Lil' Wayne's Rebirth - My Take (from ACRN.com)

Word was I was too soft on Weezy F. Baby. I still ripped him though in this review of his latest album Rebirth. Enjoy below! (And check out acrn.com for more reviews, features, and videos!):

Lil Wayne:Rebirth
[Cash Money Records; 2010]
Rating: 4/10
By Star Watson
February 4, 2010

Lil Wayne’s new album Rebirth has the potential to be a joke (or at least unreal) to the hip-hop community, as well as a smack in the face to the rock genre he tries to replicate.

The sound of this album ranges between the '80s electro-pop movement and late '90s to early '00s nu-metal alternative music, which isn’t necessarily the prime of the rock genre. Lil Wayne’s autotune-powered screaming sounds entirely too much like Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, and his lyrics sound like he ripped them from the debut Linkin Park album Hybrid Theory.

In “Ground Zero,” Wayne’s hook resembles the darkness of late '90s nu-metal and rap-metal bands: “Let’s jump out the window / Let’s jump off a building, baby.” In the hook's delivery (which sounds like it was done over the phone), Wayne totally jacks the style Linkin Park had in its prime. It’s deep, like a lot of his lyrical content, but the delivery has been done before.

The verses he drops are lackluster, and definitely not represent the lyricism that won him a Grammy in 2009. His typical freestyle lyricism is still there, but it’s nowhere near the quality his fans have heard in previous albums.

It’s difficult to spot Weezy's wordplay on many tracks. Not to say that his flow sounds better on a rap album, but his sing-song delivery for this rock sound doesn’t work as well. It’s almost like hearing a poet who may have written a nice poem, but decides to sing their lyrics. Instead of giving the people his idea the way it should be (in rap form), Lil Wayne’s lyrics are drowned out by synthetic singing.

He does bring some positive and creative additions to his Rebirth sound. Although he sounds just like various nu-metal bands, Wayne manages to make the content more explicit than those guys. And it’s not only with the F-bombs he drops in “Drop the World" -- he also comes with straightforward content. For example, in “American Star,” he’s a self-proclaimed drug dealer turned rocker.

No, really. “I’m a dope boy with a guitar” is the song's hook.

Although the rock star look is hot in the ‘hood, the sound, especially that heard on Rebirth, will be seen as a joke to his fans in the hip-hop community and the rock community. The bottom line: Lil Wayne’s Rebirth swagger-jacks Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. Maybe Weezy needs to go back in the womb and be born again, next time with something different to show.

Photo credit: Amazon.com