Lil Wayne celebrates rebirth on latest album
His dreadlocks fall just below the top of his low-hanging skinny jeans, looped with keys and handkerchiefs. Black sunglasses block tattooed tear drops and his rare wide smile flashes teeth encrusted in platinum, silver and diamonds.
He stands just 5 feet, 6 inches tall, but his words pack a punch — each verse, laced with sex and drugs, flows into a hard rap single that makes the mainstream top charts.
Lil Wayne, still recovering from a 6-day hospital stay earlier this month, released his tenth studio album, “I Am Not A Human Being II,” Tuesday. A follow up to 2010’s part one, the album is being called the most profane of the bunch, an impressive feat for the artist who’s given us tracks like “Hustler Musik” and “Lollipop.”
The man, the myth, perhaps the legend that is Weezy F. Baby fell from his superhuman status just two weeks ago, and all of social media held its breath. It was reported that the rapper suffered multiple seizures, and the most extreme rumors pronounced Wayne dead.
That’s when he cleared it all up for his chattering, grief-stricken fans. In a single tweet, he wrote: “I’m good everybody. Thx for the prayers and love.”
We’re still not sure what caused the seizures, or where Wayne’s health stands, but there is one recipe that’s been recurring in reports: sizzurp, or fruit drink, hard candy and codeine. It’s said to be a favorite of Mr. Tunechi.
His latest album, which Weezy has said is the second to last of his career, is like a rebirth. After its release date was pushed back a month, the album dropped with a simple, but telling cover designed by DONDA, Kanye West’s creative company.
It’s all black with a blood red butterfly, an ode to the “Fireman’s” ever-growing musical track. In Rolling Stone Magazine, Wayne’s manager Cortez Bryant said, “Moths always transform into butterflies.” As Complex Music pointed out, they don’t, but the message isn’t lost.
The world has watched Wayne rise to rap icon status. His singles go viral before they even hit the air. But as his career has grown and he’s inched his music under a more censored, metaphorical veil, he’s changed.
“I Am Not A Human Being II” brings it back to the underground — the rougher, less staged brand of hip-hop with Wayne’s unmistakable vocals. There aren’t the same hooks and rhythm and blues influences that have softened songs like “How to Love” for the commercial world, but instead completely raw, unaffected throws from the out-of-this-world, self-proclaimed alien artist.
The album starts you just where you would expect: the lighting of a bong. He takes a deep breath in, exhales and piano keys feverishly play the interlude to “IANAHB,” the record’s acronym.
In the almost 6-minute song, there’s no memorable chorus.
Like most Weezy songs, you catch a stray word, sometimes a whole verse, that brings you back into the absolute lunacy of it all. In this one, you hear “Medicine / I treat it like peppermints,” “Jose Canseco” and “tampons in manure.” There’s no common thread, just a lot of what’s made Weezy Weezy with an uncharacteristic piano weaving it all together.
In the end, there’s an echo: “Hello, world / As I always say, I am not a human being / 2.”
Wayne’s packed the track list with collaborations, with all but four of the 15 songs using a second voice.
If not one of the best, one of the most entertaining, is “Days and Days” featuring 2 Chainz, our friend who’s brought us “Birthday Song” and “I’m Different” from his debut release “Based on a T.R.U. Story.” It starts with a clip of the chorus from “Another Woman” by Moby.
The lyrics are graphic, obviously, so I can really only publish one of Weezy’s pieces of poetic genius: “I milk this s—- like cattle / That’s my word like Scrabble.” Boom.
That’s not the best part, though. Really, you can just fast forward to 1:11 where you get one great rally cry: “TWOOOO CHAINZZZZ.”
“2 Chainz / my first chain had a twin,” the rapper explains in the song. Also, “Last name F—- / first name I Don’t Give A.”
The “Birthday Song” artist also makes an encore on track nine, “Rich as F—-.”
One of “I Am Not a Human Being 2’s” first three singles is “No Worries,” featuring Detail. In the music video, listeners step inside Wayne’s psychedelic casino. He’s wearing a safari hat and some industrial-strength goggles, as the screen turns into a drunk goggles lens with some rave-worthy neon action. The whole song is really as big of a mess as the video — where’s 2 Chainz?
“Trigger Finger,” with the illustrious Soulja Boy, harkens back to that sizzurp: “Ain’t nothin’ sweet but the codeine / Eyes hella red like chlorine.” At least he’s honest, right?
The final song takes a trip to somewhere between Wayne’s alien galaxy and an intense game of Pac Man. A video game/spaceship beat runs behind constant shattering glass and the loading of a gun.
Nicki Minaj lays down the end of the song, representing Wayne’s “Young Money” dynasty with a simple ode to her success.
“I sit and count this money while I watch you b——— audition,” she says.
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