Lil’ Wayne changed the mixtape game. As an artist who has successfully entered the mainstream, to continue producing music for the musical public free of charge is unheard of. But Wayne is able to because ““ as he says on one of the interludes of his most recent mixtape, “No Ceilings” ““ his music is priceless.
The mixtape was originally intended to be released on Halloween of this year, but, as has been the case with most highly anticipated albums since the dawn of the Internet age, it was leaked days before. There was, however, an official version released at midnight on Halloween, which included four unleaked tracks.
The collection falls nicely in line with Wayne’s “Dedication” and “Drought” series, which is good news for his fans. It’s nice to have artists like Kanye who mix it up with each new album, but there’s something about Weezy that never gets old.
His previous mixtapes took tracks that were produced brilliantly but abused by rappers with weak lyrical ability (see “King Kong” and “Boom,” from the mixtape “Da Drought 3″). He resuscitated them to life like only Dr. Carter could. “No Ceilings” is no exception; Wayne borrows the beats from tracks by F.L.Y. and Gucci Mane and spits fire in the form of lyrics.
Wayne also borrows some of the more popular tracks of the past couple weeks, such as the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” and Kid Cudi’s “Make Her Say,” which itself borrows heavily from Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.” Lil’ Wayne renamed his version “Poke Her Face.”
Wayne also took the opportunity to show off some of the talent in the Young Money stable ““ Young Money being his record label, an imprint of Cash Money Records, which introduced Wayne to the world. Having successfully launched Drake’s career, Wayne turned the spotlight to Jae Millz, Lucci Lou, Tyga and Shanell among others, all of whom performed moderately. Other than the occasional uncomfortable but somewhat amusing one-liners, such as Gudda Gudda’s “your girl like a motion picture, she be coming soon,” they didn’t have much to offer.
The one performance that did make an impression worthy of a true lyricist came as Wayne borrowed Beyonce’s “Sweet Dreams.” Nicki Minaj established her place as Young Money’s most underappreciated performer with her verse, which easily and impressively overshadowed Wayne’s. Minaj shares Wayne’s ability to manipulate words to accommodate a rhyme. She also plays with them in the most clever and incredibly timely way imaginable, as in, “You’re like balloon boy mama, you was never there.” The timeliness of both the lyrics and samples makes one wonder how quickly the artists are able to produce such a mixtape.
While sharing much of his album with his arsenal of protégés, Wayne saved the biggest tracks for himself, such as his version of Jay-Z’s “Run This Town.” Wayne also offers some original work, without sampling any other piece, such as the track “Single,” which chronicles Wayne’s relationship frustrations over a heavily synthesized and heavily sedated melody.
The album includes an incredibly improved version of Mario’s “Break Up.” The beat was produced by Shondrae Crawford, better known as Bangladesh. Crawford was the man behind Wayne’s immensely popular “A Milli” beat, and in “Break Up,” he follows his trademark formula of heavy bass with light percussion to guide listeners through the track. The production is a huge success, a triumph even, of a nostril-vibrating synthesized bass line, with a simple, looped melody led by a basic snare drum rhythm. Mario’s version, however, added unfortunate vocals, which Wayne stripped before he laid on the love of his lyricism.
The entire mixtape, between and even in the middle of various tracks, is littered with the soundtrack of Wayne’s lighter, an unnecessary and sometimes distracting addition. If the sound effect were on an interlude or two, it would be bearable, but it was abused on “No Ceilings.”
Generally, though, Little Wayne exhibited his lyrical ability without any decrease in potency. For an artist to be able to produce an album full of double entendres that rhyme is impressive, but for Wayne to do it for the umpteenth time is what makes him special.
““ Rob Kadivar
E-mail Kadivar at rkadivar@media.ucla.edu.