According to our family over at Nah Right , Weezy is considering hanging up his microphone after his latest album is released.
“I’m bowing out still on top,” he says. “I’ma make y’all want me when I retire. I’ma make y’all be like, ‘Nooo!’ I ain’t leaving out this bitch when y’all be like, ‘Yeah, it’s about time, dawg.’ Carter IV might be my last one. I’ma make y’all be like, ‘Fuck!’ Yeah, nigga, I’m gone.”
I think i might be happy about this.
The attempt to send Lil’ Wayne to jail has been amusing to watch. First, Wayne decided that he needed to prep for a year in jail by shooting nine videos in one weekend. That way we’ll all see a lot of the tear-tatooed rapper even when he’s serving time.
But that wasn’t enough. Before he could go in, Wayne also underwent eight root canals in one day. Pitchfork also says that Wayne had his diamond-encrusted teeth fixed up before he went in. Those procedures delayed his sentence for a couple of weeks, and he’s now headed to jail sometime in the next couple of days.
Lil’ Wayne is quite the character, and the kid’s got talent. That’s why it’s almost fitting that comedian Margaret Cho put this song together, called “My Lil Wayne”.
At the Grammy’s a few nights ago, a very pregnant M.I.A. performed. In fact, it was actually her due date!
In the words of Queen Latifah, this was a hip hop ‘rap pack’. Yes, that was a Latifah play on the ‘rat pack’ nickname. Still, it’s not everyday you’ll see M.I.A, Jay-Z, Kanye, TI and Lil’ Wayne all perform together on the same track.
It seemed to be one of the biggest hip hop Grammy performances in recent memory, which is definitely a good thing. Plus, it’s not really that bad.
Lil’ Wayne has decided that his next venture needs to be into the realm of rock music. The album, titled Rebirth, has been getting surprisingly good press so far. The first two singles (Prom Queen and Hot Revolver) have been getting all kinds of love from Pitchfork.
Pitchfork, quite frankly, is the last site I thought would get on the Wayne rock train, but I guess they were swayed by him somehow.
Critically, I should note that without a doubt I dig this album more than Kayne’s 808 and Heartbreaks. At least Wayne is giving his new musical career a try without layers and layers of autotune. Okay, that’s a lie. There’s still a tremendous amount of autotune, but at least he’s not Kanye. I frankly don’t understand why, when rappers try to do a rock album, they think all they need to do is just strap on a guitar and turn on the synth software. I feel like there’s some potential here, but he’s copping out.
Here’s Prom Queen.
Focusing more on Hot Revolver, MTV says that “The opening guitar riffs are reminiscent of Tommy James and the Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now,” while the leadoff lyrics borrow from Green Day’s “Basket Case”: “She said, ‘Do you have the time/ To listen to me whine?'”. An interesting choice, I think, considering Wayne’s not exactly known for following the same path as Green Day. But
Here’s Hot Revolver. Ignore the video itself, it’s just a composite of a bunch of other Wayne music videos.
Still, I can appreciate what these kids are trying to do. It’s good to push yourself and try new things.
Raise your hands if you’ve heard of Busta’s new track. If you haven’t, you’ll hear about it soon. This thing is catching fire, and not for good reasons.
First of all, having a track with a chorus that says “We’re getting A-rab money” is just silly. Second, if you’re going to do it, at least be smart enough not to sample the Qur’an in it. Worst of all, they Kanyed the sample (a new term I’m trying out for the gratuitous use of auto-tune). Now, Islam is pretty strict about using the Quran for music (while you can record a recitation of the Quran, you cannot do so to music).
Rolling Stone has covered this and noted that at least one radio deejay has already been suspended for playing the track. Listeners complained and lo and behold, bye bye Steve “Smooth” Sutherland. At least temporarily.
Now, the remix is even worse. It features Diddy, Akon, Lil Wayne, and T-Pain. Pretty much the axis of suck. And they’ve somehow managed to make it MORE offensive, by rapping some the lines in butchered arabic. In fact, Lil Wayne actually busts out the lyric “Al hum du‘Allah with my billions pilin'”. That’s just plain awful.
Here’s the first video real quick.
And here’s the remix.
And yes, Busta and his boys do look like morons doing that dance.
Seriously, it’s a phenomena I didn’t even really see coming unti this post by SepiaMutiny. All of a sudden I could see it everywhere. Honestly, M.I.A’s supposedly social-commentary-laced track Paper Planes has been really getting a lot of attention lately.
First up there’s a Lil Wayne remix, which is just awful.
Then there’s Rihanna:
Oh, and there’s more.
50 Cent’s remix is even less impressive than the ones above. [Courtesy of 2DopeBoyz]
And for you indie kids out there, I haven’t forgotten about you. Indie darlings Holy Fuck have also managed to record a little remix, and you can listen to that one here
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I’ll be the first to say that I do like this song a lot. The original’s catchy, makes some interesting comments and really as a whole is not bad to listen to. The gunshots and ka-chings are not really my style, but looking beyond that reveals a decent piece of music. So I guess it’s no surprise everyone wants to try and cover her track. Give ’em a listen and let us know what you think.
This is barely worthy of 4080 News, but it’s at least a little entertaining. Apparently Lil Wayne just got hired to blog for ESPN.
That’s right, Weezy will now be serenading you with his ridiculous opinions about all things sports-related. As you can see here, he’s all over the place. And frankly, it’s not all that terrible. He shows a surprisingly human side of himself, as you can see here wherehe talks about his fantasy sports teams.
Not something you generally think of with celebrities, but apparently they can be just as nerdy as the rest of us.
My fantasy team is now 2-1. I’m fifth place in the league right now but movin’ up. I won my last game by a great margin. I had to drop Ben Roethlisberger ’cause he don’t look like he’s doing nothing any time soon. Had to do it. I picked up Kurt Warner because he has more to prove than Ben. He’s stepping in to Matt Leinart’s place, and he’s still kind of competing. You want guys like that, guys who are motivated.
I grew up playing football. Believe it or not, I was a fullback. When I was nine, ten, eleven, I was a great blocker. I knew how to block real good and the other kids didn’t. So there I was. One game when I was ten years old we were on the goal line about to score, and coach called the play for me. I was supposed to go one way, but I ended up sneaking around the other side on a sweep. Everybody thought I was already tackled. The ref was already blowin’ his whistle. But I was still up and I stutter stepped one way and beat the last guy trying to get me and scored that touchdown. That’s my favorite sports memory for myself.
Either way, keep on eye on his blog at ESPN the Mag if that’s the kind of thing you’re into.
Lil’ Wayne has been getting mad love recently. The CBC, Canada’s venerable national news service, compared his newest album, Tha Carter III, to “the 1990s opuses of 2Pac, the Notorious B.I.G. and OutKast – mega-selling, landmark releases that altered the course of rap music.” Diddy has called him the “best youngest rapper alive” and Jay-Z has annointed the New Orleans emcee his heir apparent: “As I share mic time with my heir/Young Carter, go farher, go further, go harder” Hov raps on “Mr. Carter”, a track on Tha Carter III.
So is Lil’ Wayne actually that good? To be honest, I’m not sure. I can’t remember ever seriously listening to any of his music. All of this positive coverage has piqued my interested, though, and as soon as I get my hands on a copy I’ll post a review.
In the meantime, head on over to nappyafro.com to listen to some bonus tracks.
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