Lil Wayne -Tha Carter IV Review

Tha Carter IV was going to be released in late May, but was pushed back to June. Mack Maine confirmed that the album's release was postponed because they still needed time to make it perfect. On June 2, 2011, the album was pushed back further, and the album is due for release on August 29, 2011.-MTV News

I thought too that Lil Wayne AKA Weezy was pushing back his album release date to fine tune and make it great. If this is the best they could come up with they should have pushed it back to 2012.

This is not a bad album, but it doesn’t bode well when interludes featuring other artists are among the best tracks on the album. As you should expect most of the best tracks were already released as singles.

The first three singles 6 Foot 7 Foot (featuring Cory Gunz), John (featuring Rick Ross) and How to Love respectively are all HOT.

It took me a LONG time to get 6 Foot 7 Foot because of the mad corny hook (Interpolations of "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" by Harry Belafonte. Yeah. Ok.) and the production by Bangladesh (responsible for ‘A Milli’ from Tha Carter III) left much to be desired as well. It was only after a YouTube video with the lyrics (embedded at the bottom of the review) that I could see what pure FIRE the lyrics were. That goes to show you boys and girls, unless you have a good production, people will dismiss your song.

John (featuring Rick Ross) is a hot all around song as well, but perhaps my favorite off of the album is How to Love. Produced by Noel "Detail" Fisher with LaMar and LaNelle Seymour, How to Love is more ballad than rap, more pop than hip hop, but still a great song. We all knew Weezy could sing from his star vocals on "Duffle Bag Boy" by Playaz Circle (In truth the best thing about the song aside from the production by M16) so it came as no surprise to me that he could deliver a heartfelt ballad.

As I stated at the beginning, most of the tracks on this album don’t work. Besides the occasional hot lyrics in some, most songs as wholes are only ok. Some have to grow on you like How to Hate (featuring T-Pain). When I first heard the opening salvos of T-Pain’s autotune I thought “For real dog? Autotune? Really?!” But after listening to it a couple of times I have to admit it’s a good track. If the lyrics of How to Love was exactly that, the lyrics of How to Hate is…exactly that.

There are songs like Nightmares of the Bottom that have good rhymes, but there is nothing special about the beat.

Songs featuring good hooks So Special (feat. John Legend. Produced by Cool & Dre), She Will (featuring Drake) and Mirror (featuring Bruno Mars) also work to a certain degree. Mirror being about the best. (The sixth single off the album is "Mirror" featuring Bruno Mars, was released to urban radio on September 13, 2011.) The iTunes Store Bonus Track Up Up and Away produced by Timbaland is also good.

When you follow-up a classic album like Tha Carter III, it was probably impossible to top it, but I expected something more from Tha Carter IV.

Below are the tracks I thought were HOT.

1. Intro
2. Blunt Blowin HOT
3. Megaman
4. 6 Foot 7 Foot (featuring Cory Gunz) HOT
5. Nightmares of the Bottom
6. She Will (featuring Drake) warm
7. How to Hate (featuring T-Pain) HOT
8. Interlude (performed by Tech N9ne) HOT
9. John (featuring Rick Ross) HOT
10. Abortion
11. So Special feat. John Legend
12. How to Love HOT
13. President Carter
14. It's Good (featuring Jadakiss and Drake)
15. Outro (performed by Bun B, Nas, Shyne and Busta Rhymes) HOT

 

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks

16. I Like the View
17. Mirror (featuring Bruno Mars) warm
18. Two Shots

iTunes Store Bonus Track

19. Up Up and Away HOT

Here is the lyrics video I spoke of above. It goes without saying that this video contains EXPLICIT LYRICS.

2010 Hip Hop Cash Kings

Hip-Hop's Cash Kings 2010

Zack O'Malley Greenburg, Forbes Magazine, 08.17.10, 9:00 AM ET

Four years ago Jay-Z issued a lyrical taunt to his fellow rappers: "What you call money, I pay more in taxes." Turns out his line was more than just a boast.

