Lil Wayne gets out of Rikers in about a month and a half, but you don’t need to be told that — surely, you’ve been marking off each day of his incarceration with a giant X in a Weezy fan calendar you made at Kinko’s (just like us!). And how is Wayne planning on distinguishing the occasion? With a flood of new music, of course. First up is I Am Not a Human Being, out September 27, an album originally announced as an EP but now being pushed as proper full-length that has incorporated tracks once slotted for Tha Carter IV (which itself was at one point scheduled to see release right along with Wayne). His manager, Cortez Bryant, recently told Spin that Wayne will now start the process for Tha Carter IV from scratch once he gets out, with a pre–Carter IV mixtape planned as well. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves: In less than a week, a new Lil Wayne album will see the light of day. How excited should you be?
The shake-ups around Human Being (and the fact that Wayne is coordinating the product from behind bars) are serving to temper expectations, but the leaks from the album — the recent, excellent “Right Above It†and, out today, “Gonorrhea,†both featuring Drake — are counteracting those mitigating agents. Forget Rebirth’s experimentation: This is Wayne in classic shit-talking mode, pushing boldly forth in a quest for innovative, unprecedented new ways to explain how ridiculously awesome he is (To wit: “Yeah, you boys is washed up / And I’m shittin’ on ‘em like two girls and one cupâ€) relative to everyone else. There are rough edges here, to be sure, and the uncouth chorus would certainly feel more at home on one of Wayne’s many excellent mixtapes. Of course, if Human ends up being more or less a glorified Lil Wayne mixtape, that’s cool with us.
Hear “Gonorrhea†at HipHopConnection.com