Tha Carter V by Lil Wayne – Variety

It's impossible to separate Lil Wayne's long-delayed "Tha Carter V" from the tortured story behind him: the endless legal battle with Birdman, his mentor and boss of the Cash Money label (a quarrel of family that the rapper finally won in June); the five years of missed release dates and postponed; even the card race with Kanye West's "Yandhi" that has come up in recent days. Since 2011, Wayne has made a lot of sound effects and resonances: "collaborative albums with 2 Chainz (" ColleGrove "in 2016) and T-Pain (" T-Wayne "in 2017), promethazene solo albums like" I'm not a human being II "(2013) and Rich Gang's debut album (2013), as well as several mixtapes. But none of them had the lyrical bite, rhythmic roar, and sonic tension of Wayne's "Tha Carter" series.

With the unsatisfied promise of "V" threatening all these outings, he's pretty much a fan of Weezy since 2011. After all, like Vin Diesel and "Fast & Furious", the franchise "Tha Carter" is the place where Wayne is really at home: loose but tight, haughty caustic and filthy but also comical, and cutting right to the bone.

So, everything is now forgiven that "V" has finally arrived, launched in a world very different from that of 2013, originally planned for its release? What will it mean to mumble and remind SoundCloud, and a generation grew up on the former protégé of Weezy, Drake? (Strangely, Drizzy does not contribute to any of the 23 titles of "V", though Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, XXXTentacion, Nicki Minaj and Travis Scott, among others).

The good news: Musically, in spite of the age of some songs, "V" is sometimes cool, flush and even frenetic, with the crunch of sounds from the South trap and rap-rock ropey that Wayne has practically started. Although he is missing a last-minute post-Malone session on this group of tracks, pieces of Travis Scott and XXXTentacion help to purr and kick V and Wayne, self-taught, sings on the tender "What About Me". hear Wayne shout the lines "I see death at the corner of the street / And the sign of the U-turn looks like a smile", after the XXXTentacion reflection at the top of "Do not Cry", puts the mortality on the front of the album scene.

Indeed, "V", with spots from Wayne's mother (on the opening title "I Love You Dwayne," which is directly addressed to her) and her daughter, "V" has a moving emotional side that even some of the coldest moments of Wayne's previous "Carters" missed. The space "Dark Side of the Moon" finds a singer Wayne and Nicki Minaj both bizarre and romantic. There is a braggadocio to find on the sturdy "Let It Fly", where he and Scott claim their rights over who governs the rap planet – though when Wayne spits, "I'm coming back, it's C5 / Been here, kiss the sky, did the time / please advise that it is advisable or be informed, and we advise you / you not with me and mine ", you have the impression that He has his own opinion.

The family ties continue when Reginae, Weezy's daughter, sings the chorus on "Famous," while Dad looks long into the mirror, referring to Notorious B.I.G. in the process: "All I ever wanted, it's everyone's attention / Because most people can not kill them / probably thought my career was short and sweet / wishin 'I was in your place, I took them and find a beach. "

And if "Open Letter" proves its willingness to share its insecurities and that "Can not Be Broken" talks about finding the strength to stay strong and continue, the dramatic finale of the album – Let It All Work , with a bewitching Sampha sample – shows Wayne at his most vulnerable and heartbroken. Frankly speaking about a suicide attempt in children ("I found my mother's gun where she always hides it / I cry, put it in the head and think about it").

More than any other "Carter" before that, Lil Wayne created "V" to be a return trip, where the sacred and the sacred meet, with his mother, daughter, musical influences, contemporaries and descendants. an album that, in the five years following its initial planned release, has one of the longest backstories in the history of hip-hop – and even ends on a positive note. This is perhaps the biggest surprise of all: the long saga of "The Carter V" has a happy ending.