Lil Wayne - Sorry 4 The Wait 2

This is Carter’s second Sorry 4 The Wait, hence the genius title of this tape. I came to this knowing little about Lil Wayne (real name Dwayne Carter), apart from his forays into massive chart success, such as Lollipop, Jay Sean’s Down, or the so-awful-it’s-awful Let It Rock. If there’s one thing I’m sure of after listening to Lil Wayne’s new tape, Sorry 4 The Wait 2, it’s that he’s sorry for the wait. Seriously, he says it a lot, and by track four it’s getting slightly repetitive. Update: by track ten it’s tedious.

His incessant apologies raise a good question, however: why was this so late? More importantly, why was his 10th album, Tha Carter V, not released? There was a time when Lil Wayne was the rock star of Cash Money, with discoveries such as Nicki Minaj and Drake giving his label, Young Money. an impressive roster. Yet now he is one of their artists, struggling to release an album. This leads me to the conclusion that this is more than a mixtape: this is politics. Lil Wayne announced that he was done with Cash Money via Twitter, and this is echoed on the record as he constantly fires shots at both them and ex-mentor, Birdman. For example, on CocO he claims: “It’s compensation over conversation / Lord, I must got blurry vision, a n****s got two faces.” Ouch.

Focusing on the music, things aren’t looking much brighter. Wayne’s lyrics are always pushing some sort of boundary, whether it’s those of hip-hop, or that boundary between bad and awful, such as those from Sh!t: “She want to get it off her chest but her boobs too big.” Not to mention the frankly offensive Fingers Hurting lyrics, which suggests that Carter thinks the potential of a woman’s mouth is wasted if it’s not around his penis. Unless, of course, you’re Nicki Minaj, who - as rap’s princess and YMCMB’s pay cheque - seems to do no wrong.

Hearing Lil Wayne collaborate with Minaj and Drake (“I ain’t trippin, I got Barbie I got Drake too”) serves as a reminder of how far he’s fallen in terms of mainstream success. While Anaconda is breaking Vevo records, (19.6 million views in 24 hours), Lil Wayne is remixing Drunk In Love with Christina Milian. And one of the main themes is that he’s a skater, where he claims “She doin’ tricks on my dick ‘cause I’m a skater”, and she swaps “surfbort” for skateboard. This track confirms what I was thinking throughout this mixtape: that these songs aren’t awful, such as Sh!t and CoCo, but this is due to the tune and backing beat rather than the lyrics. As someone who is infamous for ‘spitting’ over other people’s songs, this is hardly surprising.

Overall, this may not have been worth the wait. After a bit of searching I’ve discovered that I’m not alone in this view, as the hip-hop world seem to think that Carter may have lost some of his oomph. For me, the first few tracks were bearable (and even enjoyable), but seventeen songs in and I never want to hear Sorry 4 The Wait again. Let’s hope his next album is on time.