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500 Degreez
08/06/2002 9:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dan Leroy
With his former Hot Boys bandmates long gone from Cash Money's roster, Lil Wayne's third album finds him trying to navigate big changes at the label. The bestselling Big Tymers are now the Cash Money prestige act, and the 19-year-old Wayne is often forced to insist he's still relevant.
It isn't a pretty sound, especially when he desperately flashes his bankroll on "Way Of Life," a Tupac-sampling mistake, and reminds anyone who'll listen on "F--k You" that he's still part of the Cash Money clique. One tune is actually titled "Look At Me," which sums up his dilemma nicely. Things don't stay that dire; although not as pop-friendly as the Big Tymers' Hood Rich, the electro-bounce beats (courtesy of Jazzy Pha, in addition to label mastermind Mannie Fresh) are intermittently interesting, and Wayne wraps his nasal, Big Easy drawl around a good idea or two, like "Bloodline," a singsong defense of heredity. But like Project English, the last outing from Wayne's former Hot Boys partner, Juvenile, this workmanlike effort makes its star sound farther than ever from his early promise.
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