★★★★★
Once upon a time, it was a given that a Lil Wayne mixtape would be one of the best things you heard all year. During his legendary mid-2000s run, two Wayne mixtapes might have competed to be the best thing you heard all year. Mixtape Weezy was a mythical beast: a fire-spitting, free-associating rap savage with an endless supply of punch lines. He'd destroy your track with lyrics he thought up on the spot, and then he'd laugh about it. He was that dominant for almost a decade...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-09-27
★★★★★
The latest entry in Lil Wayne's long-running Dedication mixtape series may be the least lazy thing he's done in years. Which isn't to say that it isn't still a little lazy, befitting a rapper who seems more interested in his skateboard than in his music. Wayne's lyrics still consist of packets of plangent nonsense delivered straight off the dome through predictable flows, and he's mostly freestyling over other peoples' songs on this tape, not always taking time to remove DJ tags from downloaded...
- pitchfork.com
2013-09-11
★★★★★
There was a time when New Orleans' Lil Wayne seemed invincible. His 2004-'08 run of albums and mixtapes made an all-swaggin', snarling superstar of the Cash Money rapper, muscling his way out of the Louisiana hip-hop scene into the charts and onto Obama's iPod ("He's got a pretty good flow," the US President smiled in 2009)...
- www.nme.com
2013-04-18
★★★★★
Over the past three years, Wayne has made more news with his upside-down personal life than with his inconsistent music. This sequel to 2010's pre-jail rush job finds the MC, who recently had serious health problems, flailing in an attempt to recapture the stoned Seuss-ian magic of his peak years. At his best, Weezy was inventively witty and even his loopiest verses had an internal logic. Here he's slumming, going for lazy verse punctuations and relying on easy rhymes...
- www.bostonglobe.com
2013-04-18
★★★★★
Funny thing about novelty: It wears off. When Lil Wayne emerged as an unlikely superstar around the release of 2008's Tha Carter III, his boisterous, openhearted, alien-jokester persona was unlike anything else in rap. Between his untraceable trains of thought and his gift for bending language around his gonzo whims, he was the most genuinely unpredictable rapper of the era, leaving listeners aglow with anticipation of whatever wild tangent his next verse might contain...
- www.avclub.com
2013-04-04
★★★★★
The title is sadly accurate. Lil Wayne is a full-blown cottage industry now, a one-man corporation that provides succor and service to careers ranging from Nicki Minaj and Drake's to Gudda Gudda and Lil Chuckee's. With this many shareholders come obligations, so despite the increasingly obvious and pressing personal needs of Dwayne Carter the man, Lil Wayne Inc. steamrolls forward, impervious to setbacks...
- pitchfork.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
It sucks to have to call Lil Wayne's post-prison output - made while sober (we assume) - disappointing and devoid of the searing, brilliant whimsy and menace of his previous drug-incubated work. Particularly in the aftermath of last week's TMZ-led death scare, it feels right to root for Wayne's sobriety. But his new album shows more unravelling by one of hip-hop's most cherished and beleaguered figures.
Temperance might dull his inspiration, but it can't shake his confidence...
- www.nowtoronto.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Don't miss out. Follow us on Twitter for new music. Don't forget: use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to move between posts quickly and easily. by MATT CONOVER
In 2007, Lil Wayne was releasing songs for free that could have made other rappers' careers, and he never seemed to give two shits about it. That was just what Drought 3-era Wayne did. "Upgrade" could have been a hit single, but it didn't matter, he had "A Milli" and "Lollipop" on deck...
- prettymuchamazing.com
2013-04-01
★★★★★
Nothing peaks interest in an artist like their untimely demise, and while reports of Lil Wayne receiving the last rites at a Los Angeles hospital recently may have been greatly exaggerated, his bouts of ill health and supposed drug addiction have ratcheted up some short-term interest in the now 30 year old rapper...
- www.popmatters.com
2013-04-01
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