Third Time's The Charm

Are you feeling pretty healthy right now? Well I'm not cause, " my watch sick, yeah my drop sick, yeah my glock sick."

Sorry. Bad joke, I know. Just couldn't resist.

Now down to the serious stuff. Contrary to popular belief, Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr doesn't just rap about sex, drugs and money, though those things do come up, and often. Hidden underneath, Mr. Carter has a couple different messages racing through his head and his lyrics, and that makes his music pretty damn good.

If you haven't caught on by now, I'm talking about infamous rapper Lil Wayne, who's sixth album Tha Carter III came to be under my perspective eyes and ears. First, a little background. How are we ever to understand the often misunderstood Wayne if we know nothing about him?

Wayne grew up in New Orleans and his parents divorced when he was only two. Wayne was enrolled in a gifted program at school in his youth and by the age of eight had written his first rap song. Originally involved in drama and plays, Wayne accidentally shot himself at age thirteen and shortly afterwards decided drop out of school to focus on pursuing a career in music, even though he was an honor student.



Wayne was in a group called The Hot Boys until 2001, though he put out his first solo album in 1999. That album went over well, but his next two didn't quite have the success of his debut. It was the Tha Carter series that brought Wayne back into the spotlight.

Tha Carter III was released in 2008 and is Wayne's sixth solo album, making him a well-seasoned rapper, something you can hear in the music. The first song "3 Peat", like a lot of rap songs, has message sandwiched between sexual innuendos and cursing. Most of it's ego-centrical, but some of it's about Wanye's "being back and in business."

The second song, "Mr. Carter" was strangely good, in a not-so-obvious way. Wayne speaks on how far he's come and Jay-Z's collab only makes the song that much better.

Speaking of collaborations, Weezy (as he's often referred to as) has a boatload of them in this album. Jay-Z, T-Pain, Babyface and Robin Thicke are just a few of the many artists to add their style to Wayne's sound. Wayne seems to have picked up this habit from a man mentioned several times in the album, especially in the song "Dr. Carter", by the name of Mr. Kanye West. West produces some of Wayne's songs on this album, and it looks like Wayne's happy to have West there. But back to the songs!



"A Milli" is the second single from this album and if anything else, it's catchy as hell. Out of the four singles released from this album, this is the only one I really liked. "Got Money" wasn't bad, but it wasn't exceedingly spectacular. I have always held the opinion that "Lollipop" is a nasty song and I still have that opinion. The song, to me, doesn't seem to fit in with Wayne's style and has that feel of a "record company encouraged" hit. Lastly, I also didn't enjoy "Ms. Officer", which felt forced in it's sexuality and just poorly done.

"Dr. Carter" was one of three songs on the album that really blew my mind. The lyrics, "Where is your originality? You are so fake" basically describe this genius song. Wayne, essentially, is giving advice to young aspiring rappers through the song, posing as a kind of rap doctor. Lyrically solid and addictive, this is one of the best songs on the album.

The other two songs that really made this album for me were "Tie My Hands", an ode to post-Katrina New Orleans and a dive into Weezy's soul as he calls out to the city that nurtured him and has been through hell and back, and "Dontgetit", which is more or less a song/monologue where Wayne just talks about life, African-Americans in today's society and people hating on him.



There isn't too much or enough I could say about Wayne, he's a complicated kind of guy. He seems to truly express himself through his music and from what I can tell, he's a smart guy who seems to live in two different worlds, but they somehow blend.

If you're a rap lover, this album is a must. If you're a rap like, this album is a must. If you're not big on rap, listen to a couple songs, and not just the singles, and decide for yourself. As Weezy would say, "You have to do you."

-Whitni

Instant Dance Party

Welcome to the revolution- that's what it feels like when you start listening to Daft Punk. No, this is not punk music folks, it's electronic dance, called house in Europe. Daft Punk is made up of two lovely Frenchmen- Guy-Manuel de Homem Christo and Thomas Bangalter, and together they spin magical beats that make you want to grab a random girl/guy and dance the night away.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit (not really), but the music really is good. I'm not a clubber, but I could stay all day (wait... night I guess) if the DJ's were Daft Punk. The album is called Discovery, and it was released in 2001. Daft Punk formed in 1993 and released their debut album, Homework, in 1997, which quite successful. This would lead up to Discovery. After that, they released another album called Human After All, as well as a live album Alive 2007 (which won a Grammy). Last year they composed the score and did the soundtrack for the movie Tron: Legacy.



But you can read about all this stuff on their Wikipedia page, so lets get to the nitty gritty. The album starts out with 'One More Time', which would become their biggest commercial hit ever. I recognized the song as soon as I heard it. Next would be 'Aerodynamic', which introduced the instrumentals that would pop up in the rest of the album (well, most of the album). I liked that better than most of the spoken word songs- the dance music really spoke for itself.

There is heavy auto-tune in all of the spoken songs, heavier in some more than others. The only song on the album I didn't like was 'Digital Love'; it was so cheesy. It sounded like a mix between Owl City and a 80's disco/techno band like the Buggles, who were made famous by their song 'Video Killed The Radio Star'. The last three songs were also kind of looked over- I didn't pay a crazy amount of attention to them either. They were good, but they were also not very memorable or life changing.


'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' was memorable. Yes, I know Kanye West covered this and made 'Stronger'. I love 'Stronger'. But I like this, the original, better. It starts out classic 80's pop, and goes into a electronic dance mix. It's creative and keeps you wondering what twist the beat will take next. It's a musical masterpiece. My favorite song on the album was 'Something About Us', which an interesting change from the fast beats of the rest of the album. It reminded me of a disco hall love ballad, and it is amazing it comes together so beautifully. Plus, you can hear his (not sure who's) lovely French accent.

Fun fact before we continue: these guys never take off their helmets. Right below this paragraph is a picture of them as youngsters, right before they got together again (they had a rock band as teens called Darlin'). These picture (there's a handful floating around the 'Net) are rare, but there, and they offer us a glimpse of the men inside the robot costumes. Another note- Daft Punk are well known for their eccentric concert, filled with flashing lights and visual effects. They create a story to go along with their music, which brings me to this next bit...

^Daft Punk as babies.

This is a conceptual album. There is a story, through beats and weird sounds and funny lyrics and 80's style rhythms, being told here. Now, do I know what that story is? Nope, not in the slightest. I'm going to keep trying to figure out that ever important message. However you, the listener, must decipher this yourself. I'm not going to tell you what I figure out, because I really want you guys to give this one a listen. Tell me what you discover.

-Raivynn