“This Is The Carter” is probably my favorite Lil Wayne song.

Enlightened by Mannie Fresh, Cash Money’s best producer of all time, this pop-tart from Young Moolah’s original Carter allowed the pubescent pre-President to dash some sprinkles of pre-swag swag onto wax before he ever admitted to being a Martian. Read the rest of this entry »

The beautiful thing about music is that, unlike sports (football season can’t start quick enough, by the way), it lasts all year. Sure, some days tend to be a tad faster than others and certain quarters of the year may house more anticipated releases, but “off days” are few and far between. However, for those moments when the music industry seems to move at a snail pace, diggin’ through the e-crates never gets old, especially when you recall what you were doing around the time a specific project was released.

The summer of 2006 happened to be one of those moments. Aside from marking the first time I began living on my own and the official halfway point of my collegiate career, three particular releases pretty much defined that point of my life, at least musically. Depending how you look at the glass, that could either be good or bad. Hit the break for breakdown. Read the rest of this entry »

Rolling Stone has deemed Tha Carter III the best Hip-Hop album of the year. MTV has called “A Milli” the best Hip-Hop song of the year. The latest chapter in Tha Carter series has gone cabillion platinum. Like it or not, history has painted Tha Carter III as a modern day classic marking Lil’ Wayne’s arrival.

But this is only the latest transgression in Lil’ Wayne revisionist history. Many act as though he crash landed from Mars right around when Dedication 2 dropped. The fact is, Lil’ Wayne has had a career spanning roughly a decade. During that time, he’s at worse been an above average MC with a grand catalog of great solo songs. After revisiting literally over 450 songs, here is the definitive career-spanning list of the top 20 Lil’ Wayne solo songs.

No features or Auto-Tuning allowed.

20. “Fuck Wit Me Now”

In Lil’ Wayne’s 500 or so songs, not a single one sounds like this. Wayne gets his Twista on to keep things completely gutta. He spits over quadruple-timed Mannie beats in a flow that is completely A-typical for Lil’ Wayne, but it works for the young spitter.

19. “Upgrade U”

You ever see Drunken Master? The premise is that Jackie Chan needs a certain specific amount of alcohol that allows him to be smooth and impervious to pain enough that it makes him a better fighter. Drought 3 is where Weezy reaches that same sort of cracked out equilibrium that allows his wackiness to be a sign of brilliance. No track exhibits this fact as much as Wayne’s destruction of the Beyonce single. He even takes time to give a R.I.P. to Apollo Creed mid-song. Read the rest of this entry »