is lil’ wayne rap’s robert pollard?
hey, guys! did you hear that the carter III came out this week? i was hanging out with my sister this morning, and she goes, “fuck. i don’t even read music reviews, and i’m so sick of hearing about this album– ALREADY!” on the heels of the most talked-about rap album of the year by far, my man jeff weiss weighed in, sparking one of the most– no pun intended– impassioned comment threads in the blog’s history. then, my man zilla chimed into the debate, suggesting that the best thing for weezy to do at this point is take a two-year break from rapping and possibly hire an editor. this made me, a young man with obviously too much time on his hands, think about wayne’s insanely prolific run since the release of the original carter [now approaching a 50,000 song-per-year average], and how it’s eerily similar to another recording artist who detractors [and sometimes, fans] say should turn off the mic for a while.
for those well-versed in indie-rock [and i mean real indie-rock, before having a seven-piece string section and a sousaphone player in your band was considered the industry standard], which is most of my regular readers, robert pollard needs no introduction. for the rest of you, here’s the abridged version: pollard is a midwestern-based songsmith, well-known for having an almost preternatural alcohol tolerance; a man whose songwriting is often scattershot, but legendarily prolific. in fact, he generates so much music, that by the time you finish reading this sentence, he will have written and recorded two full-length albums, an EP, and four seven-inch singles, with reviews on pitchfork for every release [and at least one “best new music” nod] before you finish this paragraph. pollard is best-known for his work with guided by voices, who released sixteen full-lengths and an equal number of EP’s between 1987 and 2004, and this does NOT include his solo albums. guided by voices, featuring pollard and a revolving door of musicians [”former member of guided by voices” is the generation x equivalent of “former drummer for spinal tap”] hit a stride in 1994, when they released bee thousand [and their slightly-underrated-but-nearly-as-great 1995 album alien lanes] to widespread acclaim, regarded by journalists, fans, and at least one blogger as the best album of the 1990’s. and it’s an album which probably still has aspiring rock critics scribbling, “file under: best of genre.”
f. baby and pollard have sort of a similar output quality, as well. for every hair-raising, WTF moment in each man’s discography, you’re going to have to trudge through at least four or five songs that are merely okay, and two that are genuinely terrible. weezy’s catalog, especially pre-carter, is as scattershot as pollard’s. possibly even moreso. this piece was going to be “is weezy rap’s ryan adams,” but being as though adams peaked super-early on heartbreaker, i thought pollard would be a better example. that brings me to an interesting parallel.
the carter III is lil’ wayne’s sixth solo album. bee thousand was guided by voices’ seventh full-length.
“now, douglas martin, are you implying that the carter IV or the dynasty: cash money la familia or whatever the fuck weezy calls his next album going to be a genre-defining effort, the best rap album of the decade?” no. supreme clientèle did that within the year 2000’s first month. what i am saying is what we all already know, whether it’s deeply rooted in our music-geek subconscious or we’ve been shouting it since day one: lil’ wayne is capable of creating a classic hip-hop album. and my argument is, like robert pollard cranked out the tunes until he stumbled on gold fourteen years ago, weezy doesn’t necessarily have to take two years off to do it.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Since I never heard of Robert Pollard before today, I think Weezy is like Ryan Adams. Outside of “Heartbreaker” and “Gold,” there’s no real reason to buy anything from him anymore, even though he’s still got the goods. I’m gonna listn to “The Carter III” at some point but I doubt it’ll be better than “II” or either of the “Dedications.”
June 12th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Yeah, but like I said, Adams peaked too early for the comparison to be valid Heartbreaker and Gold are widely regarded as Adams’ best works, and they came out first. BUT those three albums that he released in 2005 are all very good works, even 29, which people panned as “too dreary,” but it’s probably my favorite of the three.
The first Weezy solo album that was any good at all was the first Carter LP. The Carter III is not as good as II or either Dedication mixtape. Dedication II is still by far his best work.
And don’t sleep on Guided By Voices. Bee Thousand is a must-buy.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
OK, I’m a big Ryan Adams apologist, so I’m gonna have to say that Cold Roses is a damn good record. Had he been able to filter it down to one solid record, I’d say the thing would’ve been great. But yeah, nothing has, nor will ever, touch Heartbreaker.
