Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter V” an unsurprising success
October 22, 2018
Lil Wayne, also known as Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., has long been one of the best rappers of all time, and he just added to his legendary list of albums with “Tha Carter V.” Lil Wayne added to his series of “Tha Carter” albums by releasing the 2018 album. After seven years without a “Tha Carter” album, the agonizing wait for another is over. And, the wait was worth it because fans received what might be one of the greatest rap albums of all times.
Carter V debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and has six songs in the Billboard Top 100 right now. The album consists of 22 songs and one spoken word piece. Carter V has a lot of fast paced songs, but there’s also a good number of slow songs that describe distinct points Wayne wants to explain.
The song “Dedicate” features a neat quote from Barack Obama at the very end of the song. Obama compliments Lil Wayne as well as Lebron James in a comical way: “They might think they’ve got a pretty good jump shot or a pretty good flow. But our kids can’t all aspire to be LeBron or Lil Wayne!” Lil Wayne shows his various other connections with famous artists like Travis Scott, Snoop Dogg, and Nicki Minaj all being featured within a song in the album.
Several songs on the album have an emotional connection. Lil Wayne’s mom, Jacida Carter, talks about her famed son in the introduction number called “I Love You, Dwayne.” This serves as a very touching beginning for Wayne’s fifth Carter album. The first actual song in the album is more emotional and slow than most of his intense rap songs. The emotional “Don’t Cry” song features XXXTENTACION who was murdered this past June. The moving chorus of the song is sung by X. “Can’t Be Broken” is another song that has a deep meaning. Wayne seems to be singing about how he can’t be brought down morally, making this song very inspirational.
There are a wide range of topics on Carter V. The song “Dark Side Of The Moon,” which features Nicki Minaj, is about how no matter what happens in the world, each artist will always be there for their significant other. The song “Famous” features Reginae Carter who sings a beautiful chorus that flows throughout the song very well. Wayne sings about fame and everything that comes with being famous in “Famous”. He always finds a way to mention his mother throughout each song. Wayne describes deception from women in “Mona Lisa” which features Kendrick Lamar. Wayne and Kendrick explain their experiences with deception and seem to be trying to warn people about it.
Wayne produces a variety of music in Carter V. This is great because it’s not just one type of music throughout the album. If you don’t prefer some of Wayne’s style of rap, there are other options in the album. It is obvious this album has been long in the works, not just because of the number of songs in the album, but also the great variety and style he uses, and the topics he mentions that were more relevant a few years ago.
