After his latest studio album and some collection of Spotify playlist-style songs in the form of an EP, Lil Wayne is also offering a tape in 2020. Third episode of the "No Ceiling" series, inaugurated in 2009.
This effort, hosted by DJ Khaled, features rhythms taken from songs by other artists — Pop Smoke and a some "Lils", are among those most looted by the Our — which sound quite mediocre, melodic and accessible, but tasteless trap beats. There's Weezy mainly in rapping, together with Drake, Young Thug, Hoodybaby, Euro, Gudda Gudda, Vice Versa, Cory Gunz, YD, Jay Jones and his sons.
Lil Wayne brings these dudes who provide pretty much all mediocre and poor performance: stand out YD and Cory Gunz, whose "3 Headed Goat" cut is easily among the high points of the tape, the first rapper delivers with a hardcore style, while Gunz takes the cut with one of the best performances of the edition on an accessible and discreet trap rhythm, courtesy of Lil Durk. Despite this rare exception, in the other cases guests fail to help Carter set the tone for this grayish mass of half songs: Drake provides mediocre spoken delivery and Young Thug almost hides on his spot, and they're the most appealing guests.
Even judging hooks, lyrics and flows, Wayne feels uninspired and unwilling: his lyricism is generic, probably in constant search of controversy even in its most vicious traits, he says nothing for an hour, often sounds badly on these songs, even on the rhythm of Jay-Z's "Takeover" ("Lamar") he fails to construct anything minimally relevant. The New Orleans rapper brings out something decent in "Comme De Garcon", flying his best flow on a trap-ambient lo-fi beat, and probably on Future & Drake's "Life Is Good".
There aren't many strong moments. Much criticized the choice to put three of his sons in the final section of this mixtape with a solo cut each: the kids, at their debut, are amateurishly on trap beats, it couldn't be otherwise, but I think it was better to have them on a mixtape than on a studio album. As a final note, "Afro" is quite interesting, as it involuntarily sums up the entire tape: Wayne goes average over mediocre trap beat that he could easily kill with 5% more energy, these three minutes aptly represent the entire effort. Overall, it's pretty disappointing: the mixtape is bloated and generic, boasting 20 songs for a total of 62 minutes of listening. Not recommended, 5/10.
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