Oh, and I’ll take Alien Lanes over Bee Thousand any day of the week, and not just because that record has easily the greatest GBV song ever, “Game of Pricks.”
On to Weezy: I think you mentioned over on my blog that people are desperate to like Lil Wayne. I think that is absolutely true. I want to root for the guy, even though I don’t particularly care for him. Of the 4,769 songs he’s recorded, you could probably throw together two great records, and a handful of other decent ones. That doesn’t inspire confidence.
Really though, he’s claiming to be the greatest rapper alive. It seems like people are too desperate to believe him. Since Jay dropped The Blueprint, there hasn’t been a greatest rapper in the world, has there? I mean, you could argue Kanye, but dude seems too self aware, too nerdy, and his arrogance comes off more like megalomania. Don’t get me wrong, I love Kanye. However, in terms of the BIG to Jay-Z family tree, who is currently holding up that title? Wayne seems like it could very well be him, were he able to pull his shit together and get an editor. Not only that, has there ever been a dude from the south who could even argue to be the greatest rapper alive? I hope dude is able to do it. The Carter III is not him doing it, though.
Ugh, sorry if none of that rambling made any sense. I’m pre-coffee here.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:44 am
I’m catching on my rock shit…I think I listen almost exclusively to hip hop for 2007.
Just bought Why?’s “Alopecia” and “Evil Urges.” Good lord.
I’ll check out Guided by Voices.
“Sweet Carolina” and “Come Pick Me Up” by Ryan Adams are the songs I’d commit suicide to. Love them.
June 13th, 2008 at 3:13 am
For the record Ryan Adams had already completed three albums, and at least a couple of ep’s with Whiskeytown before he released anything solo. Sort of the equivalent of Hot Boys or Cash Money Millionaires or whatever I guess.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Rob: For a while, I liked Alien Lanes better, too. It still has my favorite GBV song (”A Salty Salute,” but, for all intents and purposes, “Game of Pricks” is a close second-place).
I do think people are desperate to like Weezy, as well. I think that it’s because among all of the Soulja Boys and D4L’s and what have you, people need a rapper from our generation to believe in. We haven’t yet produced that rapper born after 1980 whose greatness equals their sales. I have high hopes for Wale, but until he turns in his debut to Interscope and it sells records, all we can say is that he’s promising. People want to believe Wayne because he believes in himself. We (and I say “we” as a whole) are so desperate to have a Voice of Our Generation so badly, it seems like it doesn’t matter who we give the title to.
We all can agree that Jay-Z is the greatest rapper living. Kanye is probably the biggest rapper in the world right now, but even he admitted to dumbing himself down for Graduation. I think he went from wanting to be the greatest to wanting to be the biggest. Kanye wants to be U2 and not Dylan.
As far as the south goes, I’ll go out on a limb and say that Andre 3000 is one of the greatest rappers living right now. And if he drops an album where he actually raps and is not on some Love Below shit (although I love the record, and it’s directly responsible for me starting Fresh Cherries), he’ll definitely go down as one of the greatest rappers in history.
Zilla: Alopecia is great. If you ever find yourself on a Why? kick, also get Elephant Eyelash. I will say without reservation that Yoni Wolf is one of the best lyricists in music right now.
“Come Pick Me Up” is a fucking incredible song. Probably my favorite Adams joint, although I’m very fond of “Political Scientist” from Love is Hell.
Ryan: I didn’t forget about Whiskeytown, but should have been more specific. I guess you could say that Adams’ output with Whiskeytown and his first two solo albums mightily trump most everything else he’s recorded to date.
June 14th, 2008 at 2:42 am
yes, Andre 3000. the greatest, hands down. i saw Lil’ Weezy in concert about..eight years ago? he “flew in” in a fake metal airplane suspended from wires, and I believe the “pilot” was smokin’ a j…ok, now i’ve got to find that picture (more to come)
June 14th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Haha. He was doing this EIGHT years ago? God only knows what I would have done as a famous rap star at age seventeen. I would have probably gone Flaming Lips and brought a UFO.
June 15th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Lil’ Wayne isn’t even Rap’s Scot Pollard.
One.