Perusing the aisles of Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart, the top hip-hop offerings are indeed unbelievably derivative. A draught of creativity has left the radio pumping watered-down versions of hits from the past. Consider the unsinspiring Chris Brown, who has no fewer than five singles in the top 50. The syncopation on his single "Forever" is a shameless sample from Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback," and Brown has earned the nickname Usher-lite for his smooth moves and lame tunes. What's more concerning for the state of music, though, is that Usher himself is also atop the charts with "Love in this Club." And now, "Love in this Club Part II" (featuring none other than Lil' Wayne, of course). Perhaps Usher should be commended for re-making his own song before someone else got to it.
Crossing over (or crashing) into the rehashed marketplace of mainstream hip-pop is the much-hyped rapper Lil' Wayne. His album, "Tha Carter III," debuted at the top of the charts, and in the last week has sold more than a million copies -- the first album to do so since 50 Cent's "The Massacre" in 2005. Lil' Wayne's previous one week sales record was just 283,000 copies, but "The Carter III" and its huge hype have been a long time in the making.
At the age of 25, Lil' Wayne, born Dwayne Carter Jr., is already at the height of a prolific rap career. Growing up in New Orleans, he signed his first recording contract at the tender age of 11. "Tha Carter III" is his sixth solo album; since 1999 he's made more than 40 guest appearances on other artists' songs.
Besting the best of hip-hop braggadaccio, Lil' Wayne makes no bones about positioning himself as nothing less than the saviour of rap music. On the album, he crowns himself the heir to Tupac, Biggie Smalls and Jay-Z. Jay-Z was also born under the surname Carter, a coincidence Lil' Wayne makes much of. Jay-Z himself makes a rare guest appearance on the album, adding to the air of ascendence.
With "Tha Carter III," Lil' Wayne isn't really doing anything different from the rest of the derivative mainstream rap-market: He's just doing it better, and he's smarter. "Lollipop" is a slamdunk intended to hook a pop audience, and it's done the trick. The song is entrenched at number three on the pop charts. The second single, "A Milli," is reminiscent of the aggressive minimalism of N.E.R.D.; the song's massive beat is built entirely on a voice repeating the words "A million." Taunting mindless rappers like Souja Boy, Lil' Wayne relies entirely on his razor sharp (and shocking) wit to keep the listener's interest: "I'm a venereal disease, like a menstrual I bleed, through the pencil and leak on the sheet -- of the tablet in my mind."
Throughout "The Carter III," Lil' Wayne, who refers to himself as "Weezy" (when he isn't proclaiming himself "the best rapper alive"), snarls and sneers about hard-ons and har knocks and remains more rap than pop. Whether he can single-handedly resuscitate hip-hop music, as he claims on the track "Dr. Carter," is yet to be seen: "Welcome back, hip-hop, I saved your life." Or so he says. Meanwhile, Jay-Z has already upgraded "A Milli" with a remix: "A Billi." It seems even the masters of mainstream (yes, Lil' Wayne belongs among them) are rehashing the past. But, at least, in the case of "Tha Carter III," it's masterfully done.
