After what feels like a lifetime, Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter V finally arrived last night. In some ways, it’s as if the last few years never even happened: the cover artwork is exactly the same as what was revealed in 2014, depicting a young Dwayne Carter Jr. and his mother, Jacida Carter. A glance at the credits reveals familiar producers who have contributed to Wayne’s past projects: Mannie Fresh, Infamous, and Swizz Beatz are all present. Ashanti and Mack Maine are even here, for God’s sake.
And yet the album bears seemingly unavoidable marks of the present as well. The XXXTentacion-featuring “Don’t Cry” is ultimately Wayne’s tribute to the late, controversial artist. Then there’s an appearance from Travis Scott, who was years from even releasing his debut mixtape, Owl Pharaoh, when Tha Carter IV dropped. And, of course, the album length is primed for the streaming era, with 23 tracks in total. Let’s get into it.
Buckle In, It’s Gonna Be a Ride
Clocking in at nearly 90 minutes, Tha Carter V is easily the longest Lil Wayne studio album to date, a full half-hour longer than IV. The length rivals that of his mixtapes, and in one way it finally puts to bed the “mixtapes vs. albums vs. playlists” debate: in the streaming era, it clearly doesn’t matter. Fans of Wayne in any of his modes—playful party rapper, technically-minded booth goblin, OG Auto-Tune warbler—can probably find something they like here without trying too hard.
The songs themselves run long as well. There are practically no songs that dip below the three-minute mark; in that respect, Wayne is clearly not concerned with keeping up with the youth. That’s not to say he’s eschewing hooks or catchy, playlist-ready raps, but brevity has never been his strong suit and here it shows.
Nostalgia Reigns Supreme
In the lead-up to Tha Carter V, fans questioned whether the protracted delays would result in a final tracklist full of dated-sounding beats and stale flows. The answer to that is: sort of—but not necessarily in a bad way! There are beats on Tha Carter V that sound like they could have been made at any point in the past seven years. (We know at least one of the songs, “Mona Lisa” with Kendrick Lamar, has been kicking around for a while, thanks to disgraced pharma CEO Martin Shkreli, who leaked a snippet of it online in May 2017.)
On “Uproar,” Wayne links with Swizz Beatz to deliver a modern-day Harlem Shake trunk-shaker, sampling G. Dep’s 2001 single “Special Delivery.” “What About Me” is a yearning banger that sounds like it was made at EDM’s commercial peak earlier this decade, yet also features a kitschy ’80s drum fill evocative of Phil Collins. Even the harder songs like “Dope Niggaz,” featuring Snoop Dogg, have ties to the past, sampling Dr. Dre’s “Xxplosive.”
In more ways than one, Tha Carter V is a walk through Weezy’s history. “Dedicate,” which samples 2 Chainz rapping, “If it wasn’t for Wayne, it wouldn’t be,” sees Wayne reflecting on the breadth of his influence. The song closes with a clip of then-newly-elected President Barack Obama talking about how not all kids can “aspire to be LeBron or Lil Wayne.”
Meanwhile, “Hittas” samples his legendary 2012 court deposition, and on the album’s closer—the Sampha-sampling “Let It All Work Out”—Wayne finally addresses his suicide attempt, at age 12, for the first time on one of his own songs. “I shot it, and I woke up with blood all around me/It’s mine, I didn’t die but as I was dying/God came to my side and we talked about it/He sold me another life and he made a prophet."
It’s a Family Affair
Family has always been a focal point of Wayne’s life, and therefore his craft, and Tha Carter V is no different. The album opens with Jacida Carter delivering a tear-stricken monologue directly to her son on the eve of his new album’s release. Wayne’s mother sets the tone for the LP, and appears again to close out certain songs. On “Used 2,” she speaks about never knowing exactly what happened with the suicide attempt, while the “Hittas” outro sees her praising her son for his genius. At the end of the emotionally charged “Open Letter,” Jacida recalls being told Wayne was expecting a child with Antonia “Toya” Wright at age 16.
