731 and Friends

01-28-10

Wayne’s World: Hottest Lil Wayne Tracks of 2009 (Part 2)

Getting right back into it, this is part 2 or 4 of the Hottest Lil Wayne Tracks of 2009.  I really appreciate all the responses I got for the first installment, both on the blog and in person.  From here on out, the tracks only get better.

I want to take a minute to explain why I felt that I had to do this.  It all started about a year ago, last January.  I was checking out all the lists for the best music of 2008 and I noticed Tha Carter III was turning up on a lot of “best album” lists by professional critics as well as random people just like you and me.  I downloaded the album and it blew my mind.  I was amazed that this man, so vulgar and weird, was the best selling artist of 2008.  Lil Wayne, who I had heard on Cash Money Millionaire hits like “Bling Bling,” “Shine,” and “Back That Azz Up” back when I was in 7^th or 8^th grade, was now rapping about being a martian.  To me, it is amazing that a mainstream artist can be so completely insane.  It is refreshing to me that somebody with so much personality and attitude, a man who is not afraid to say what is on his mind no matter how shocking or offensive it may be, has infiltrated the system.

Anyway, enough of my sermonizing.  The only real testimonial Lil Wayne needs is his music.  If you listen carefully and attentively, you may discover why Weezy F. Baby has become an international phenomenon.  I present to you what I believe to be the 7^th, 6^th, and 5^th Hottest Lil Wayne Tracks of 2009.  Enjoy!

7. Kobe Bryant

This track is for all the people who think that Wayne raps about nothing other than women, money, and drugs.  Yes, it’s true that these are some of Weezy’s favorite topics, but when he decides to devote an entire track to a single concept rather than a series of stream-of-consciousness metaphors, the results are often magical.  Take for example “Kobe Bryant.”  Wayne spends the entire song praising his favorite basketball player, KB.  Anybody who has listened to Lil Wayne knows that he spends a LOT of time bragging and boasting, so it’s interesting hearing him talk about how great somebody else is.  The official video (I don’t know how or why this song that isn’t on any album has an official video) features a number of clips of Kobe Bryant making some pretty insane plays.  I can admire this guy’s skill and I never watch basketball.  In fact, the clips in the video show Kobe balling so hard that a YouTube user named Pokem0n1996 was moved to say “the shots i c kobe make r redic dudes all up in his face jst pops them all.”

Weezy is a huge sports fan.  He has a tattoo of the ESPN logo on his arm.  He has appeared on ESPN multiple times and has even written for their blog.  As he once said on the Dedication 2 mixtape, “I watch sports, dawg.  That’s what I’m into.  Sports, sports, sports.  I got a favorite team and favorite player in every single sport.”  Wayne’s sports obsession actually explains a lot about his rap style, including how competitive he is and how he is constantly calling himself the greatest rapper alive (all Muhammad Ali style.)  Lil Wayne uses this song to tell us that he is the Kobe Bryant of rap, saying that Kobe is the greatest on the court and that Weezy is the greatest on the verse.  The song is full of basketball references and lingo, showing that Wayne really knows what he is talking about.  Musically, the song combines a pretty standard beat with a bunch of clips of sports commentators and other basketball players talking about Kobe Bryant.  How many times do you hear people combining broadcast recordings with original music?  It’s like Weezy’s been listening to David Byrne and Brian Eno’s “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” or something.  My favorite line is the Michael Jordan shout-out:  “Tongue out like two-three, even two-three gotta love how I do me.”  If you like the official video, check out the live video of Lil Wayne performing the song at a Lakers party complete with an introduction by Kobe: “Before the game that’s all we have in our headsets… dat dude.  My main man.  Lil Weezy.”

6. Yes feat. Pharrell

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This is probably the song on the list that I discovered most recently and it really came out of nowhere.  I don’t know if it’s Pharrell feat. Lil Wayne or Lil Wayne featuring Pharrell because it isn’t on anything album.  Strangely, it’s hard to find a legit version of this song on YouTube because of the copyright police.  Hopefully that means it will get an official release soon.  Anybody has heard any of The Neptunes productions will recognize the beat as their work.  It has a crazy sound to it that is psychedelic and old-school at the same time.  The song kicks off with Pharrell rapping, but Lil Wayne pretty quickly demonstrates that he’s running the show.  Both dudes are using the Auto-tune effect, but it really comes out when Wayne starts rapping.  You gotta love how Wayne drops a Bapes reference in his song with Pharrell, a renowned Bapester.  This song features one of Weezy’s trademarks in this song: letting the beat finish his sentences for him, talking to the beat and letting it talk back to him.  For example, he asks himself “Do you really think you’re better than the rest?” And the beat answers for him: “Yes, yes, yes, yes.”  This song is also one of the best examples of Lil Wayne’s signature cackle.  Throughout the track he is just cracking up.  It’s the sound of a man who is having a great time doing what he loves.  Like he says in the song, he’s Weezy F. Baby and the F is for “phenomenal.” (Does he realize…?  Yes, of course he does.)  He’s a New Orleans baller, ask ESPN.  Just kickin’ it with a Bruce Lee-esbian.

5. Let Me Do me

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One of the greatest moments of 2009 for me was the day of the release of the Lil Wayne documentary, The Carter. I remember it well.  I had a cheeseburger and milkshake on Newbury Street, came home and watched the DVD.  I have since seen it 4 times.  The Carter provides an in depth look at Lil Wayne around the time of the release of Tha Carter III.  The film gives an honest picture of Lil Wayne that shows that he, like all humans, has a good side and a bad side.  His good side being that he is incredibly dedicated to making good music, the bad being that he walks around in a weed-and-syrup induced haze 24/7.  The movie can be either really uplifting or depressing depending on your viewpoint.  You’ll have to see the movie for yourself if you want to know more, but I will say this:  The Carter featured many awesome Lil Wayne songs that I had never heard before.  In one unforgettable scene, Lil Wayne listens to a recent recording while smoking a blunt (this is actually what is happening during roughly half of the movie.)  He looks directly at the camera while puffing out his cheeks and dancing to the music.  The lyrics to the song appear on the screen in subtitles, and they’re completely out of this world.  What other rapper could go from rapping about your homies dressed in black for your funeral to, less than 30 seconds later, rapping the jingle from Pepto Bismol commercials?  (Note: Eric Franco thinks that the Pepto Bismol part sucks.  Go figure.)

This is another track that features Auto-tune, and I love the way it allows Wayne to mix rapping and singing.  The melody gets stuck in my mind almost as much as the words.  You gotta love any song with a Steven Urkel reference.  The most amazing part comes when Weezy rearranges the letters of his words: “I’m a giant in this bitch.  Move the G and an S and put the I before the N and put the A in front of that and that’s what I am to the end.  That’s a saint, motherfucker, simplify it for them.”  How can he pull that off without writing down his rhymes?  This is one of those songs that you almost have to break down line by line to fully understand the insanity that’s going on.

Stay tuned for more of the Hottest Lil Wayne Tracks of 2009.