Follow WoyRMU15 on Twitter

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

I Am Not a Human Being review.


If rappers were synonymous with novels, Jay-Z would be "The Godfather" while Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. would be "Gone With the Wind." However, what novel would best describe the self-proclaimed best rapper alive?

"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."

If you're an unbiased fan of Weezy, the title fits absolutely perfect. At times he can truly claim that title of "best rapper alive," - Tha Carter II, Da Drought 3, and Dedication 2 - but then there are times where he should be mentioned with awful rappers such as Soulja Boy and Lil' B; Rebirth, Dedication 3, a few songs off of Tha Carter III are some examples. I don't know if it's exactly his doing, but Lil' Wayne is the most inconsistent rapper of our time.

Does he still have talent? Of course he does. It's the fact that he dumbs down a lot of his music - mainly his recent stuff - to appeal to the mainstream crowd that makes it seem like he's wasting that talent. The dude is still young too, just turning 28, while other big-time rappers are in their 30's or pushing 40's door down. (Yes, I stole that line from an Eminem song if you didn't notice.)

Out of all his releases, the last one that was completely enjoyable was No Ceilings. The way that he rapped over beats such as Swag Surfin', Death of Auto-tune, and Run This Town made me feel like he was recapturing his Tha Carter II form that would place him again with the greats in the game today.

Like I said earlier, Rebirth was complete trash save Drop the World ft. Eminem and Tha Carter III was mildly inconsistent with stand-out tracks Tie My Hands ft. Robin Thicke, (That reminds me, Weezy makes awesome songs with Robin Thicke. Do another track together, please.), Dr. Carter ft. Jay-Z, and Let the Beat Build saving it. He needs a complete project in order to gain some credibility back in people's eyes. But enough with the ranting, let's get into this album I Am Not a Human Being.

First off, who names a track Gonorrhea? [1.5/5] The beat is insane (Spoiler: I say this a lot throughout the review.) but besides that, the rest of the track leaves something left to be desired. Wayne's verses are completely horrible and the hook is possibly the worst one I've ever heard. On the bright side, Drake's flow is perfect for this beat and I love his part, but the lyrics aren't very impressive.

Hold Up [3/5] is better, even though I hated it at first. The beat is another good one and the hook is actually pretty decent. Whoever this T Streets dude is though, they shouldn't be on this track. I hate decent songs brought down because of a horrible guest appearance.

I hated With You [3/5] so much when I first heard it. The beat isn't one of my favorites, but it's still a good one and Drake comes through with a nice hook. Wayne's verses aren't great, but they're aren't bad either. It's just a chill track overall.

The second single of this, I Am Not a Human Being [0.5/5] is completely awful; I can't even make it through the whole thing. That's such a shame because once again the beat is bananas and would be ripped to shreds by so many rappers. Even Weezy could give a much better effort on this, but there he goes dumbing down his lyrics again. The "Together we stand and fall on yall/Ballin' with my bloods, call it b-ball" line is usually when I usually hit next.

I'm Single [4.5/5] is supposed to be the same song with added Drake vocals from No Ceilings, but you can't even notice Drizzy on the hook. I really wish they would have gave him the hook by himself, but I digress. This is still a very good song, combining another chill beat with some nice story-telling lyrics. (It's not really a story per say, but you get what I mean when you listen to it.)

Nicki Minaj makes her first appearance on What's Wrong With Them [2.5/5]. Once again, nice beat, but mediocre lyrics. However, Nicki does a nice job on the hook with her singing voice instead of rapping and I really, really like the one line from Weezy: "The world is on my shoulders/Should I dust my shoulders off?" This could have been a very good track with a better effort from Wayne.

The first single, Right Above It [4/5], has one of my favorite beats in quite some time. I only liked the beat out of this entire song for a while though, but I've recently warmed up to Drake's verse. The hook isn't horrible, but I hate the voice Wayne's using for it. His verses were a little better than usual on this project, but he still drops a good bit of wack lines in there. Did I mention about the beat being absolute fire?

I can't get through Popular [0/5] without trying to punch myself in the face. (Okay, I wouldn't actually punch myself in the face, but I'm just trying to explain how bad it is.) I don't like the beat - for once - and Wayne comes in with a recycled line from Bedrock. He even tries to drop a Chris Johnson line to help me warm up to the track, but sorry Weezy, that was to no avail. Lil' Twist is horrendous too.

Why can't he make more songs like That Ain't Me? [5/5] This track reminds me more of the Tha Carter II Wayne than any track since that actual album, mainly because of his voice. It's not annoying and whiny like usual, plus couple that with some good lyrics and you've got yourself easily the best song on this album. This song shows me right here that Wayne still has it in him and hopefully we'll get much more of this on Tha Carter IV. Jay Sean does a great job on the hook and the beat is great, as always.

One of the richest men alive has a song named after them in Bill Gates. [4.5/5] He goes back to his No Ceilings voice and drops some hard bars on another killer beat. I thought this song would be a joke when I saw the tracklist, but I'm pleasantly surprised about it. The hook sucks though.

Weezy brings out most of the whole Young Money crew in YM Salute [2.5/5]. For the umpteenth time, another great beat, ruined by some mediocre to horrible verses; and I'm not talking about Wayne's verse this time. Lil' Chuckee and Lil' Twist have higher voices than Justin Beiber and aren't talented at all. Jae Millz wasn't that bad, but he was so much better on 6 Minutes of Death on Mood Muzik 2 and Gudda Gudda is complete garbage. Nicki Minaj again gets hook duties and does great, plus has a decent verse; why didn't they give her the 10-year olds' bars? Oh, and Wayne's verse was alright. This could be a good song if Alvin and a chipmunk didn't open their mouths.

YM Banger [1/5] starts out like it's going to take I Am Not a Human Being's beat, but it's different and still a good one. But once again, a good beat is ruined by the actual rapping. Do I have to say how bad Gudda Gudda is again? He really wants me to change the song before I get to the second verse. Wayne's verse was bad too, but his voice was tolerable. Jae Millz actually drops the best verse and Tyga has - thankfully - his only feature on here.

So once again, we got an inconsistent project from Wayne [2.7/5] but it exceeded expectations honestly. After hearing the second single to this, I wanted to give it one listen and laugh before writing a horrible review. Most of my comments about the album seem negative, but he's honestly got some real gems on here.

That Ain't Me once again reminds me so much of classic Wayne and I really hope he's back to that instead of the trash that is Popular and I Am Not a Human Being. Bill Gates was pretty good as well and I'm Single could have gotten a 5/5 if it wasn't for me already hearing this song on a previous mix-tape.

Wayne came out and said that this music was actually recorded before he went to jail, which gives me hope for Tha Carter IV. With the sober time he spent sober in prison, he could, actually he should come out with an amazing album here in a few months. I want to become a big fan of Weezy's again, I really do, but he needs to drop the garbage that appeals to the 13-year old girls and start getting back to what made him a star. I've still got a little faith Lil' Wayne, please don't let me down.

1 comment:

  1. Great review man. I agree completely. Wayne is one of my favorite rappers, along with MF Doom and Nas, but he has been really inconsistent. I agree that the inconsitencies began when he attempted to gain mainstream success. However, he has stated that he has been writing while he is in Rikers, so I think that will lead to a huge improvement.

    ReplyDelete