Rebirth, released on Feb. 2, is the much-anticipated full-length album from Lil Wayne. It has twelve tracks including the singles “Drop the World” with Eminem and “Prom Queen.” After the mixtape No Ceilings, fans would think that this album would be another hard-hitting rap album, but after listening to the album in its entirety, they may be sorely disappointed.
The album starts out with the track “American Star,” which kind of sounds like Lil Wayne is trying to take us back to the 80s with power chords and cheesy lyrics about sex. Just like the single “Prom Queen” entailed, the album is very rock influenced, some of the songs blend the genres well but a lot of them leave something to be desired in the way of hip-hop tracks.
Track number four, “Da da da da,” gives the Lil Wayne fans that watch Star Trek something to be excited about with lyrics like “beam me up like Scotty.” Sadly, this track is probably one of the better one’s on the album as far as music goes, lyrics would be an entirely different story.
The rhymes on tracks like “The Price is Wrong,” “Prom Queen” and “Get a Life” have kind of taken a cheesy turn that imply that Lil Wayne is in high school. When Most of Lil Wayne’s previous releases have been about his struggle to become the Grammy Award winning rapper he is today, it’s a bit disappointing to see him go in this direction which is seemingly backward. The songs about the struggles of high school could be a metaphor, but after so many great mixtapes and albums, maybe he is running out of ideas. And although Lil Wayne does have his degree, he never even attended high school.
“Drop the World,” featuring Eminem, gives the expectation that the album is going to be another hard, angry, “look what I did to get here” one like Tha Carter III and all of the albums and mixtapes before it. That isn’t the case with most of the tracks, but it isn’t a total loss, it is still a good album once you get past the “hall passes,” “math classes,” and lack of a few decent beats. Songs to watch for that might get stuck in your head are “Running,” “Drop the World” and maybe “Paradice.”
Lil Wayne is known for thinking outside of the box, and die-hard fans will probably embrace Rebirth with open minds and open arms, but if you are looking for a “Weezy” album, this one is better left listened to via MySpace.