This morning, esteemed HipHopDX contributor Kellan Miller called the Free Weezy Album “a dim holdover for more luminous releases on the horizon.” Spending several days with Lil Wayne’s eleventh studio album, that assessment is fair. At times, Tunechi feels like he’s sprinting to the finish line hoping for a record breaking time. There’s a level of urgency that hasn’t been present in both his lyrical delivery and content since Tha Carter II. Then again, there are moments throughout the Free Weezy Album that have this lack of quality control more noticeable on anything past No Ceilings. With that said, Weezy F Baby’s Tidal exclusive works in his favor as a fresh start.
Following the bombastic Free Weezy Album opener and potential single of the year “Glory,” there’s a moment on follow-up track “He’s Dead” where he croons, “Rest in peace to the Cash Money Weezy, gone but not forgotten.” That statement there is more than enough proof that Young Money has entered a new era. Those who have followed him since Tha Block Is Hot understand the reinventions Wayne has been through during his iconic career. As artists ranging from Juvenile to B.G. began to leave the Cash Money boat, the real first test for Wayne began when in-house producer Mannie Fresh left. Not only did he make the best album of his career with Tha Carter II in 2005, being handicapped opened up a new creative lane for Wayne that would expand greatly by the time The Dedication II essentially changed the mixtape game. Let’s not forget the numerous amounts of unofficial releases, and the fact that many were referring to him (including his idol, Jay Z) as “Mixtape Weezy.”
Fast forward to 2008, Wayne is on top of the world with The Carter III. Some could call this his “Best Rapper Alive” era. In a time where album sales were steadily declining, the New Orleans native’s sixth album goes gold in a day and platinum in a week. At this point, Weezy was initially thought of as unstoppable. Well, that was until he began to build his Young Money empire. Finding a quirky female emcee from Queens, former child actor in Toronto and a lanky rapper with a future love for underage girls was a boss move. Around this time, there was a noticeable dip in quality, which felt harder as Drake and Nicki began to eclipse him creatively and commercially. Looking back, the “YMCMB” era Wayne attempted to find the balance between his solo artistry and cultivating some of pop music’s most respected artists.
Passing time in jail along with underwhelming projects including Rebirth, The Carter IV, Dedication IV, Dedication V and Sorry For The Wait , Wayne was inching his way to has-been territory. Things got really strange when he started airing out his grievances with Cash Money. Legal battles with the label that cultivated his career, album setbacks, and bad singles all set the stage for a few interesting moves. First, Mr. Dwayne Carter signs to a new royalty company and mentions on stage during a performance that he signed a deal with Hov himself. Of course, news would reveal Weezy’s deal was with Tidal, followed by an announcement date for Free Weezy Album. Interestingly enough, no-one paid attention to actually how it was going to be released. July 4th rolls around and it’s a Tidal exclusive without Cash Money attached. What better way to release original music without the risk of a major release and potentially recoup nicely for streams. Currently, Tidal only has over half-a-million subscribers and the Free Weezy Album isn’t going to increase those numbers significantly. This is when things become clear, this album is a new starting point for the “Post-Cash Money” era. A new reinvention that proves that he can make a solid album without noticeable, high profile features or lazy auto-tuned sing-song hooks that weighed down previous projects. Free Weezy Album features both that lovely stream-of-consciousness lyricism and oddly refreshing conceptual themes that made him so worthwhile. Wayne sounds like he finally gets it.
Ural Garrett is a Los Angeles-based journalist and HipHopDX’s Senior Features Writer. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
This was a better read than the nigga who did the actual review.
Lol, everyone saying wayne made cash money needs to check Juvenile’s sales numbers…
Everyone seems to forget BG made them being the 1st. Wayne was 2nd. They were a group. Lil Wayne aka Baby D.
Without birdman adopting wayne as a kid, wayne would have been a broke ass bum rapper who probably would have been murdered as a kid. Birdman was the reason why wayne achieved success. When wayne decided to say “fuck cash money” because of greed, he threw his own career down the toilet. Cash Money was quality control. The free weezy album without cash money was horrible. If wayne was allowed to release tha carter 5 as it was, it would have damaged wayne’s reputation. Cash Money was trying to save wayne and wayne got all bitchy for it.
You’re wrong about everything. Without Wayne, Birdman and Cash Money Recorda would have never seen any success. Wayne made them and Birdbitch screwed him over just like he did to every Cash Money artist. There’s no difference between Free Weezy and ever other album Wayne has released as they are all trash just like everything Cash Money releases. Birdbitch’s greed destroyed Cash Money and his own career.
