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Now that Lil Wayne has dominated hip-hop — Tha Carter III crushed the competition for 2008's biggest album, scoring eight Grammy nods — he's stepping up to Bruce, Bob and Bono with his first-ever rock album, The Rebirth (due April 7th). "He wasn't getting any beats that inspired him to rap," says Wayne's manager, Cortez Bryant. "So he brought live instruments into the studio — drums, keyboard, guitars — and started making his own beats." When producers like Timbaland and Cool and Dre heard about the project, they signed on. "Cool and Dre were like, 'We've been waiting to do this forever!'" says Bryant.
On the first single, "Prom Queen," Wayne warbles about his high school crush (sample lyric: "I loved her fancy underwear/I sit behind her every year") over thrashy electric guitar. Other tracks may include the Auto-Tune-heavy "Hot Revolver," which lifts lyrics from Green Day's 1994 jam "Basket Case"; "Little Girl's Eyes," a duet with Lenny Kravitz; and "Fuck Today," a Slayer-meets-N.W.A-sounding cut on which Weezy "rants and raves about what's going on in today's society," says Miami producer Infamous, who co-produced "Prom Queen." "He wanted to make a 100 percent rock album. We tried adding organs and strings, and he said, 'Take that shit out! Keep it guitar-driven.'"
Weezy even learned to play guitar — including the solo on "Prom Queen." "He's only had two or three lessons," says Bryant. "It's weird how good he's getting." But why now, when he's at a career peak? "He wants to be different, do something nobody ever did," says Ronald "Slim" Williams, owner of Wayne's New Orleans label, Cash Money Records. Adds Bryant, "I don't know if Wayne patterned himself on Prince, but he's one of the first musicians Wayne looks up to."
So far, reaction has been mixed. "We're playing 'Prom Queen' lightly," says Ebro Darden, program director for New York hip-hop station Hot 97. "But groups that fused rap and rock, like Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, had good-to-great success, so we'll see."
[From Issue 1072 — February 19, 2009]
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