Score: 2/5
This past Fourth of July, the Young Money rapper known as Lil Wayne, or Weezy, metaphorically and temporarily liberated himself from his Cash Money Records and Birdman legal drama with the drop of his latest project, “Free Weezy Album (FWA).”
The 15-track album was made available for streaming exclusively on the Jay-Z founded TIDAL subscription-based music service and features notable artists like Wiz Khalifa, Jeezy, Cory Gunz and more.
The album cover, which displays the letters “FWA” on fire, gives a little too much credit to the music it contains. The phrase ‘you shouldn’t judge a book by the cover’ comes to mind. Although most of the songs are structured with nice samples and catchy beats, the often unnecessary use of autotune draws away from the emotional potential of some tracks.
The first tracks are what hook you in. The impressive quality of Weezy’s rapping in “Glory” gives the album a strong start. Following “Glory,” “He’s Dead” alludes directly to said legal drama when Lil Wayne raps, “Rest in peace to the Cash Money Weezy, he’s dead.” Rest in peace, indeed. Weezy even sounds different from his past album in this declarative track.
With song titles like “My Heart Races On” and “Pick Up Your Heart,” this project feels like a breakup album — and it kind of is. He is obviously hurt by Cash Money and Birdman’s seeming betrayal. It wasn’t just the alleged withholding of money owed to the rapper, but the ending of a close relationship that Weezy believed he shared with Birdman.
As the lyrics stray away from the Cash Money conflict, and by the time you reach “I’m that N—a,” the “FWA”s self proclaimed fire begins to dwindle away, with sparks here and there. Honestly, it was hard to pay attention at this point.
The tracks “Psycho,” “Post Bail Ballin” and “Pull Up” were disappointing in that there wasn’t anything notable about them. Frankly, they’re just easily forgettable tracks.
Overall, I’m glad Weezy is taking a stand against Cash Money and Birdman with “FWA.” However, with only a few interesting songs at the beginning, the rest of the album just wasn’t that engaging. Some tracks on the album blended together without anything to set them apart. The heavy use of autotune attributes to this. If anything, this album is something to listen to while working out.
I suspect that we will be seeing more of Lil Wayne in the form of features on other artists’ tracks under the Young Money Entertainment label.
Zoe Geauthreaux is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from New Orleans.