Review Summary: “I Am Not a Human Being” is Lil Wayne’s “Recovery”, but that’s not saying much.
Riddle me this - what do Battleship and
I Am Not A Human Being have in common?
They're both hit-and-miss.
Weezy has never been able to achieve consistency in his discography, from his chaotic mixtape binge of '06 and '07 to the varying quality of his studio releases. Even on a solely song-basis he’s all over the place. One second he’ll have you groaning at a corny, sh*t-related joke, and then right after that he’ll make your jaw drop with a wowing punchline.
I Am Not A Human Being is no trend breaker either. The entire EP is a roller coaster ride with mixed performances and stylistic sporadicity. Lil Wayne hops from ripping double-time to conversational flow, lyrical gem to lyrical dud, looping, buzzing Martian instrumental to soaring synth R&B cut with low BPMs.
So is it worth listening to? Barely. This EP succeeds for the same reason it fails: it’s like
Tha Carter III all over again. It’s a vast improvement over the auditory genocide that was
Rebirth, yet, it’s not
Tha Carter II. The album’s high points are indicative of the potential
Tha Carter IV has. Lil Wayne has always been fairly good at R&B tracks, and that ability shines through on the album’s best track “Popular”. You may find the beat to be vaguely reminiscent of something else, and if you do, you’re on the right track. It’s a synth-and-pianos cover of The Killers’ “When You Were Young” with an oddly catchy Lil Twist hook. Technically speaking, the title track is much better. There, we find Lil Wayne kicking ass over some angsty guitars and a garbage can drum, which is something Rebirth could have used a lot of. “I’m Single” – another R&B-influenced track, which there are a good deal of – although only taking the bronze, has an interesting delivery. Lil Wayne dips in and out of stream-of-consciousness flow and narrative commentary,
However, the album has its pitfalls, although they aren’t as drastic as
Tha Carter III’s. From the sh*tty punchlines about sh*t to the STD-referencing hook and the frustrating Drake feature, “Gonnorhea” epitomizes just about everything Weezy has done wrong post-
Tha Carter II, save the Avril Lavigne instrumentals seen on the atrocity that was
Rebirth. But that’s not the worst of it. “That Ain’t Me” features Jay Sean singing a whiny, cheesy hook that would appear on a song by a 90’s boy band such as N’Sync. “Bill Gates” is a closer that ends on a sour note, that note being Weezy talking about all the wrong things, such as Vans and killing people, as he’s better at full-out braggadocio than making threats and discussing the same stuff you would at Hot Topic.
On
I Am Not A Human Being, Wayne’ll have you in awe one moment, and then saying “aww” in disappointment the next. Such is the way of the post-II era it seems.
I Am Not A Human Being is the continuance of a moderate rut Wayne’s been in since ’08, and for now, it seems that we just have to hope for
Tha Carter IV to prevail.
