Like any self-respecting music fan, I am thoroughly revolted by rap-rock. It’s just not good. The only reason people say they like “Walk This Way” is because they feel like they’re supposed to. When people say they’re into “anything other than country” I reply with “that means you like rap-rock, and therefore you are an asshole.” Yet with Lil Wayne gently wading into the foul sludge of hip-hop and roll, I find myself strangely intrigued. His rock-ish remix of “Lollipop”
on SNL last fall was excellent, as was his weirdly satisfying collabo with Kevin Rudolph on
“Let It Rock”. Even his frequent
guitar noodlings, while painful to listen to, display a fearless creativity that begs the questions: where is all this going, and could it actually not suck?
This week Wayne answered:
- A full length rock album,
Rebirth, coming out in April.
- Oh no, it sucks.
The second answer came by way of a first single
“Prom Queen”, which is so horrible it makes me mad at my ears for being able to hear it. Wayne destroys any notion of a successful experiment over three and a half minutes of tinny, synthed-out guitars and vocoder drenched lyrics about women’s underwear. Produced by the reputable duo of Infamous and Drew Correa, the pair sound mildly embarrassed by the song, saying that when Wayne told them it was going to be the first single they
thought he was joking. Never a good sign.
Very little is known about the album, so I will reserve official judgement, though it appears Wayne will not be reviving the genre that shall not be named. He gets a pass on this one on account of
Tha Carter III being an instant classic, but the poor judgement shown here makes me wonder where Wayne will wander next. He has a collaborative effort with T-Pain in the works called
He Rap He Sing and has talked about releasing an R&B album titled
Luv Sawngs. Has he teetered off the deep end? Now that the “Prom Queen” has arrived all bets are off. What we do know is that it will be a while before we get our hands on
Tha Carter IV. And when we do it could well be disco.
“Prom Queen” is available for download on iTunes.