Jay-Z pulled in $63 million over the past 12 months, earning him his second straight hip-hop cash crown. His income level places him in the 35% tax bracket, which means he'll pay Uncle Sam about $22 million this year--a sum greater than the total earnings of any other rap star besides second-ranked Diddy.

"Jay-Z is in a league of his own right now," says Ryan Schinman, chief of Platinum Rye, the country's largest buyer of music and talent for corporations. "There are very few artists of any genre, not just hip-hop, who've created such brands for themselves."

The top 20 earners on this year's Cash Kings list racked up about $300 million in earnings, an average of $15 million per artist. Remarkably, the total is roughly the same as last year, despite a troubled economy and a music industry thrown into flux by new technology.

"There aren't many artists selling 250,000 albums in the opening week, and that used to happen all the time," says entertainment attorney Donald David. "The rise of iTunes means people don't have to buy whole album ... and that has changed the business dramatically."

Jay-Z and Diddy are two artists who've taken the changes in stride. In addition to releasing an album and launching a worldwide tour (average gross: more than $1 million per show), Jay-Z co-owns the 40/40 nightclub chain and has a stake in the NBA's New Jersey Nets. Diddy continues to cash in on Diageo vodka, Ciroc and roles in television and film, including this year's Get Him to The Greek. He also hawks Diddybeats ear-buds, part of the headphone line established by Dr. Dre, who ranks fifth on our list with $17 million.

Senegalese-American impresario Akon ranks third with $21 million, thanks to his Konvict Clothing label, a lucrative World Cup soccer ad campaign for Pepsi and Kon Live, his Interscope-backed imprint that's home to Lady Gaga and others. Fourth on the list is Lil Wayne, who managed to pull in $20 million from his new album, Rebirth, and heavy touring before the start of his one-year jail stint in March for weapons charges. Ludacris ranks sixth with $16 million, a total fueled by movie roles and a new cognac line, Conjure.

"There's a lot of cross-branding and cross-marketing that's going on these days," notes Troy Marshall, vice president of promotions at Interscope Records. Along with touring, he says, "those are very important components for artists as far as spreading the message of their music and spreading the message of their brand."

Kanye West's earnings fell from $25 million last year to $12 million this year in the wake of his highly publicized outburst during Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the 2009 Video Music Awards. With a new album and world tour in the offing, he should be back toward the top of next year's list along with 50 Cent, who took a break from touring and recording to concentrate on film roles over the past year, earning $8 million, a relatively paltry total for the 2008 Cash King.
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Eleventh-ranked Drake is the highest-earning newcomer on the list. He banked $9 million over the past 12 months, thanks to a new record deal, an advertising pact with Sprite and an agreement with Virgin America that plasters his likeness onto the sides of airplanes. Another good decision: recruiting Lil Wayne and Jay-Z to appear on his debut album, Thank Me Later, which sold 447,000 copies in its first week.

Though Jay-Z earned more than Lil Wayne, Drake, Kanye West and 50 Cent combined, he's not even the richest musician in his own home--that honor goes to his wife, Beyoncé, who raked in $87 million over the past 12 months.

Methodology: The Forbes Hip-Hop Cash Kings list includes male recording artists whose work is primarily classified as hip-hop or rap. Earnings estimates, which include income from record sales, digital downloads, touring, films, TV shows, endorsements, books and other entertainment ventures, are calculated between June 2009 and June 2010. Management, attorney and agent fees are not deducted.

In order to determine our list, we interviewed numerous sources within the music industry, including lawyers, media buyers, record label executives and many of the artists themselves. We also conducted research via Billboard, Pollstar, Nielsen SoundScan and the Recording Industry Association of America, among other sources.

2010 Hip Hop Cash Kings TOP TEN

1. Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter $63 Million

2. Sean "Diddy" Combs $30 million

3. Aliuane "Akon" Thiam $21 million

4. Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Carter $20 million

5. Andre "Dr. Dre" Young $17 million

6. Christopher "Ludacris" Bridges $16 million

7. Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus $15 million

8. Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley $14 million

9. Pharrell Williams $13 million

10. Kanye West $12 million

*You can go to Forbes Magazine Hip Hop Cash King page with past lists right here