Lil Wayne takes a Misstep with Rebirth

There has been a lot of (mostly autotuned) experimentation in music lately. Artists have shifted direction, genres have blended, and while a lot of it has been good, some of it has been bad. At the same time, Lil Wayne took over the rap scene in the time span of three short years with several mixtapes, Tha Carter III, and countless featured appearances – and now he’s going after rock. Rebirth, Lil Wayne’s year-in-the-making attempt to become a rockstar, shows signs of promise. A recurring theme of the album is that, apparently, poor Weezy was dumped by his high school sweetheart for another guy (as especially evidenced by the year-old single “Prom Queen” and the lesser “The Price Is Wrong”). Who hasn’t gone through that? Instantly relatable, right? Not really.

The album opens with “American Star”, which features Young Money labelmate Shanell and has almost a country inspired edge to it. “Prom Queen,” the first single released over a year ago, is the equivalent to Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown” only in the sense that it establishes Weezy’s change in direction and you either love it or hate it.


The next song sets a terrible precedent. It’s not that the song is bad, but I was halfway through it when I heard the lyrics “J-j-jump out a window, l-l-let’s jump off a building, baby.” The song is called “Ground Zero,” and besides being in poor taste I could not think of anything more appropriate to foreshadow the rest of the album.

“Da Da Da” and “Runnin’” (the latter of which should really be “Shanell featuring Lil Wayne, and not vice versa) are named based on more than half of their respective lyrics, and “Get A Life” is a “who cares” anthem that sounds familiar in a bad way. “Paradice” (spelled that way) is meant to be a foray into self-doubting fame and fortune, but it sounds false coming from someone who’s been taking over the music industry for the past few years. Nicki Minaj also makes her name debut in “Knockout”, where she proves to be a stronger rapper than singer.

The best songs on the album show that Lil Wayne is at his best when he’s himself. Despite the bad subject matter, “Ground Zero” is as good a rap song as it is a controversial one. Lil Wayne also raps on “One Way Trip” with a chorus by Kevin Rudolf, and “Drop The World” – far and away Lil Wayne’s best song on the album – is helped greatly by a verse from Eminem. By the way, he’s totally back, and he even opens up with a well-sung bridge. Maybe he should do a rock album.

The best that can be said about this album is that not every song is bad. The ones where Lil Wayne does what he does best – rap his ass off – are the ones that are most worthy of your attention. Everything else is entirely dependant on what you expect from your music. If you're a fan of Lil Wayne, then your expectations probably aren't that high.

He's A Pirate!

Let me get one thing out of the way: I hate music piracy. I hate it because it is eating away at the industry like a fat tumor that has been left virtually untreated for literally a decade. The problem is worse than it was in 2000 with Napster - today, any song or album is usually available somewhere on the Internet for free. It's a big place, after all. I hate piracy. And I do it all the time.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a heavy user. I mostly pirate a song here or there if I haven't heard it, and I'm more likely to if it's more than a couple of years old. Or, it might not be on iTunes. But the fact that I'm making excuses just shows that I'm barely taking this problem more seriously than people who do it chronically.

If people keep downloading music for free, then that means artists can't sell their albums. If artists can't sell their albums, then that means they have two options: stop making music, or figure out incentives.

I'm not talking about bonus tracks or iTunes digital booklets (the former can be just as easily pirated and nobody cares about the latter) I mean things that you can never get through piracy that people would actually care about.

Look at how iTunes sells movies. In many cases, the downloads include foreign dubs and subtitles, and you can skip around chapters like a DVD. Apple's iTunes LP seems like a step in the right direction, which can only be described as a music album with DVD menus. It features unique designs that match the album, more computer-friendly liner notes, trivia, and bonus videos.

At least, it did seem like a step in the right direction. I literally just checked as I'm writing this, and Apple seems to have abandoned the concept for some reason. Either that or it's really hard to find. Either way, it doesn't seem to be catching on.

Okay. So I ask you, the readers: now what?