No you’re wrong. Cash Money have been around before wayne was signed to the label. It was actually juvie and big tymers that gave them initial success. There were other artists though and when juvie and mannie backstabbed birdman, he took those artists and they became successful. Birdman made wayne and wayne was the one screwing birdman. Free Weezy is indeed trash, just like sorry for the wait 2. Cash Money albums are still dope albums forever though.
wayne aint the first kid to sue baby check Lil Ya, Tec-9, Juvenile and mannie all sued for not been paid then most of the producers from C3 sued him as well now both tyga and wayne. dude has a history of not paying up aint about greed, wayne not gone for baby personally just the money hes owed as history states its a familiar thing.
No, Dan. You’re still wrong. Wayne was the reason why Cash Money were successful. And when Birdman screwed over Juvie, Mannie Fresh, etc, they left. Wayne made Birdman, not the other way around, and Birdman is screwing Wayne over. All of Wayne’s albums are trash and so are all Cash Money albums. None of them are dope.
Oh and Tidal sucks. Why pay $10 a month when you can get 99.9% for free on youtube and spotify.
Fool
This was such a great review and it speaks volumes. Yes, Wayne “fell off’ but he did so to build his empire Young Money after he dropped FIVE critically acclaimed projects, Tha Carter 2, Tha Carter 3, Dedication 2, No Ceilings, And Da Drought 3. That’s 5 classics that stand the test of time and puts Weezy in the GOAT discussion. Free weezy album is a new direction so it can only get better. Songs like My Heart races on, Glory, Without you, Pull up, Murda, Psycho, and White girl shows he can still make great music when he wants to. I’m pumped for The Carter V
Rebirth, tha carter 4 and the IANAHB albums were dope too.
I feel, Like Father, Like Son should be replaced with Carter 3.. was a better album than the carter 3. Carter 3 was just more affective to his Career.
That was dope as well but he was probably talking about solo projects.
No. Rebirth, INAHB 1 and 2, and Tha Carter 4 are all trash and so is LFLS.
Great analysis!
Dang I feel bad for sleeping on wayne after the hot boy breakup…props to wayne for still thriving
This is one of th best reviews ever, you really broke everything down. Lil wayne is my favorite rapper, n i know every song he has ever put out. The person that wrote this review, you can tell that they are also a wayne fan because only a real wayne fan could break his career down like that. yes your right wayne hasnt put anything good out since no ceilings. The good thing is he realizes that now and is attempting to make good music again, but this music just isnt good enough for the true fans who knows what he should be sounding like. I would give FWA 2.5/5 based on waynes standards, this album jus sounds like a better version of sftw2 and s4tw2 was horrible. i see hes binging the lyrics back and trying to have sharper metaphors, but he needs to stop that amilli style rapping, it only worked on amilli because that was the only somg like that. He never used to use a metaphor every single line, he jus used to use it here and there which really made the listening cringe and feel the bar. If wayne wants to get back to wayne from 2009 back, he needs to lose this stupid ass high pitch voice, n use his raspy carter 3 voice again, believe it or not that is 60% of the problem, then he needs to stop metaphoring every single line because obviously 90% of the metaphors are gonna be overlooked bevause there is just soooo much. He needs substance in his music again and he needs to stop that singing shit,YOURE NOT DRAKE, and you cant pull it off, i dont have a problem with the autotune only when hes singing with it or using that high pitch voice, autotune wayne with the raspy voice used to kill shit, like on both demolitions. Wayne needs to take a month and listen everything from no ceilings back and try to capture that sound again. Carter 4 was pathetic after listening to it rightt after 2 and 3. if carter V sounds anything like fwa wayne is in big trouble. if wayne wants to make a comeback on the carter V he needs to put mostly unreleased shit on there from 2010 back and maybe only 1 or 2 recent songs. wayne still has it in him , i sometimes hear a glimpse of his 09′ self, but je realli needs to lose this high pitched voice , it water downs his lyrics and it make u not tske him seriously.
Nice review man
I agree with you 100%. I hate that high pitch voice hes been using. You would think someone around him would point that out to him. His real voice is what makes him Wayne. I think all he needs is to lose the high pitch voice and everything else will fall into place for him.
Free Weezy Was Wack. 4 words that start with W solid review.
Dope album
I agree with you a 100%. Free weezy album has some quality tracks as well as some rushed songs on it but don’t forget he did that album just to keep his awake
wut da album sales looking like doe???
There are no album sales, it was a FREE album bro.
10 mil stream first week according to tidal. tidal has less than 6 mil subscribers. pretty damn good if you ask me.
plus. Tidal isn’t just a rap streaming service.
Seems like more of an analysis of his career than his album.
Nigga… MANNIE FRESH made cash money. Everyone one on cash money was garbage. If manny wasn’t producing those beats, they would not have sold shit.
Wayne didn’t get good until the carter 2, and everyone else sucked lyrically. Juvenile is fucking garbage. Turk is garbage. BG isn’t on superstar level.
