Review Summary: We Are Young Money, found at the garbage disposal at KFC, and we do not have much talent.
Lil Wayne is taking his chances with three genres at the moment: Rock, Rap, and Pop. With his group Young Money, he, in true Master P or Birdman (stuntin like my daddy!) fashion, releases a group record that sounds entirely rushed, driven by Lil Wayne’s Pop influences and his legion of entirely weaker MC’s. While occasionally promising artists (Nicki Minaj) and an already blown-up artist (Drake) make their appearance,
We Are Young Money is generally a worthless album.
The best part of the album is the sporadic personality of Lil Wayne, and his auto-tone. His lyrics are recycled and average, bringing nothing to the table other than worthless punch lines filled with namedrops (“crazy like Nirvana”). But what’s more important is that his personality is at this point just enough to make this songs not worthless. Amongst such obvious mediocrity (mentionable later), Lil Wayne’s rockstar/popstar auto-tune antics is only the more enjoyable. His voice lathered over and over in auto-tune, his syrupy delivery fits these synth beats on the album much more than any of the other artists.
Lyrically, however, there is better. The schizophrenic flow of Nicki Minaj and the familiar sounds of Drake form a contrast between recognizable and new-found characters that it’s just enjoyable to hear them both on the same track on “Bedrock” and “*** Da Bull***”. Nicki, like Wayne, sounds phoned-in a bit lyrically, but she still proves herself to be a decent spitter with a unique flow in the game, mixing Wayne’s weird sense of lyricism with sexuality only expected from female rappers. Drake, however, brings nothing new to the table like Nicki, but his performance sounds as good as anything else he’s done, even sounding a bit more entertaining than usual on “Every Girl”.
When it comes to the other rappers on the album, however, it’s much hit and miss, with very little hit and mostly miss. Gudda Gudda spends the album on his generic ‘go hard hussle’, dampening his parts of the album with a sheer lack of personality and poor flow. Jae Millz flows like a professional and Mack Maine occasionally spits in way that is recognizable, but neither ever make a lasting impression. Tyga makes you forget he even was on the album, while the two teenage kids joining the album perform on what is easily the albums worst song.
Nothing really saves this from being Lil Wayne’s money pit. The synth glazed beats are entertaining for the first couple of song, it sounds like cheap, and by numbers pop Wayne beats, and even guest appearances aren’t enough to save it. Birdman appears just to be the father of it all on “*** Da Bull***”, while Gucci drops another verse on “Steady Mobbin”, and although it’s the same slurry coke dealer rap has grown to love, it’s utterly forgettable by his standard. And unfortunately for the great personalities of Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, and even Drake; forgettable is what sums up
We Are Young Money, a money grab of a label collective record, not really showing much talent of any of these artists. It would be better to download a mixtape of just about any of these artists, as almost none of this is even worth a second glance.
