While the response to Lil Wayne’s Free Weezy Album has been polarizing, detractors and fans of the album alike have no problem admitting that Tunechi’s ability to artfully string together some sick verbiage is still intact. With or without auto-tune, the New Orleans emcee is a master of the simile, always dependable when it comes to dropping bars that drop our jaws. Whether you can get down to FWA or not, the TIDAL exclusive’s silver lining is the fact that Lil Wayne’s lyrics usually still deliver. While its consistency may not be at the same rate as any of the "Tha Carter" installments, there's still handfuls of heavy hitters on Free Weezy.
Let’s make the glass half-full and take the optimistic approach. Click along as we look back fondly on Free Weezy Album’s sickest similes.
“Glory”
"Black your eye like Will.I.Am, you Willy Wonka/That’s me in the Lam, I’m disappearing like Jimmy Hoffa”
It’s hard to single out bars off of "Glory." The track is straight up old school Weezy - a spectacle of lyrical gymnastics. This one gets a nod for covering a lot of ground in little time, as well as Weezy’s calling out the Black Eyed Peas for the assist on juxtaposing himself to other emcees who might think this is play time. Blink and you’ll miss this form of Lil Wayne on this record, maybe because he’s in the Lambo, whizzing away.
"Pick Up Your Heart"
“Please pardon my restroom, but Tunechi got the longest shit list/My pockets pregnant, they wake up with morning sickness.”
The beginning of the end of Free Weezy Album’s final swell “Pick Up Your Heart” delivers with some bars that go hard. As we prepare for descent, the first verse slings arrows at Wayne’s enemies and pays notice to the luxury of being filthy rich. Weezy apologizes for the state of his bathroom, imploring you to understand because he’s got a lot of people to shit on before impregnating his pockets with what one can only assume (and hope) is cash.
Thinking Bout You”
“I love my young bitch cause she don’t get me drama, you don’t want no drama/My goons wait for you to snap like some photo bombers.”
Not my favorite track on the album, no. Yet, you’d be hard pressed to find a Lil Wayne verse void of some fire bars. “Thinking Bout You” is no exception to these lofty expectations. In a fantastic display of Weezy’s uncanny ability to turn the violent and threatening into poetic and impressive, photo bombers are used to allude of the potential wrath a shit-talker might face.
"I’m That Nigga”
“Yeah, I pour a codeine in a Jones soda/Pop a percocet, feel like Balboa/Roger that, 10-4, psh man over/These sluts is on my nuts I feel like granola.”
Weezy’s dizzying flip of the bird to haters “I’m That Nigga’"s final verse offers a Rocky reference in the form of killer call back to its first verse, wherein Wayne feels like boxing champion “Iron” Mike Tyson after popping a Xanax. To cap it off, Weezy’s wordplay positions his privates as a midnight snack, when it comes to his referencing the ladies of the night.
"London Roads”
“Don’t approach us, we got toasters/That’s my slime, like we ghostbust”
In arguably the most re-listenable song on the album, Weezy slays the aptly-titled London On Da Track produced “London Roads” with multiple flows. The second verse features a line that I couldn’t help but to include for appealing to the movie nerd in me in such a straight up gangster way - paying homage to his gang and to Ghostbusters in one clean swing.
"Pick Up Your Heart”
“I'm walking to the corner store feeling like a king/World on my back shit feel a mink/Mad as a motherfucker dropped my pill down the sink”
The Free Weezy Album’s final crescendo “Pick Up Your Heart” feels like a song with many different phases, with dream like shifts in its (really dope) beat providing opportunities for Weezy to play with his flow. In the beginning of the second verse Weezy howls his feelings on his Atlas-like role in the industry.
Apparently it doesn’t weigh him down and feels like fine furs. Damn.
“Glory”
“Sippin’ syrup like ginger ale, but I’m the quickest snail/From here to hell, I hear them hail, I give them hell/I’m spittin’ hail, I’m Clinton, well, I did inhale/These niggas frail, they Chip and Dale.”
On Free Weezy Album’s opening track, “Glory,” we are given Wayne in his truest form. In the best showcase of his talents on this particular album, Weezy gives us the lyrical equivalent of a club sandwich. In one fell swoop Clinton, codeine, and cartoons fall victim to Wayne’s simile sword.