Rebirth

### **Producer(s)**

Birdman (exec.) Slim (exec.) \ Lil Wayne (exec.) \ Chase N. Cashe \ Cool & Dre \ DJ Nasty & LVM \ Drew Correa \ Hit-Boy \ Infamous \ J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League \ Kevin Rudolf \ STREETRUNNER \ Travis Barker

***Rebirth*** is the seventh studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne. It was released through Cash Money Records, Young Money Entertainment and Universal Motown on February 2, 2010.

The album debuted at number two on the US *Billboard* 200, selling 176,000 copies in its first week.

## Synopsis

Lil Wayne’s whole career is premised on avoiding the obvious. When his weird rap opus *Tha Carter III* became a sales phenomenon, the obvious thing to do would be to follow it up with more of the same. But because Wayne is Wayne he followed it up with *Rebirth*, an album of abrasive alternative rock. You have to admire an artist who is more comfortable in unfamiliar territory than he is on his regular turf. *Rebirth* may have been the last thing Wayne’s fans wanted, but no one can say that the music herein is not 100% true to its author’s personality. Wayne is a great lyricist, but *Rebirth* is predicated more on attitude than rhyme styles, and any true Wayne will tell you that his attitude and delivery are just as essential as his writing. "Drop the World" and "Knockout" rely on few words, but everything Wayne has to say is expressed in his vocalizing, which is in turns lusty, tortured, but always irrepressible. The musical choices of *Rebirth* are at times inaccessible and puzzling, but listen without expectations and you will receive what is arguably Wayne’s most revealing statement as a pop star.

## Critical reception

On aggregator Metacritic, it received a low score of 37 out of 100, meeting "generally unfavorable reviews." It is his lowest scored album to this day, mainly criticized for his foray into rock and corny lyrics, lacking the usual wit from the rapper. David Jeffries of AllMusic called it "a loud and ignorable bore," while BBC Music opined there "nothing [to be] wrong with experimentation," though Wayne being inexperienced and solely basing it on rock "is simply outrageous." *Billboard*'s Devin Chanda remarked, "Tame punk-driven guitar licks may eclipse hard basslines, but familiarity is found in Wayne's willingness to be lyrically venturesome." Greg Kot of *Chicago Tribune* assessed, "arrives as a huge letdown. Wayne’s normally impeccable instincts desert him. [...] The lyrics are crushingly banal. Wayne revels in his cartoonish persona, but some of his lines wouldn't get a laugh in a high school locker room."

Leah Greenblatt of *Entertainment Weekly* criticized, "comes across both muddled and belligerent on the much-delayed, extensively leaked *Rebirth*. [...] What also falters here is Weezy's loose-limbed spontaneity and signature absurdist wit. Instead, the man with a thousand delirious synonyms for sex." Jeff Weiss from *Los Angeles Times* opined, "deserves its reputation as one of the worst albums of the year so far." Laura Snapes of *NME* called it "a shlock-rock record so absurd it makes Alien Ant Farm seem like a legitimate musical venture." Ryan Dombal of *Pitchfork* said, "Concocting the world's finest excrement-related rhymes, *Rebirth* is most definitely a flop, terribly unsexy, and contains surprisingly few shit jokes." M.T. Richards of *PopMatters* felt "there are no sultry Organized Noize beats, no effortless Sleepy Brown hooks, no ferocious Raekwon verses—just an endless stream of abysmally written, Auto Tune-drenched nothings."

*Rolling Stone*'s Christian Hoard stated, "has very questionable taste in rock" and "inconsistent." *The A.V. Club*'s Nathan Rabin wrote, "It’s a disc that pop-culture rubberneckers have been dreading and anticipating in equal measures, a bold sonic experiment from a pop icon for whom quality control is as foreign a concept as sobriety and self-restraint. Fans are right to fear the worst [...] sounds like an alternate-universe greatest-hits album from an act that never deserved to have any hits in the first place, a genre-hopping exploration of bad ideas, hokey song concepts, and cringe-inducing lyrics." Alexis Petridis of *The Guardian* viewed Wayne's vocals as "No great shakes as a singer, he's slathered himself in Auto-Tune, which turns out to be one of the least appealing conjunctions of technology and human voice imaginable." He added, "There are still flashes of inspiration on offer, but rather tellingly, they tend to arrive when Carter abandons the widdly-woo solos and plodding drums." *The New York Times* noted its complete 180 from its predecessor hit album, and penned, "the kind of thing that happens when a star overestimates his skills."

## Track listing

* Carter, Jr.
* Montilla
* Valenzano
* Rodríguez-Díaz
* Woodgett

## Personnel

* Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Carter Jr. – executive producer
* Bryan "Birdman" Williams – executive producer
* Ronald "Slim" Williams – executive producer
* Sandy Brummels – creative director
* Katina Bynum – project manager
* Jonathan Mannion – photography
* Vlado Meller – mastering
* Scott Sandler – logo design
* Mark Santangelo – assistant
* Raheem "Rahlo" Thomas – A&R

## References

1. ↑ "Rebirth Review by David Jeffries". *AllMusic*.
2. ↑ Patterson, Joseph (February 11, 2010). "Lil Wayne Rebirth Review". *BBC Music*. Archived from the original on February 12, 2011.
3. ↑ Chanda, Devin (March 5, 2010). "Lil Wayne, "Rebirth"". *Billboard*.
4. ↑ Kot, Greg (January 28, 2010). "Album Review: Lil Wayne, 'Rebirth'". *Chicago Tribune*. Archived from the original on January 30, 2010.
5. ↑ Greenblatt, Leah (January 27, 2010). "Rebirth (2010)". *Entertainment Weekly*. Archived from the original on January 30, 2010.
6. ↑ Weiss, Jeff (February 2, 2010). "Wayne's New world: A Track-by-Track Breakdown of Lil Wayne's 'Rebirth'". *Los Angeles Times*. Archived from the original on February 4, 2010.
7. ↑ Snapes, Laura (January 22, 2010). "Album Review: Lil Wayne – Rebirth (Island)". *NME*.
8. ↑ Dombal, Ryan (February 4, 2010). "*Rebirth* by Lil Wayne". *Pitchfork*.
9. ↑ Richards, M.T. (February 18, 2010). "Lil Wayne: Rebirth". *PopMatters*. Archived from the original on February 20, 2010.
10. ↑ Hoard, Christian (February 4, 2010). "Rebirth : Lil Wayne". *Rolling Stone*. Archived from the original on January 22, 2010.
11. ↑ Rabin, Nathan (February 9, 2010). "Lil Wayne: *Rebirth*". *The A.V. Club*.
12. ↑ Petridis, Alexis (January 28, 2010). "Lil Wayne: Rebirth". *The Guardian*.
13. ↑ "New CDs". *The New York Times*. January 31, 2010.

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