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Someone had to do it...................
1. 3 Peat---typical album opening track, not much of a hook, just another Wayne lyrical slugfest where he threatens various members of the family, asks the listener to taste his thoughts, and makes a bizarre Adam Sandler reference....if the track didn't feel like a cheapened version of "I'm Me", which has been out for about a year now, it would have had more impact as an opener to what has been billed as a classic album 3/5
2. Mr. Carter f/ Jay-Z---after somewhat of a letdown with the opening track, the album starts to sound like how some would have pictured it, with a sung "Mr. Carter" refrain and dueling verses from Wayne & Hov.......Hov even adopts Wayne's more choppy style of rhyming and effortlessly hangs with his younger counterpart, the beat sounds much like a Just Blaze production, but it is attributed to a lesser known production group 4/5
3. A Milli----everyone by now has heard this track, which consists of simply a bassline and a chanting voice saying "a milli" over and over again, for my money, Cory Gunz wrecked this track harder than Wayne, but his 16 is curiously absent from the album version.....Wayne is all over the place on this track, only sporadically doing anything more than putting words together just to hear himself talk, the second verse is a highlight but it comes on the heels of a mildly entertaining opening 16 3/5
4. Got Money f/T-Pain---if there was a track other than "Lollipop" that would ensure this album's non classic status, this would be the one.....a very mediocre beat and Wayne & Pain's crooning do nothing to help matters, as Wayne seems content to regurgitate pop culture references and T-Pain parks right in the middle of the track, doing nothing to advance it one way or another......bonus points because i did laugh at "bitch, i'm the bomb like tick, tick" 2/5
5. Comfortable f/ Babyface---another song whose impact is dulled by having been heard before, but unlike "3 Peat", this one has been out on The Drought Is Over series for quite a few months now.....Kanye does nothing new with the track, as it is reminiscent of "Bring Me Down" off Late Registration, Wayne does a decent job with real human sentiment and the soft feel is a nice change of pace after the last two songs, i'm not mad at this song at all 3/5
6. Dr. Carter---easily my favorite song on the album, as Swizz Beatz jacks a David Axelrod instrumental for Wayne to spit 3 seperate tales of attempting to bring patients (hip-hop) back to life, the only thing that really struck me was that all of his patients die at the end of the verses, making me wonder if he did that intentionally.....the third verse is hilarious, anyone who can work a reference to "geese erection" into a 16 is all right with me 5/5
7. Phone Home---starts off just like "A Milli", with a fake instrumental that blends into a more pounding bassline, it continues in the vein of "Dr. Carter", with a fully thought out concept and rhymes that all are more or less about the same subject.....Dre is annoying on the hook, but the song itself is a fun listen and doesn't seem to take itself too seriously 4/5
8. Tie My Hands f/ Robin Thicke----this song was evidently completed before even The Carter II and it shows......it's a bland, clearly radio marketed song where Wayne plays on people's sympathy and raps about the Katrina disaster over a beat that sounds more suited for one of Robin's solo joints, again, it's another song that he's already done better with the "Georgia Bush" freestyle of Dedication 2 2/5
9. Mrs. Officer f/ Bobby Valentino----one of the more over the top songs on the album, it features a another smooth melody and Bobby Valentino imitating the sound of a police siren on the refrain and Wayne spitting tales of getting pulled over by a female police officer and of course, hooking up with her, most people don't like this one too much, but it's easier to listen to than "Tie My Hands" 4/5
10. Let The Beat Build---Kanye laces this track up something serious, as a beat layers in slowly and builds up to a thumping bassline....the beat is easily a 10/5, but again, Wayne's lyrics aren't exactly up to snuff and it makes me wonder why he wouldn't try writing something down on paper, because his freestyle approach is lacking the power to properly murder a beat like this 3/5
11. Shoot Me Down---Wayne tries his hand at a more rock styled track, and while it does come off as an Eminem bite, Wayne actually displays some of the lyrical talent that made this album so highly anticipated in the first place.....i was also digging whatever sample they broke out for the refrain, as it fits the track like a glove, it works on all levels, even though Wayne attempts to bring some chilling visions to the song by ending it with him shooting at his own reflection 4/5
12. Lollipop---the less said about this song, the better, the one good thing that can be said for it is that it's not all that much worse than the T-Pain collabo 1/5
13. La La f/ Brisco & Busta Rhymes---Wayne murders this track, hopscotching between talking about hip-hop, Dirty Harry, Paris Hilton, Diego Corrales, Halle Berry, his daughter, and his bank full of pride, Brisco gets off a couple decent punchlines, and Busta comes on at the end to do his patented Busta verse, but it just doesnt fit with the context of the track, it's another beat that sounds stolen from an Eminem album 3/5
14. Playing With Fire---same style of track as "Shoot Me Down", as Betty Wright was not sampled and actually sung her part live, Wayne sounds seriously unhinged as he spits downright blasphemous lyrics about standing on the same balcony as MLK and screams "assassinate me, bitch!", and says pussy at least 50 times over the course of the track.....the tale he spits at the end where he attacks his mother's boyfriend with a cleaver would have been a lot more thrilling if he hadn't already spit the exact same bars on "World Of Fantasy" 4/5
15. You Ain't Got Nothin' f/ Fabolous & Juelz Santana----Alchemist gives these three an absolute heatrock, and Fab & Juelz murder the track with authority.....Wayne confines himself to singing yet another AutoTuned hook and his verse also leaves a lot to be desired, as he clearly seems to be freestyling and not caring what words are said when, as long as it all sounds halfway decent, it's another nail in the coffin to the so-called classic album, when you're beaten by both of your guest MCs and neither of them are named Jay-Z 3/5
16. Don't Get It (Misunderstood)---a great Nina Simone sample and production go to waste as Wayne stops rapping about 2 minutes in and decides to go on a weed and syrup fueled political rant for almost 8 minutes, not to say i wasn't dying laughing at most of it, but it was an awful way for the album to go out on 2/5
Final Rating=3.5/5
By no means is this not a pretty good album, but that's just what it is.....pretty good. For all of the hype, Wayne really needed to focus in and deliver, but there are several songs that don't feel like they needed to be included on the album (Lollipop, Got Money, Busta Rhymes & Brisco on La La, Misunderstood, Tie My Hands)......replace these 4 or 5 joints with songs like Did It Before, I Feel Like Dying, Lisa Marie, Action, etc. and then you have what might be a classic joint
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If your hear click, trust me, you will hear clack
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