The 50 must-have New Orleans records
Lil Wayne - "Tha Carter III" - Cash Money Records - 2008
The self-proclaimed “best rapper alive,” Lil Wayne set the music world on fire with his sixth studio album “Tha Carter III.” The triple platinum album sold 1 million albums in its first week alone, gave Weezy four Grammys and formally made him a household name.
Listening to the record, you don't just feel Lil Wayne's ambition and ego; he smacks you on the face with it. He wasn't afraid to bring rap's biggest icons on board to share the stage -- Kanye produces and Jay-Z sits in on a track, among many others -- and on "Mr. Carter" he demands to be put up alongside rap legends (“And next time you mention Pac, Biggie, and Jay-Z / Don't forget Weezy baby!”)
Among the standouts are "Lollipop," a song so adventurous it sounds as if it was plucked off another planet, and "Phone Home," where Wayne actually makes the trip to outer space by rapping from, as he calls it, Planet Weezy.
Weezy hasn't quite kept the momentum going since the album's release -- eight months in jail will do that to a career -- but he's hoping to make the same kind of splash when he releases Tha Carter IV next month.
-Chad Bower
Lil Wayne - "Lollipop"
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