Rating: D

Since Lil Wayne began his trek to stardom listeners have grown to expect the unexpected from the New Orleans famed rapper. “Rebirth,” Wayne’s latest studio album, shows us yet another side of Wayne that has been aching to get out.

“Rebirth” is an album in which Wayne, commonly referred to as Weezy, has tried to defy the odds stacked against him and develop an album composed of rock music. The album, intended to be released on April 7, 2009, suffered delays and was officially released Tuesday.

With Wayne’s freedom days running thin, it could be possible the record label wanted to release the album closer to his incarceration date in order to raise sales. Perfection is another alleged reason for the delay, but after hearing the full album, it leaves the question, “Should he have waited longer?”

Weezy is a wizard wordsmith on many of his rap tracks throughout the years, as listeners hang on to each lyric wondering where he could go next. This isn’t the case with “Rebirth.”

Throughout the album Wayne tiptoes on beats he used to stomp all over.

“On Fire,” the second single released, is a perfect example of this. The track stands tall back to back against the other shortcomings, but the beat-driven song would be best if rapped over. Instead Weezy takes the back burner and sing-talks over the bass-bumping beat.

This lyrical style seems to be Weezy’s theme on the album. Many tracks are supplied with guitar solos intertwined in random locations and do nothing for the listening experience.

Wayne tries to bring a heavier approach to rock on the track “Ground Zero.” The song begins with a bass guitar laying down a rhythm and drums pounding a tribal beat. A wailing guitar soon joins in, and eventually Wayne begins to spit a rhyme fueled with drug references, sexual intercourse and claims of walking on air.

The rapper’s sond is nothing new, and this song feels redundant as Weezy screams the chorus, “Don’t look now, but the ground is gone / I’m so high that the ground is gone / I don’t even know which cloud I’m on / Don’t look now cause the ground is gone / Right now I’m a million miles from home / and I’m so high that the ground is gone.”

The third single off the album, “Drop the World,” is the best song on the album. This is partly because of the fact that the song hardly sounds like rock music. Wayne enlisted the help of producers Hit-Boy and Chase N. Cashe to produce the music for the track, which offers deep bass bumps and water drops as main rhythmic beats.

But the best part of the song, and possibly the album, is the verse Eminem slams through. One line states, “Man, it feels like these walls are closing in / This roof is caving in, oops, time to raise it then / Your days are numbered like pagers and and / My book of rhymes, got ’em cookin’, boy / This crooked mind of mine got ’em all / Shook and scared to look in my eyes.”

Although this isn’t Wayne’s best work, we can’t knock him for trying something off his radar. It can be assured that this won’t be the last we hear from Wayne, but will listeners still want to hear from him after his jail sentence has ended and the bitter taste of “Rebirth” begins to subside?

Brad York can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].