing and, well, kills it. He asks you to call him "Mr. Kill Em All" before diving into one of the best one-liners on the whole tape:

"Ski-masks on my bullets let em commit brain burglary"

Imagine that - clip after clip of tiny ski-masks covering up tiny bullet faces breaking and entering human skulls. Yer dead. And then if you're still alive...

"Kamikaze you can try me I'ma shoot ya
when that gun in this position you can call it karma sutra"

Lil Wayne - Hello World


"Blow My Mind" is another version of Wayne where he's way into being successful, as he should be. I mean... he was a Hot Boy. This might hold the most solid beat on here too, with some absurd string overdub and that chopped vocal sample. He uses the auto-tune on this mixtape as well as if not better than on Carter III and, yes, he does weave some clever wordplay into all the guns and syrup:

"And since day one (1) I look forward to (2) three, four, five bitches in my Porsche coupe"

Lil Wayne - Blow My Mind


There's few non-Young Money guest spots on this one, but the best is probably Chingy on "Let's Get it," a super bouncy snap track that doesn't necessarily showcase much of Chingy's lyrical prowess (assuming there is some?) but his flow works so well. Fortunately Wayne's on his game:

"Hundred dollar cash call it picnic money
money just to blow call it tick tick money BOOM
pockets on fire yeah I got money to burn
and I think I am infected and money's the germ"

Another one of Wayne's awesome fire-spitting tracks is definitely "Yeahhh," with some sample that sounds totally Jackson 5. However, for the most part he's again talking about killing all yall, not counting off the ABCs.

"Stuntin like my father, boy
flow like water, boy
even though I got a voice like your boy on the water, boy
they Pay a Ton like my first name was Walter, boy
'Sweetness,' but see you'd rather salt a boy
but I put that pep in your step like Walter, boy"

Then there's this winner:

"Yeah I'm hyped like my wife made extra coffee
me and my wife be a-okay outside of shakin exes off me"

Lil Wayne - Yeahhh


Now, from here on in we see a slight change of pace with some questionable tracks but also some absolute cheese-fests which are way silly and fun. This mainly includes "Piano Man" and "War," a Prince-like sex ballad and a hyper-produced ringtone hit featuring Sean Kingston, respectively. The latter might be one of my biggest guilty pleasures of the year, brimming with auto-tuned love syrup. Sean and Wayne say some pretty stupid shit, but "salute to all the veterans - and girl, your love is like a nuclear weapon" is one of the most appropriately low-brow lines I've ever heard. Dudes know their audience (yes, self included).

The last five tracks are all single verses on a variety of beats, most of them superb. "Beep Beep" is what I believe to be some Bobby Valentino shit (you know, Mr. wee-ooh-wee-ooh-wee from "Mrs. Officer") and jeez, Wayne gets all flirty n shit:

"Mama let me beep beep like a Motorola
now I'm in love knee-deep, but it's at her shoulders
but bein' I'm a G I try to keep composure
but that's where shawty got me week like the weekend over"

He gets all lover-man on the closing 50-second track "Clear My Throat" as well, burbling some sweet auto-tune nothings into yer headphones:

"I'ma rocket like Houston I'm leanin
ain't nothin between me and you but this bikini
now can I take it off ya?
rub my tongue across ya?
I do it so write she call me an author"

All in all I really gotta hand it to this mixtape for providing a year's worth of stupid-dumb decibel bumping meat, always ripe for big beer parties and mild weather weed cruises. He hasn't topped this shit yet this year, but there's always 2010.





Lil Wayne - Hottest Nigga Under the Sun