*Flicks lighter*. Once upon a time, in a seemingly alternate universe, where Bobby Shmurda freely shmoney-danced the streets of New York, and the radio was actually a viable source of good music, there was a time before hip-hop fans across the nation lamented and commented, “DROP ASTROWORLD” on every Travis Scott post. This was the time in which hip-hop fans everywhere were counting down every nanosecond they got closer to the release of “Tha Carter V”. Now, the long-awaited “Tha Carter V” has finally been released, but with a gap of seven years since the last “Carter” album, and a release date nearly five years late, many questioned whether the 23-track album from Wayne would justify the wait, or leave them underwhelmed.

 

Initiating the ending of Wayne’s five-year hiatus, is “I Love You Dwayne” – an undeniable tear-jerker that features Lil Wayne’s mother, Jacida Carter, confessing her sincere pride in Wayne’s success, explaining her excitement for the release of his album, and her gratuity for having him in her life. Presumably, this will resonate with Tunechi stans everywhere who have awaited the multiple eternities for the release of “Tha Carter V,” and the preamble into an equally melancholy song in “Don’t Cry”. Despite some minor comic relief from Lil Wayne referring to XXXTENTACION as “triple-extension”, the song is a saddening ballad that focuses largely on the Lil Wayne’s own acception of mortality, which is later addressed on  “Open Letter”, with both tracks featuring Wayne undermining the thought of death, and emphasizing the importance he places on family and leaving his mark on the world. What’s disappointing is that rather than more sincere and emotional tracks like these, “Tha Carter V” decides to fill the majority of its bulk with gloat-filled tracks.

 

For an overall, braggadocious album where the thematic foundation is Lil Wayne patting himself on the back for his accomplishments, it’s tracks like the ones listed above that do Wayne more justice in showing humility, and not flat-out hubris. The relevance of Wayne’s extreme self-confidence within this album is one that isn’t just evident in consistently egotistical undertones, but even more so the gull to construct 23 consistently long, and harmony-lacking tracks. To exemplify this, the fact that on a 23-track project, 14 of the songs are Lil Wayne without a legitimate feature (not including samples/producers) his sort of approach is very ambitious for an artist not necessarily renowned for being consistently diverse in his musicality. Consequently, the lack of features highlights Lil Wayne’s shortcomings in this project. “Dark Side Of The Moon,” “Mona Lisa” and “Let It Fly,” which feature Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott respectively, are easily Lil Wayne’s most entertaining tracks on “Tha Carter V.” Simply featuring other artists helps distract from the fact that “Tha Carter V” is a self-embellished memoir, containing subject matter that touches only on the life of rapper, Lil Wayne, and doesn’t manage to deliver any sort of shock factor going into most of these tracks’ conceptual foundation.

 

As remarkable, and admirable an autobiographical may be, it’s very easy for somebody to drown in such singular subject matter. For example, you could love chocolate to death, but that doesn’t mean you need to hear the history of chocolate for an hour and a half. This is “Tha Carter V’s” achilles heel- it’s excessive, overdone focus on Wayne could be very enjoyable and rewarding for long-awaiting Wayne fans, but it’s simply not satisfying to have an album dominated by songs that contain 2-3 dense verses, seemingly no hook and very minimal production and no actual usage of vocals, whether it be from samples or Lil Wayne himself. However, it is completely legitimate for one to have their favorite tracks be something exactly as described, because there are still an equal amount of enjoyable qualities in a musically bland track. Namely, “Open Letter” which illustrates Lil Wayne’s disdain towards the fear of death, or “Used 2” because of how eloquent his parallel to killing off his past and even killing his past self to purge his flaws, or even “Let It All Work Out” for being the most explicitly introspective track on the album, where Lil Wayne touches on his attempt on suicide, and how he found God. So it’s no surprise that these songs will still have their place in certain listeners hearts, who appreciate every Wayne song, bar for bar. But by the same token, 90 percent of listeners won’t even be coming to tracks that are this densely packed and have such little focus on musicality. It would be like listening to an audiobook on Wayne’s life, and its that which is holding Lil Wayne back.

 

Let’s not even get started on tracks that are seemingly lacking in both musical enjoyment and lyricism (don’t even try to cover up the fact that every line ended with ni**a on “Open Safe" ), but it just becomes confusing that tracks like those exist in the first place when listeners are all aware of Lil Wayne’s overall capability. “Uproar”, “Mona Lisa”, “What About Me” and “Dedicate” to name a few, are all so fundamentally different, but are easily some of the best tracks on “Tha Carter V”, but the ability to create a 23-track album, with all songs being equally versatile and still sticking to the theme of the album is improbable. Talk all you’d like about it’s lyricism, or how it has deeper subject matter than other contemporary rappers, but ultimately the tell tale sign of it’s underwhelming listening experience is going to be that only 5-6 songs will actually retain it’s replay value following its release.

 

To commend Lil Wayne, the overall endeavor of a one-man army in “Tha Carter V” is admirable, but the way the songs are constructed and performed causes it all to backfire. Following “What About Me” and getting closer to the second half of the album is where things go downhill very quickly, and while there are redeeming tracks, it still feels like drudgery just trying to get through the songs. There is not a single interlude throughout the nearly 90 minute-long project, and every song is full length. Remember “Culture II”, and how everybody complained that the Migos shouldn’t be trying to make every song 4 minutes because it was no longer entertaining and they could only do so much even with three members? Well, solo-man Lil Wayne shouldn’t feel as bad when joining the ranks of them considering he’s doing this on his own. This isn’t to discredit the actual quality of Wayne’s tracks. In the second half, “Dope Ni**az”, is like a breath of fresh air right as things become unbearably dry, and it’s hard to not love a song that samples Dr. Dre’s “Xxplosive”. Additionally, “Dope New Gospel” and “Start This Shit Off Right” with it’s beautiful Ashanti feature, provide soulfulness and actual sonic pleasure that defeat the notion that lyrics are above everything, because the most enjoyable part of these tracks is simply that it’s sonically pleasing to listen to, and has become a staple in the debate today of contemporary versus “real rap”.

 

Verdict: Maybe it’s the high expectations caused by the five years gap from Lil Wayne that have caused “Tha Carter V” to be somewhat underwhelming, but this review has no intentions of saying that “Tha Carter V”, is an absolutely terrible album. The album simply overstretched it’s own abilities- with the lack of features, the mass quantity of tracks that caused complex details regarding Lil Wayne to feel repetitive and dull over time and lack of attempts at anything but traditional rap. Reluctantly, what holds this album above water is the fact that Lil Wayne finally put out “Tha Carter V”, and being that it is Lil Wayne, it’s a given that he will deliver the technical rapping, distinct cadence, unreplicated rhyme scheme, and deep subject matter that he does so consistently. Which is what still allows this album to be respectable, but not necessarily a mind-bogglingly good album by any holistic standard. For all of those pluses, there’s still the fact that an attempt at a full, thorough listen of this project in one sitting is damn near unbearable, and even after the first half of the album, every song just starts sounding alike. To put the nail in the coffin, “Tha Carter V”, by Lil Wayne, in light of its strengths, watered-down traits, and hard to swallow qualities, is a 6.5/10, mediocre-at-best album. It’s a shame Wayne’s re-arrival into the music world couldn’t have been more graceful, and it remains a mystery as to how this album will age over time.