The Carter IV

It's been a while since I've given a music update. This is because of two reasons: 1) sometimes I become a little lazy (sometimes) and 2) because I've been waiting for the Carter IV for almost a year and wanted to give it a good listen, aka 2 weeks of listening, before I gave my opinion on the much anticipated album. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, Lil Wayne, a polarizing rapper, came out with the fourth edition of The Carter series. Not short of controversy, Lil Wayne (aka Dwayne Carter), had his long-awaited album pushed back numerous times as his time to prepare the album was limited by his stint in prison last year. 


I had mixed feelings about my expectations for this new album. I had been a huge fan of his previous album, The Carter III, and wasn't sure if he could match the quality of that album. To my surprise, he didn't disappoint. The album didn't disappoint many other fans as well, as he almost made history as the first rap act to open with back-to-back million-selling albums. Thanks to record-setting iTunes sales of 300,000, plus the push provided by a post-VMA on-sale stunt, Weezy's eagerly anticipated Tha Carter IV will debut at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart next week on sales of 964,000, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan.


I'll warn you now, Lil Wayne's music is very vulgar but yet deep at the same time. If you can get past his vulgarity and listen to what he is trying to actually get across, you'll most likely be able to enjoy his music. A great website I have used to study rap music is rapgenius.com, it will walk you through each stanza with a translation into a more literal meaning. I highly suggest using this website if you get the chance. But again, The Carter IV is very vulgar in some songs, so prepare yourself if you decide to listen. 


I'm going to give you my top 5 songs off the album and a brief description of why I liked them. So here we go. 

1.President Carter

This song really intrigued me because of the pure creation of the song. It uses the presidential inauguration of former president Jimmy Carter in the song as well as a voice modifier at the end of the song to reflect a presidential speech. 

2. Mirror (feat. Bruno Mars)

This self-aimed song is Wayne's way of showing his intellectual independence and do-or-die attitude. As great as the actual lyrics are in this song, Bruno Mars' singing may have been even better. Overall this song is a great listen for most anyone. 

3. It's Good (feat. Drake and Jadakiss)

Just a cool song setup. An old-school rap legend, Jadakiss, starts the song out. The new school artist and member of Wayne's label Young Money, Drake, follows up Jadakiss and sets up Lil Wayne to bridge the gap between the old and the new. The song is meant to assure all doubters that Lil Wayne is far from done in the rap game. 

4. She Will (feat. Drake)

Very vulgar song, the metaphors and personified lyrics are what makes this song great. Probably a song you'll need to listen to more than once to get a solid feeling for, I know I had to. 

5. Blunt Blowin'

Tried to leave this song off the top 5 but couldn't convince myself, if your offended by the title, try to remember that the song is not actually about blowing blunts. Give it a try with as little bias as possible and see how you like it. 

Some things to leave you with. These youtube videos, due to copywriting laws, are not of the best quality so if you like the songs but would like to listen to the real-album versions, I would definitely suggest buying the album or if you can't afford a $14 CD, I'll give you a copy of mine. So no excuses! Also, studies show that people typically don't know for sure whether they like a CD after the first time but typically can make a better judgement after 2 or 3 times through the CD. If you hate it the first time, give it a day to soak in, and try it again. If the second time isn't any better, don't worry, not everyone likes rap and even less like Lil Wayne. For those who end up not liking the above songs, don't give up on me yet, I'll bring country back to the music posts very soon.