And you’re a hater because juvenile is never garbage
I’m not a hater. Juvenile could not make a hit song without man is fresh. All of his hit songs were lyrically garbage.
Break down the lyrics to back that ass up and you will be laughing. That song was all mannie fresh.
Break down the lyrics to HA and not laugh… That was all mannie fresh turning garbage into a hit.
Whoever wrote this dumb ass article is clearly a hater and knows nothing about lyrics or music because the albums that dude named: Carter 4, sorry for the wait, dedication 4 & 5 went harder then 5 fouls in the first quarter he could have kept the rebirth album but it still had some nice tracks on it but dudes dumb as all hell. This isn’t just an opinion he’s a hater
How can anyone of you lame ass dudes say anything by Wayne is garbage when you took about an hour or two out of your good for nothing hating lives to listen to each one of his records just to say they’re garbage then took another 6 minutes to comment about it on this post when you could have just kept scrolling This is truly hating at its finest or if one of yall bastards have a rebuttal stating you don’t listen to Wayne but have the nerve to critique his work well you’re the biggest hater of all and very prejudice There should be an award for people like you
“Hating” “hater” are really emotional and immature terms…
If somebody takes the time to listen to something and doesn’t like it, that’s called having an opinion and everyone is entitled to that… Fact is, Lil Wayne isn’t everyone’s personal GOAT rapper. And just as there are valid reasons for that, there’s valid reasons if you think he’s GOAT.
Now I also agree that if someone hasn’t listened to something, that their opinion shouldn’t count. In order to keep it real, you have to hear the album first to give it a fair chance.
I have never been profited nor have progressed in life from arguing on the infobahn, so I usually stay away from it. But Give Weezy F a break people, Wayne is simply the greatest for me hands down. What the guy did to the Game is monumental Straight up and that’s a fact. He paved the way for these rappers today, including Kendrick,Drake and J cole. He’s the Rapper with the sickest work ethic anyone could ever imagine. No way this guy has fell off. Can you name me one artist in the industry who has uttered those words you normally refrain to? Wayne is just on neutral for now and he’s still spittin insane bars. He’s doing it for the love man, that’s what I’ve always appreciate about him. He’s not here trying to sell the most records but at the same time he does it without even trying. Wayne Salute.
Very well written article that was objective
So many people trashing Lil Wayne records and my only question is….why you even listen to him? I’m not a fan of much Wayne stuff. I have a few songs I dig and I don’t like most of his catalog. But I don’t cop his new shit and talk shit about how he sucks 4000 dicks. I don’t understand that way of thinking. If you’re a fan and disappointed, then fair enough. But if you hate all his shit, don’t get it and listen to it. Easy as fuck.
does this fool auto tune all his vocals or is that just his voice? i can’t even tell anymore
I dont have many words but i can only say Weezy is the best and really he is Music
Juvenile actually made Cash Money, but when Birdman was paying everybody left but Wayne. If it wasn’t for Wayne, Cash Money would’ve never seen the success that it has, Wayne kept Cash Money alive for years. He even brought in 3 of the hottest acts in music, Birdman screwed him over by breaching contract and not paying him or the other artists. Both Drake & Nicki are leaving Cash Money too because they’re also owed money & don’t like how business is being handled. Main reason it’s so much controversy is because Birdman went back on his word & breached contract. Wayne sued for $51Mill because neither him nor his YM artists were getting paid for the work they put in.
Love the music
Am I the only one who thought the album was trash? I’ve tried listening to it three times but I can’t, his rhymepattern and voice are too annoying. I agree with the 5.5 Pitchfork gave it. Hiphopdx just lost all credibility in my eyes.
You… your dumbass probably listens to young thug while you in the bathtub eating sherbert… Fuck outta here dude go and listen again turn it up and listen to what he talking about before you come out your mouth talking stupid!!!!! People kill me….. ##FREEWEEZY
Yoooo! Weezy is talented with a lot of potential but his album is traaaaash!
Dumb ass go listen to : heart races on, pull up, ummm glory, all of the songs sound better and he has stayed consistent album after album and still making bangers so shut yo dumb ass up and go smoke a cigarette in other words kill ya self
#FreeWeezy was a free pile of trash
That’s cause you not listening to the lyrics dumbass!!! Get off your ass work hard and make 11 albums and still be relevant!!! Fucking jackass!!!!
U ar a dog my guy I lyk u so much I watch u cn sign me to kill ths mother fucks
I lyk u muy guy u ar a dog respct u mother fck birdman
Even Baby admits wayne made cash money.as it is today…..so i dnt know y u fuckin useless haters r sayin all these garbage. dnt 4get that wayne produced the album for his fans nt his haters. so fuck you all these haters…….WAYNE IS THE BEST!!! Check out the awards he won wth his trash. hahaaa