Lil Wayne - I Am Not a Human Being (2010)

 Review: Lil Wayne - I Am Not a Human Being (2010, Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Motown)

Gucci Mane's recent explosiveness has been cited by Tom Breihan as an "interesting challenge" to Lil Wayne's otherworldly craft, the Atlanta rapper's beats casually strewn about Weezy's going-away mixtape extravaganza No Ceilings. The effort provided a necessary alternative to Wayne's electro-rock-trainwreck-hybrid-disaster Rebirth and featured the Cash Money CEO in his healthiest form since Da Drought 3. But where Wayne makes mixtapes, Gucci makes songs; Wayne jacks a beat, Gucci gets his own. Wayne's got quotables out the ass, but he can't write a hook to save his life, whereas Gucci's hooks consistently prove as catchy and inescapable as they do energized and enormous. As a result, Breihan points out, "the Gucci songs are the rare mixtape tracks where Wayne can't erase the memory of the originals." Add to that record label collabo We Are Young Money, featuring seemingly endless cameos by Wayne's childhood friends and assorted hacks employing the same cut-cut skip-skip rap style their collective mentor perfected on No Ceilings (but in a much less inspired way), and you have the beginnings of a dwindling star. It's telling enough the album's best track featured exclusively Wayne and Gucci going ape over a cheap, springy Kane beat. Despite Weezy's many claims to immortality, he's also admitted numerous times his fear of crashing and burning, both on mixtapes and officials. Except now it's actually believable.

Out of all this context beams I Am Not a Human Being, a while-in-jail release that probably should have remained an EP, as was planned before Baby presumably detected the payroll potential in a full-length promotion plan. The most unbelievable thing about the LP: it's not better than We Are Young Money. Wayne sounds tired and spent, rapping boring, recycled material in the same style he has been for 3 straight releases, and over maddeningly uninspired beats. Then his labelmates are everywhere, none of them welcome besides Drake and Nicki, and about halfway through the release it becomes painfully clear what's going on: Wayne's impressed. The technical beats, the awful friend guest spots, the toned-down free-association, the emphasis on likely scripted punch lines - Gucci's admittedly misguided influence courses through the LP's veins like battery fluid. They say if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. But if he reverts back to, say, Dedication 2 mode, Wayne won't have to. At last released from Riker's Island, he'd better realize it; after all, the south's finally given Tune the worthy opponent he's been yearning after.

Bump this: Gonorrhea, Hold Up, With You

Gucci Mane - The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted (2010)

 Review: Gucci Mane - The Appeal: Georgia's Most Wanted (2010, 1017 Brick Squad/Warner Bros./Asylum)

Five days before releasing The Appeal, Gucci Mane teamed up with DJ Holiday for a fifth straight hype mixtape whose title - Buy My Album - voices a request surprisingly reasonable for the bizarre rapper. The man's been working hard since his July release from prison, especially considering The Appeal's stunning contents, which often match his mixtape gems and frequently surpass them - the now-iconic title track doesn't even make the cut in favor of bombastic Jewelery Selection sleeper "Trap Talk." As the recent mixtapes foreshadowed, Gucci's never sounded so good lyrically, casually firing off bombs like "Ferrari with the yellow forgiatos, Gucci tripping / I hit the button in my Scaglietti and get missing" alongside tremendous productions from pricey hit makers the likes of Swizz Beatz and The Neptunes. On the opener alone Gucci hilariously imitates Scarface with enough stuffy freshness to invalidate Jay-Z's American Gangster attempt, towers over Bun B's always-golden guest spot, and effortlessly raps

"I got 60 racks laying on the floor in magic city / Like Samuel L. Jackson, I think it's time for killing / I touched his wife titty and the nigga start tripping / That ain't proper etiquette to see the bitch stripping / AR-15 whipped his ass into pieces / Don't get it twisted, think it's all about the pieces / And all about the bracelets / I'm still fighting cases / 10 thousand for the glasses, diamonds in their faces"

with a potent combination of spine-chilling conviction and his trademark nasal mumble. Perhaps The Appeal's most interesting facet is this total rejection of Gucci's unlikely pop-crossover appeal, despite its equally unlikely guest spots (namely, Wyclef Jean); the album instead leans heavily on Gucci's unique gangster charisma, with come-up crime raps more convincing than any  contemporary's and vivid backing tracks crafted for dirty-money Escalades by traditional collaborators Zaytoven and Drumma Boy. But Georgia's Most Wanted is far from one-sided; at times brilliant, dark, hilarious or frighting (and not unusually all at once), Gucci Mane's long-awaited third (thirtieth?) effort is every bit the masterpiece he promised us.






Bump this: Little Friend, Gucci Time, Haterade