Culture Blues

It seems that all of the adulation and Nyquil have finally taken their toll on Lil' Wayne leaving him in a daze of self-deluded confusion. We all saw this one coming a mile away; Wayne has been bringing guitars on stage since 2006, and in just about every electric performance his volume level is essentially nil, and he basically just plays air-guitar. His lack of chops however are wholly unimportant, after all he is one of the best rappers trotting this Earth, and we aren't talking about fucking Eric Johnson here. Besides, it's not like Wayne is going to do something radically unnecessary like alienate his "Top of The Pops" level fan-base by putting out an abysmally mediocre, and downright laughable rock record (insert epically gigantic face-palm here). Sigh. This is the classic tale of an artist losing himself, his music, and his mind; NOT in the cool Syd Barret way.

By the time I got my hands on Rebirth I was aware of all of the hype, this was supposed to be Wayne's foray into 4/4, crossover, rock stardom. His producers dubbed it a classic months before its release (ahem, WRONG), the Kool-Aid was passed around like Heaven's Gate, and the anticipation was feverishly rampant. So we weren't getting Tha Carter IV; it would be alright, Wayne was going to change rap at the dawn of a new decade, and cement his legacy, this wasn't going to be another self indulgent vanity project (808's). GODDAMN everyone could not have possibly been more wrong! Rebirth is a downright hideous synthesis of some of the worse elements in modern music; from the second you hear the horrifically cliched, and horribly executed, intro smear of American Star you realize that this is an experiment crippled by Murphy's Law. This record is a nu-metal/punk-pop/ska/auto-tuned mess that is a complete disappointment and a total waste. Lil' Wayne needs a do-over REAL bad!

Rebirth is overflowing with lazy and uninspired tracks that are downright embarrassing: You won't even believe your ears when you listen to a song like Da Da Da for the first time (he ends three consecutive lines with the word "monkey"), Get A Life will literally have you thinking that this is all some kind of joke that you just haven't heard the punch-line to yet, while Knockout tries its best to sound like a power-pop band whose record you would never even consider buying. When the record isn't annoying the crap out of you it is insipidly useless; songs like Die For You (with its blatant attempt at modulating The Police's Every Breath You Take), and Paradice (a bore of the highest accord) are forgotten before you could even care. The highlights of this record are practically nonexistent; if forced to find some, I would point towards Drop The World (by FAR the best track on the album), and One Way Trip (a song that is almost ruined by its lack luster chorus) the two most traditionally hip-hop tracks on the record, but I am really stretching with those two "recommendations."

In the end I don't think Wayne could have had a more atrocious idea, this record is something that he will have to live down. "The Streets" don't approve of this direction, and "The Cool Kids" mock it's rendering. Rebirth will please no one, especially not you.