What'd you expect, At Folsom Prison? Lil Wayne has released his eighth studio album while still incarcerated on New York's Rikers Island, serving the final weeks of a sentence for attempted criminal possession of a weapon. But gritty jailhouse music this ain't. I Am Not a Human Being, which Wayne cut before leaving for prison, is a party from the start. The record opens with Wayne and Drake dropping raunchy boasts (and STD-themed insults) over a jittery synth-swathed beat. "I am not a human/Shout to all my moon men," Weezy raps. You can lock up Lil Wayne, but his wacked-out spirit remains somewhere way out there in the Milky Way.

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The album has the loose-limbed feel of the rapper's many mixtapes. There are spirited guest appearances by Wayne's Young Money protégés Nicki Minaj and Lil Twist, and beats that range from the power-chord-packed rock rap of the title track to the sultry hip-hop/doo-wop of "With You." In Wayne's patented way, the songs feel tossed-off: He has a gift for making virtuosity sound casual, while delivering laugh-out-loud punch lines every few seconds. He coins a new verb ("Bill Gatin' ") and rhymes "fornicate" with "pajamas say," "pronunciate," "ovulate" and "time of day." You won't hear a funnier record all year. Jailbird or civilian, human or moon man, Lil Wayne is pop's most reliable deliverer of unadulterated fun. He's also the greatest rapper alive.

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“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."