Lil Wayne album lacks luster, “Watch the Throne” shines

Music to My Ears: Lil Wayne, J Cole, Dr. Dre bound to impress

As I ponder an appropriate farewell, I reflect on what my intentions were when I began this musical column. One goal was to provide readers with comprehensive and thoughtful reviews of recent albums from hip-hop moguls and veterans. I also hoped to suggest new music from up-and-comers that were less well known.

Music to My Ears: Dubstep shuffles onto scene

This week, I am switching gears to discuss a genre of electronic dance music—dubstep—that has reached unprecedented levels of popularity over the last few years. For those new to the scene, dubstep songs are set at around 140 beats per minute, are usually dominated by a powerful bass line, and typically incorporate heavily manipulated sound waves to produce a unique style of electronic music that is bound to set any listener's head bobbing.

Music to My Ears

Lil Wayne album lacks luster, “Watch the Throne” shines

This piece represents the opinion of the author:

Ryan Erskine

Columnist

September 9, 2011

Welcome back to another school year! Since my primary objective is to share awesome music with my readers, I have decided to widen the scope of this column beyond hip-hop releases to better achieve this goal.

While hip-hop is certainly a big part of my life, it is by no means the only genre of music that excites me—I look forward to sharing other genres as well.

Of course, you can still expect hip-hop reviews and recommendations about hip-hop, starting today with my discussion of the August 29 release, "Tha Carter IV."

Though I am a big Lil Wayne fan, I found the latest addition to the Carter series to be a bit of a disappointment.

"Blunt Blowin" and "Megaman" are good songs in the traditional Lil Wayne sense: solid beats and strong lyrical couplets that are fun to rap along to. But no song comes close to living up to the hype that erupted with the release of the album's first single "6 Foot 7 Foot."

Aside from its fierce beat, "6 Foot 7 Foot" boasts adept wordplay ("real Gs move in silence like lasagna") and unforgettable lyrical flows from both Lil Wayne and Cory Gunz that are truly addictive.

Ironically, the next best song is "Interlude," which does not even include Lil Wayne, but rather features winning verses from Tech N9ne and Andre 3000. After listening to these two songs, it becomes clear that the rest of the album is somewhat forgettable.

One can only listen to so many Lil Wayne songs before the constant barrage of joke-like couplets lose its novelty. But more than anything, it seems like Lil Wayne put much less effort into the rest of the album than he did its first single.

Nothing illustrates this more than Lil Wayne's decision to feature T-Pain's Auto-Tuned voice in "How to Hate." After all, Jay-Z already made it clear in 2009 that we had witnessed the "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)."

But Lil Wayne disrespects Jay-Z in other ways too; he even takes a lyrical jab at Jay-Z in the song "It's Good." Lil Wayne appears to be responding to Jay-Z's line in "H.A.M:" "Really you got baby money," referring to Lil Wayne (a.k.a. Weezy Baby)'s fortunes.

Lil Wayne responds to Jay-Z's jab with the rhyme, "Talkin' 'bout baby money? / I got your baby money / Kidnap your b****, get that 'how-much-you-love-your-lady?' money." Lil Wayne is evidently describing a scenario where he kidnaps Jay-Z's wife, Beyoncé, and gets a massive ransom.

Whether or not this will turn into a full-blown lyrical fight between these two artists is up for debate, but as it stands, Jay-Z clearly wins this round.

Kanye West and Jay-Z's recent collaborative album "Watch the Throne" is a much stronger release, exuding the production quality of Kanye's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" and including impressive layering of instrumentals as well as the incorporation of odd, but well-placed samples.

"N****s in Paris," one of the album's strongest songs, begins with a quoted sample from the movie Blades of Glory, while "Gotta Have It" uses a recurring flute melody and an altered vocal sample as part of its beat. Additionally, "Who Gon Stop Me" features a sample from the popular dubstep song "I Can't Stop" by Flux Pavilion. Such samples exhibit not only production creativity, but also the care and effort that go into a collaborative album between two of the biggest names in the rap industry.

Although these tracks and "Otis" might get the most radio play, the rest of the album is strong as well, due to its overall cohesiveness. Each song is stylistically different, yet the album tells a compelling story about the incessant influence of wealth and fame on these rap veterans. On "New Day," the rappers explore the effects of their celebrating on their unborn sons, made all the more poignant by Beyoncé's pregnancy.

But the album's strength also arises from the fact that it is a collaboration between Jay-Z and Kanye West. Two very different rapping styles fused together on one album keep things interesting and lively. Plus, it was already clear that such a combination was going to be a hit after their previous collaborative efforts on "Monster" and "Run This Town."

My only complaint is that the album starts off much stronger than it finishes, which might reflect the diminishing freshness of a project so heavily focused on bragging about its creators' success, money and fame. Even so, "Watch the Throne" is a successful album, and a must-hear for any hip-hop fan.

On a final note, definitely check out Mac Miller's new single "Frick Park Market" in preparation for his upcoming album, "Blue Side Park," due to be released November 1.

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