Music Review: Lil Wayne - "I Am Not a Human Being."

My experience in listening to Lil Wayne's music is grazed bits and pieces as they have passed me in my exploring of pop culture. I've never focused long on this rap mega-star and before putting in "I'm Not A Human Being," I had never listened to one of his music albums. Perhaps it is ill form to start with his 2010 album and maybe I will travel back in time and find some better Lil Wayne, but I can say this record seems flat. I figured Lil Wayne to be all sharp and pointy. My song by song notes can be found below, but be warned, I did not like any of them, the songs that is, I am impartial to my notes.

"Gonorrhea": Lyric: "I'm a young God." Maybe his record sales have him feeling that way, but his delivery on this song was less "rap" and more like some lazy, half-drunk dude talking to me. He calls them how he sees them and does not want someone's Gonorrhea. Okie-dokie. I guess his flow speeds up some as the song goes, I don't know, this song is just stupid to me.

"Hold Up": He opens up saying he is a gangster, but is he? Lil Wayne's bio has him as a gifted class student and in the drama club playing the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. He was shot, but he did it to himself at the age 13. I guess he went to jail when he got older and needed to play the gangsta rapper role and was carrying a gun. If he put a gun to my head, I might say this song is "okay," but really it is pointless background drizzle.

"With You": A slow soul song with Lil Wayne getting some interesting sounds out of his cracking voice here and there, stabs at emotion, but it's a butter knife and it snaps too easy. Mostly the rap is boring, but the track is easy listening in the ears if you're just wanting anything going while multi-tasking on other things.

"I Am Not A Human Being": A mess. Each section feels shoddily tacked on, mashed together, but not fitting.

"What's Wrong With Them": The beat is weak, the lyrics are weak, the rapping is weak, another lazy song. I think Bubba from Forest Gump would have a more interesting flow going on about shrimp compared to this. Nicki Minaj does the chorus, but she can't save every song she guests on.

"I'm Single": A very sleepy beat with music, low low, and Lil Wayne's flow is once again barely above the speed of the hobos in my city yammering to themselves on the corner. The song is trying to be sexy and the subject matter about him being single for the night to get with a woman. (well, he has a derogatory word for women) I'm not stoned so I'm not really digging it.

"Right Above It": "I've been sippin' so this s*** is moving kind of slow." I think this line describing the action he sees in a strip club might explain a lot of why the album sounds so slow in terms of energy. It's not laid back feeling, fun, just lazy, churning out stuff just to be churning it out. With that said, this song is a bit more uptempo in beat and has a "quality" about it that feels like it once upon a time ago could have been a hit, but not a true contender anymore. Of course I say that and the song was a hit single off of the album. The beat and music deserves a better talent doing something with it.

"Popular": Basic lyrics about sex acts he wants to do to a woman and how he feels on top of the world on top of her. Talks about ripping her clothes off, doing things to her butt, this, that, I'm ready for another track. Something interesting, please, this is pathetic. These types of lyrics are being created and spewed out in my living room by a bunch of white teens as they giggle and this guy who isn't doing anything all that great in his delivery is making moolah off of the same crap.

"That's Ain't Me": R & B chorus hits par on the course, but Weezy is falling short of his best if I am to believe the hype and fandemonium that has been generated by his tracks.

"Bill Gates": What would have been really cool is if he had Bill Gates come on this track and bust some verses out. He raps about people hatin' on him for his success and his rich like Bill Gates, but got lots of problems. I'm hatin' on this song, this album, but not Weezy himself, I don't know him. I have not motive for stating this music stinks other than to fill in the spaces of my article here. But really, this music stinks. I'll give one of his other albums a try once I suffer through the last tracks of this one.

"YM Banger": The background sounds swallow any beat there may be and are very distracting. The other rappers out do Lil Wayne with their flow.

"YM Salute": The female rapper who opened the song was awful. And as the mic is passed from guest to guest and then to host Lil Wayne, nothing ever picks up the song, slaps its butt, and makes it cry out I am full of life! Everybody fails, though no hate once again towards Nicki Minaj, she has nice tone.

"I Don't Like The Look Of It": Fun opening, get up beat, Gudda Gudda flows fast and tight out of the gate, lyrically okie-dokie. Is the album starting now? Lil Wayne blazes one, starts his rhymes, and sucks the air out of the song, he even reuses rhymes from previous songs, meh. Best song on the album, 60% of that is because it means it is all over.