731 and Friends

01-19-10

Wayne’s World: Hottest Lil Wayne Tracks of 2009 (Part 1)

For those who didn’t know, Lil Wayne is probably the hardest working dude in show business.  He brings mobile recording equipment with him everywhere he goes so that he can record new rap songs.  Rumors say that he often stays up until 7 AM or earlier (later?) working on music and that during these marathon studio sessions he never takes breaks or even sits down.  The result of this is that hundreds of Lil Wayne songs have leaked onto the internet over the past few years, creating a catalogue of unofficially released material that eclipses most artists’ entire recorded output in terms of volume.  Additionally, Wayne has been featured as a guest on countless tracks and has also released official mixtapes for free download online.

The tricky part, however, is finding your way around in Lil Wayne’s giant jungle of hip hop insanity.  The best place to hear most of these songs is on YouTube, but even then it’s hard to know where to jump in and find the hottest tracks without listening to a bunch of others that range from mediocre to pure shit.  Luckily for you, I’ve spent the last few weeks reviewing some of the most popular tracks of the past year, both official and unofficial.  It was very hard to narrow down my choices, but I managed to pick out 10 songs that I believe stand above the rest.  Even then, it was really hard to rank all of these songs that I love.  For example, some songs were personal favorites but I knew they might not have mass appeal.  Some had great beats with good lyrics, others had good beats with great lyrics.  Therefore, this list is subjective, not meant to be definitive, just trying to put the spotlight on some great tracks and maybe introduce people to some good music they hadn’t heard before. If you love Weezy, check the tracks out and see what you think, let me know which songs you like and which songs you hate or which songs you think should’ve been on the list, which ones should’ve beenplaced higher or lower, etc.  If you are NOT a fan of Weezy, I recommend you give some of these tracks a try; you’re bound to find at least one or two that you can dig.

Big props to Tony, A Ross, Charizard, Chris D, Franco, Andy L, Allan Yu, and anybody who listened to these songs with me and assisted in the creation of this list.

10. Told Y’all

Told Y’all” begins with Wayne’s signature laugh and a miniature auto-tune freak out that I’ll admit rubbed me the wrong way when I first heard it.  However, about 30 seconds into the tack, Wayne goes nuts on the beat and lets loose some Busta Rymes style spreed-rhyming that is really on fire.  You have to really focus to understand everything he’s saying because it all goes by so fast.  Luckily, there’s a YouTube video that features scrolling lyrics so you can read along.  Wayne covers a lot of territory lyrically, including but not limited to: lighting somebody on fire and throwing them into the water, Hurricane Katrina, spelling(“I need to be at the t-o-p-o-f-h-i-p-h-o-p”), a Boston shoutout, and zombies.  The beat has a pretty straightforward futuristic  hip-hop vibe, but Lil Wayne really goes off on the it and shows that his flow is still fire in 2009.

9. “In The Morning”

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“In the Morning” is another track that uses the controversial auto-tune effect.  When I first heard about it, I hated auto-tune because it was being used very lightly and subtly to correct singers who couldn’t sing in tune, making them “pitch perfect.”  To me, this seems lazy, deceptive, and sleazy.  However, rap music hijacked auto-tune and exploded it, turning it into something like an effects pedal for the voice.  With songs like “In the Morning,” Auto Tune is almost like an instrument unto itself.  OK, enough about Auto Tune.

The track begins with some synths and a tag (“Weezy F***in Baby, who better?”) from a mixtape DJ that lets you know this track is an unofficial release.  The premise of the song is pretty basic: having a wild night and waking up in the morning like “ohh…ohh….”  I think that’s something we can all relate to.  This song has a great beat, with crazy synths, syncopated drums, some mindmelting guitar playing, and even a little piano thrown in for good measure.  Weezy has been playing a lot of guitar lately and I really wonder if that’s him wailing throughout the track.  The playing is so unconventional and weird that I want to say it’s him, but I’ve also never heard or seen him play guitar this well so I’m not sure.  Let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt.

By the way, this track is a Tony Alcala favorite.

8. “Drop The World” featuring Eminem

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This track comes from Lil Wayne’s long-delayed Rebirth album.  The album has been in production for quite some time and seems to be amassing some kind of weird voodoo energy.  Amazon.com accidentally shipped 500 copies of the album early and the whole thing leaked on the internet about two months before the official release date, which happens to be about a week before Weezy is going get his prison sentence, expected to be up to a year in jail.  Rebirth is supposed to be a rock album, but it’s actually some weird fusion of rap and rock.  I’ll admit I was apprehensive when I heard the album’s single “Prom Queen,” but most of the songs on the album are better than “Prom Queen,” (which actually ended up growing on me.)  The album will definitely attract its fair share of haters (Allan Yu, for example), and even I’ll admit that it’s not Weezy’s best material, but it truly sounds like no album that has come before it in the entire history of mankind.  You really have to approach this stuff with an open mind.  That said, there’s probably a few songs on the album that can fairly be called horrible.

“Drop the World” is one of the tracks that leaked from the album, but it has since been officially released as a single.  The track features the best selling artist of the past decade, Eminem, who drops a great verse at the end of the song and actually does some really cool singing for about 15 seconds right in the middle.  The song seems to deal with all of the pressure and bullshit that both rappers have to face in their lives.  Wayne talks about hopping in his space ship and leaving Earth, being reborn, and dropping the world on your head.  Weezy seems to be venting his frustrations about his impending prison sentence and all the other people who doubt or hate him.  But he won’t be defeated: “all this bullshit’ll make me strong, motherfucker.”

By the way, this song is an Eric Franco favorite.

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Stay tuned for more of the hottest Lil Wayne tracks of 2009.