"Funeral" Cements Lil Wayne Is Still In His Prime
Weezy F Baby and the F is for Goat! Lil Wayne hopes to further build on to his already cemented legacy with his first release of the decade titled “Funeral.” This album comes after Wayne’s release of the long-awaited “Tha Carter V.” Because “Tha Carter V” had been delayed for such a long time for reasons beyond Lil Wayne’s control, I personally didn’t feel like it was fair to judge the trajectory of Wayne’s career from it. “Tha Carter V” was clearly a mix of holdover songs that survived the long delay as well as new songs injected into the tracklist to give the project a somewhat updated feel. However, with the release of “Funeral,” fans can finally gauge how much Lil Wayne still has in the tank. The “Funeral” tracklist stretches over 24 tracks for a total of an hour and sixteen minutes of music, with Big Sean, Lil Baby, Jay Rock, Adam Levine, 2 Chainz, Takeoff, The Dream, Lil Twist, XXXTENTACION (RIP), and O.T. Genasis appearing over the run time of this album. Now without further ado, let’s get to the review!
Categories
The songs on this album divided into three lanes that are prevalent throughout the project and scored on a 1.5 scale. (0 = trash, .5 = not for me, 1 = good, 1.5 = a standout)
Weezy F Baby and the F is for Spitter
On these songs, Lil Wayne shows off his rap talents by spitting fire bars using an array of flows on smooth beats
• “Funeral” (.5)
• “Mahogany” (.5)
• “Stop Playin With Me” (1)
• “Not Me” (1)
• “Trust Nobody” ft. Adam Levine (1)
• “Harden” (1.5)
Lighter Flick Wayne
Lil Wayne shows off his ability to maneuver complicated bass-driven beats with ease.
• “Mama Mia” (.5)
• “I Do It” ft. Big Sean & Lil Baby (.5)
• “Clap For Em” (1)
• “Know You Know” ft. 2 Chainz (1)
• “Wild Dogs” (1)
• “I Don’t Sleep” ft. Takeoff (1)
• “Ball Hard” ft. Lil Twist (1)
• “Bastard (Satan’s Kid)” (1)
• “Get Outta My Head” ft. XXXTENTACION (1.5)
• “Piano Trap” (1.5)
• “Line Em Up” (1)
• “Darkside” (1)
• “T.O.” ft. O.T. Genasis (1)
• “Wayne’s World” (1)
A Lil Cadence
Lil Wayne experiments with his cadence, at times singing more than rapping.
• “Dreams” (.5)
• “Bing James” ft. Jay Rock (.5)
• “Sights and Silencers” ft. The Dream (1)
• “Never Mind” (1)
The Standouts
The songs that would give the best overview of the album as a whole. Songs that stand out for reasons to be described in the pending descriptions of the songs.
“Harden”
Produced by Tarik Azzouz and STREETRUNNER, the beat on track thirteen of Lil Wayne’s “Funeral” could potentially be the best beat on the entire album. The soulful melody, rich with a beautiful string instrument mix as well as beautiful background singing is paired with timely high hats and an occasional bass. Now you may be thinking, Wayne thoroughly ripped this beat apart. And to that, I say you’re completely right.
“Sights and Silencers” ft. The Dream
Track fifteen on “Funeral” gives us a soft R&B vibe produced by Mike WiLL Made-It and Blue Cheeze. This minimal slow jam is driven by the string instruments and airy bass that is accompanied by an appropriate slow tempoed hard bass. The Dream’s vocals set the tone for the overall beauty of the song, for Lil Wayne top come in and add his version of R&B to the track.
“Get Outta My Head” ft. XXXTENTACION
The late legend XXXTENTACION is featured on the eighteenth track on Lil Wayne’s “Funeral.” Produced by prxz, the songs starts with a sonar sound that sets the dark tone of the song immediately. We then get four lines from XXXTENTACION with a minimal high hat in the background, which sets the tone for Lil Wayne’s presence on the track. The feel of Lil Wayne’s vibe is similar to songs like “Dark Side of the Moon” ft. Nicki Minaj and “Believe Me” ft. Drake. Wayne’s soft but menacing rapping on the track leads into the hook which features XXXTENTACION yelling in the same manner that he became notable for.
“Piano Trap”
The story of the nineteenth track on Lil Wayne’s “Funeral” is Wayne’s effortless flow on the beat produced by Mannie Fresh. The first beat is a mix of a fast-paced bass and high hat with an occasional organ and rock guitar throughout the beat. Wayne’s flow for the first part of the song is unbothered despite the many moving parts of the beat. The beat switch is executed perfectly, as the beat switches to a slower piano beat with the same tempo of high hat and a slower bass, on which Wayne’s flow is also unbothered.
Final Review
Starting off the decade with a Lil Wayne album like “Funeral” is something we should definitely thank the rap gods for. The album from track eleven to finish is pure heat, proving Wayne could still be in his prime. The beat selections, as well as the flows, features and overall sequencing of each track from eleven on is a reminder of how Lil Wayne earned the title of the GOAT, in the eyes of many. The versatility Weezy shows throughout the whole album should be a blueprint for what every rapper needs if they want to stay in the game for at least 10+ years. Wayne spits bars on “Piano Trap,” makes a moshpit hit on “Get Outta My Head” featuring XXXTENTACION and finally serenades listeners on “Sights and Silencers” ft. The Dream. The only reason why “Funeral” doesn’t score as high as I believe it should is the first ten songs on the project. Through the first ten songs, I thought there were a lot of subpar beats as well as features that didn’t really work such as the Jay Rock feature on “Bing James.” Shoutout to Lil Wayne for leaving 24 seconds of silence at the end of “Bing James,” the eighth track on the album in honor of the late Kobe Bryant. My last critique of the album comes from my reaction to the amount of autotune Lil Wayne could be heard using in those first ten tracks, for what I could only assume is an experiment to figure out how Wayne would be able to adapt to the new sound of Hip-Hop. Overall, “Funeral” by Lil Wayne is a night and day album with a beautifully sunny day starting at track eleven.
Scoring
Raw Score: The number of good songs on a project versus the overall amount. Songs must have a 1 or above to be counted.
Quality Score: The total amount of points accumulated over the total amount of songs.
Playback value: The resonance an album is perceived to have if played again in full. Scale out of 5.
Raw Score: 18/24
Quality Score: 22.5/24
Playback Value: 3/5
Go out and listen to Lil Wayne’s “Funeral” wherever you listen to your music. Also, don’t forget to check out OldMilk’s Instagram page and Twitter (@Oldmilk_co) for more Hip-Hop Album Reviews, The DJ 500K Playlist, The OldMilk Radar and more! Don’t Know it? OldMilk Does!
