Digest Album Review

This past friday, Lil Wayne dropped his 13th studio album titled “Funeral”. There was a lot of buzz behind the album after Weezy announced on January 23 that he would be releasing a new album on January 31. Later he released the cover art for the album that made headlines as it spelled out the album name “Funeral”, which flipped upside down spells “Lil Wayne”. 
Funeral is his follow-up to 2019’s highly anticipated Carter V where audiences are presented an updated playlist of patent Weezy bars. The album is lengthy with a grand total of 24 tracks, in total that many speculate was to pay homage to Kobe Bryant after he recently died the week of the albums debut. 
Wayne is a well-known and die hard Kobe Bryant fan and on track number 8, titled  “Bing James”,  he leaves 24 seconds of silence as a tribute to Kobe because he wore both numbers 8 and 24. 
The albums first song, titled “Funeral” shows Wayne flowing on a slow beat, and putting various examples of his wordplay on display using the word “Funeral” throughout the song. As the song alludes to, the chosen wordplay seeming to signify his own “Funeral” and the resurrection of a new stage in his life after a long legal feud between his former partner Birdman and Cash Money Records.
 “I Do It” features Big Sean and Lil Baby who set the tone at the beginning of the song on their own, until Wayne comes in on the last verse with bars that reminded fans of why the New Orleans rapper is one of the best. 
Featuring verses such as “Told myself continue my duties, I got money from 2002 that I  aint seen since 2002” and “I need a favorite woman like the Fugees, Its me Sean and Baby we lit as the Three Stooges,” this collaboration track put a spotlight on all three artists skills with a pen. 
Track 6, titled  “Stop Playin With Me” featured sounds similar to that of a vintage Carter 4 Wayne where the rapper flows on a beat with mild percussion and a mixture of different flute sounds. 
A fan favorite so far on radio stations is “Clap For Em”, which shows Wayne going back to his roots, wrecking a combination of sampled New Orleans bounce beats. He even referenced some of his lyrics from his verse on Juvenile’s 1998 platinum record “Back That A** Up” with “Wobble-di wobble-di wo oh Wobble-di wobble-di wo oh” giving fans the opportunity the reminisce the rappers old Hot Boy days. 
“Harden” is amongst favorites because it’s just pure Wayne flowing on a beat with a choir sample in the background where he says bars like “I tried to call you but I couldn’t reach you, you blocked my number. I feel like James Harden you blocked my jumper.” 
“Waynes World” is the outro that closes out a great album with quick, clever, and smooth bars over a fun beat. When it comes to content, the album had key components of his style that has shaped helped shape his career. 
Twenty years plus in his career and Wayne still proved that he has the skill and delivery to make fans bob their head with his melodies and wordplay. It may be too soon to say that this could be Wayne’s last album, but given the name of the album, this could very well be the last we hear from him.