Lil Wayne released his twelfth studio album, Tha Carter V, on Sept. 28, 2016. The album was originally set to come out in 2013, was delayed to May 5, 2014, and then delayed indefinitely. Birdman, the head of Wayne’s label Cash Money Records, withheld the production and release of Tha Carter V because Lil Wayne, real name Dwayne Carter Jr., wanted off the label after Birdman violated a contract between them. Carter won a lawsuit against Birdman on June 6, 2018, allowing the album to be released.

In an interview with the Red Bull Music Academy, Carter talked about how he reconnected with his old producer Mannie Fresh on the album. Fresh had helped produce many of Carter’s early albums, working on 500 Degreez (2000), Lights Out (2001) and now Tha Carter V. Fresh produced two tracks for the album, “Start This Shit Off Right” and “Perfect Strangers.”

On June 16, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 charts with the second highest streaming numbers for an album that week, after Drake’s Scorpion. The most popular tracks currently are “Mona Lisa” (featuring Kendrick Lamar), “Let it Fly” (featuring Travis Scott) and “Uproar”, according to current Spotify charts.

My top picks for the album are “Famous” (featuring Reginae Carter), “Can’t Be Broken” and the popular “Uproar.” My favorite track on the album is “Famous,” due to its serious tone.

“Famous” speaks about Carter career in music, what fame means to him and how he is treated differently in both good and bad ways. Carter talks about people who never supported him in his early years wanting to be friends with the now famous “Lil Wayne.”

He enjoys living lavishly, knowing his music inspires at least some people, but begins to question who he instills his trust in. Once he became well-known, Carter’s ability to tell whether people love him for his fame or for him, weakened. Constantly surrounded by “friends” who only seem intrigued by his social status, he is able to turn that negativity into lyrical stanzas that reflect how he personally feels.

In the song, he repeats the line: “I’m going to be on TV momma.” This line stuck out to me because it emphasizes how he always wanted to be famous, but the childish dialect insinuates that there was a sense of innocence in his childhood dreams. He knew from a young age that he wanted to entertain people and support his family, but never knew what fame entailed exactly: what he would lose even after gaining so much.

There was not a song on the album that I did not like; every song was appealing to me in one way or another. I have always enjoyed Lil Wayne’s music, as his lyrics are very unique. The reason Tha Carter V stands out so much is because of how deep he has delved into who he really is as not only an artist, but who he is as a person. Beyond the title, beyond the money, into the core of Dwayne Carter Jr.