Album Review: Lil Wayne "Rebirth"

Lil Wayne announced his intentions to release a rock album over a year ago.  Rappers trying to rock out is nothing new.  Run DMC broke into the mainstream in 1986 with Aerosmith on "Walk This Way" and the entire nu-metal genre of the turn of the century was a fusion of rock and rap.  At the beginning of 2009 however, with 808s & Heartbreak still red hot, Weezy's plans to record an album that wasn't straight up rap sounded exciting.

After being pushed back countless times, Wayne's rock album, Rebirth, is finally out.  A year of anticipation and hype from Wayne and his label gives the album extremely high expectations, and although its not a masterpiece, Rebirth delivers.


Weezy uses auto-tune defiantly on the album, refusing to believe it's as dead as Jay-Z says it is.  "My President is B-L-A-C-K," he raps in opener "American Star" before delving into lead single and weird high school confessional, "Prom Queen".  "Ground Zero" channels Beastie Boys and features the bizarre line, "jump out a window, let's jump off a building" with trippy effects.  I'm sure it's great high.

It sounds like Wayne tried to take a page out of every page of the book of rock n' roll.  "On Fire" starts out like an 80s glam rock song until the syncopated hip-hop beats drown it out while "Runnin" has a 90s alternative feel to it.  "Knockout" and "Get A Life" are his attempts at punk-pop, already a horrible genre that would have been best left alone.  Then there's "Drop The World" featuring Eminem that lacks any rock pretenses.  Ironically, it ends up being the album's best track.

Like Michael Jordon ditching basketball to give baseball a try, Wayne, one of the most important rappers on the planet, has ditched rapping and picked up the guitar. Like Jordan, Weezy should probably get back to what he does best and give the world Tha Carter IV after he gets out of jail, but listening to him play rockstar will be fun while it lasts.

Must download tracks: "Drop The World", "Runnin", and "Ground Zero"
Rating: 7/10