First and foremost, it was never in question if Lil Wayne could still rap. At this point in his career though I beg to wonder if Tunechi still cares to rap. More so, does Wayne care about actually putting together a rap album. Funeral sounded like mixtape Wayne as far as rapping, but he has long regressed from the Carter III product that took his star pass the atmosphere. It just feels like Wayne now is just turning on beats, rapping to them and submitting songs to the label and letting them pick what songs out the multitude he has made to be the album. And to be honest that is just not cutting it anymore.
I can’t continue to pretend that it is okay for an artist of Wayne’s magnitude to give lackluster work and praise it just because it’s “Wayne”. Again, the rapping was good as far as display of skill, technique, cadence, delivery, tone, but the actual bars themselves were not always on point. There were times where it felt as if Wayne stopped trying to be witty and just searched for what could rhyme next and you could hear it. I am starting to sincerely believe that Wayne is bored with making rap music.
For a long time, Wayne has been trying to desperately turn his artistry over to the rock world, but it has been to no avail. It has not shaped up to being something that he can viably transition too unless he is willing to do away with his core fan base, but that would be problematic for a label when it comes to making profits.
However, it is obvious that is the direction that Wayne wants to go to because when he is doing songs that carry more rock influence, Wayne sounds more energetic and the makeup of the songs he does carry more layers and meaning. It’s quite refreshing to hear Wayne this way because eventually you get back to Wayne rapping and it will sound like the same content you heard on the previous three songs.
Ultimately the album was worth listening too because you always want to hear from one of the G.O.A.T’s, I just hope soon that Wayne can make that jump and get the support he needs to fully immerse himself into being the rock star he wants to be.
Tribe rating:
6.5/10
Stream Lil Wayne's "Funeral"
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