Tha Carter 3 Pt. 1

This is the album that truly sent Lil Wayne into the stratosphere. The hype around the album was massive. Personally, it is the first album I remember being excited about before it released. Until that point, I just found songs on YouTube, Pandora or the radio and downloaded them on LimeWire or used YouTube to mp3 converter to get songs into my library. I would come to know and love albums after release, but never before had I been hyped BEFORE a release. This seems hard to believe in today’s world, but I wasn’t on any social media yet and hip-hop was not as pervasive as it is in today’s culture. Few people in a mostly white middle school in the suburbs were talking about upcoming rap releases. The point is, this news of this album was making huge waves at the time. When it was released in 2008, it was the first album to sell 1 million copies in the first week since 50 Cent in 2005. Many others were just like me, getting most of their music from p2p sharing sites like LimeWire or other free downloads online. For this album to sell over 1 million copies in the first week during the music industry climate of the day was absurd. “Lollipop” was absolutely massive. The song was everywhere, and it was the favorite punching bag of “old heads” and non-rap fans of the day. Some hated on the autotune and the pop tendencies of the song while others shelled out money to get the “Lollipop” ringtone on their Sidekick’s. Love it or hate it, you don’t need to look far to see Lil Wayne’s unmistakable influence on the game today. Songs that didn’t make the album like “Me and My Drank” and “Prostitute Flange” showcase this obvious influence even more. Speaking of songs that didn’t make the album, if you didn’t know, there were a whole lot of them. I have seen numbers around 400 songs that were recorded for the album. Although some artists record a large number of songs before slicing down to the final tracklist, most of the lost songs never see the light of day. Whereas with Wayne, the internet was flooded with the leaks from the album. You can see the work ethic of Wayne in The Carter Documentary where he brought recording equipment with him everywhere he went leading up to Tha Carter 3.

It is impossible to talk about Tha Carter 3 without talking about the leaked songs from the album. Although it’s easy to cherry pick fan favorite leaks to craft a truly perfect version of the album, that is not the album we would’ve gotten with no leaks and even if it was, it’s now impossible to know either way. Although to me, a few replacements can be assumed with relative confidence. “I’m Me”, which was released on the tape “The Leak”, was meant to be the opening song to the album. Although “3Peat” is a more than ample replacement, “I’m Me” is still miles ahead to me. The hook is littered from samples from the first two Carters and Wayne’s raps seem infinitely more focused and is one of the best songs Wayne has made. Another one of my personal favorites that never made the album was “La La La”. Although this could be completely false, I have always assumed that if this song wouldn’t have leaked, it would have replaced the much weaker “La La” off the album (seems like a logical conclusion to me). A video of Chance The Rapper rapping the words of this song to reveal his favorite rapper, is a great example of how highly some new age rappers regard Lil Wayne. I could continue for quite a while on more incredible leaked Carter 3 songs. The diversity of some of these tracks is insane and many of the songs I prefer to songs that ended up making the album. If you have a good amount of these songs, you will likely agree. The versatility Wayne shows on the leaks is explored on the album but not given the justice it really deserves. “Something You Forgot”, “Playing With Fire”, “I Feel Like Dying”, “Pussy, Money, Weed” and the leaks I have already mentioned are all different and show different aspects of what people love about Lil Wayne. Slow autotuned crooning, wonky bars that almost no other MC could pull off, a rediculous amount of charisma, and switching between flows at break neck speeds.

With all this in mind, it is almost impossible to look at Tha Carter 3 the same way. Knowing what it could’ve been, even if it probably wouldn’t have turned out that way, it makes the end result a bit underwhelming to hardcore fans. However, if you pull your head out of the clouds and look at what is in front of you, Tha Carter 3 on its own is anything but underwhelming and delivered many classic tracks and deserves a fair shake. Since the discussion of the background of this album took longer than either of the first two Carter reviews, I’ll save the true review of the album for the next installment of “Tha Rankings.