There was a point in my life that hearing a lighter flick on a beat was like hearing a glass pane break during Wrestling.
While the beat was familiar, I just knew that it was Lil Wayne was about to change it COMPLETELY. Weezy was the best rapper alive. He could do anything and everything lyrically. He could mumble and have all of us trying to mumble just like him. It was a beautiful time, I was working at temp jobs and driving around my mom’s SUV. Things were good. Wayne effortlessly had the World in his palm, he even got a tattoo of “The World” in his palm (so badass, so painful). However you can’t be the greatest forever, someone or something will always work to take you down. With Wayne it was a Gun Charge that sent him to jail for 2 years. As a rapper, going to jail at the peak of your career is like tearing your ACL; you either comeback stronger or you don’t. Unfortunately Wayne didn’t as he was never the same after that, but he kept rapping though. His commitment was and still is, very impressive.
So with that said, lets get into his newest output, “Funeral”.
It’s Ok.
The first thing I saw about this album is that the cover said “Funeral” right side up but if you flipped it upside down it said “Lil Wayne”. That’s kinda cool, if I was in college my mind would be blown. This is the type of shit I’d send my crush like “look at how mind blowing this is”, so maybe that’s why I’m not too impressed. It’s hard to throw yourself into something that reminds you of some dumb shit you would do. Actually, even having a funeral theme is weird to me because sometimes I think about what my funeral’ll be like. Not in like a “I want to die” kind of way but more like a “I wonder if it can be open casket with a gold grill”. It’s a fun to me but reading that back I think I should talk to my therapist about this. Anyway, I pressed play and waited to see where Wayne would go with this. He kinda didn’t go anywhere.
To me Wayne is at his best when his album has a clear cut theme and structure. Dude already raps in in a very disorganized way so album structure gives him so cohesion. This album doesn’t have that structure. I think that the drama behind “Tha Carter 5” had Wayne really wondering if he’d have a major release again, so he’s just happy to rapping. This feels like watching Dwight Howard in the 2020 Dunk Contest. We appreciate that you’re still able to do the thing we all liked you for but that’s as far as it goes. Not even in a mean way, we’re just more distracted by the newer talent who you probably inspired.
With that said Wayne can still very much rap. He might be rapping about doing Coke but he’s still going off. It is really weird to hear him rap about doing Cocaine though. I mean I get it, he’s rich and lives in Miami so it’s kind of the law to do coke. Still though, I miss when Wayne was rapping about selling drugs, not doing them. Drug dealing raps are more fun than drug using raps, which is weird because doing drugs is way more fun than selling them. Also, this album is long as fuck. I think that shorter albums are overall better, but if you wanna drop a lot of tracks, go full Chris Brown and drop 50.
Tha Carter 5 surprised me, I enjoyed it so much and was so down for the journey. Sure a lot of it sounded like they were made when we still had a black President but we were lucky to have both. On “Funeral” I know these songs were made in 2019-2020, but they still sound old. It’s hitting me now that, Lil Wayne is old and doesn’t want to acknowledge it. Lil Waynes career is a lot like his hair, a shell of it’s former self. With that in mind, I understand now that Wayne will never stop rapping the same way he’d never go bald; we’d never look at him the same.
I’m happy that Wayne can drop music again, I’m happy that he can express himself freely. Funeral ain’t it though. I give it 2 out of 9 of Wayne’s Remaining Dreads.