By Odeisel

Lil Wayne has been locked away for a minute but don’t worry he’ll be home soon.  In the interim, he’s been dropping mixtape and guesting on tracks to the point where he’s almost not missed. His latest work, the EP I Am Not A Human Being is based on his personality and skill being so far beyond regular rappers that…you get the idea. The results are surprisingly coherent and consistent in quality.

Wayne has widely been reported to not write lyrics and you can hear it in his bar construction. His layout is fluid and he can go in different directions every line because there are few constraints. The production normally follows suit with beats that are fairly amorphous and just repeat with loops that make it difficult to discern the beginning or end of the loop. Such is the case with opening track “Gonorrhea” and “Hold Up” which both exist freeform as far as the composition. Drake’s performance on the former  is confident and assertive with a run-on flow that fits the track.

Drake sticks to crooning on the hook with the cutesy track “With You.” Wayne actually adheres to a bar structure for a change and while the song is a conventional, it’s not corny at all. The piano and the angelic soul singing sample provide the romantic mood and muted 808’s create the perfect storm. The title track is some Rick Rubin shit, with 80’s 808’s and guitars and breaks. The song goes hard with lines like “Fuck it…whoever it is.” The breaks bring in tough drums that bang and high powered rock guitars. Lines like “Ya’ll can’t see us like the bride’s shoes” and “We don’t die we multiply and then we come divide you” are a small sample of the heat he lays out.

“I’m Single” slows it down to a crawl, with Weezy proclaiming his prowess with the fairer sex. His rhyme scheme is two line but his narrative is tighter on this and not his normal freestyle ramble. Distorted synth and ambient noise powered “What’s Wrong With Them” returns to the wild style, albeit a bit slower. He flips the pause…punch line style a few times with agility, hitting you with “…I got the 9[mm]…Rondo.” Nicki sings on the hook with her reggae-tinged alliteration. No verse though. Wayne employs a different cadence colored with distortion and a higher pitch that makes for an interesting change of pace.

“Right Above It” brings Drake back to bust one. The song is pretty much Drake and Weezy duet X, even down to the beat, which isn’t much different from Drake’s “Miss Me.” Luckily these two on a meh day are more than enough to bump. Lil Twist stops by for “Popular” who’s slow bottom and too fast double snare is a bit off-putting. Twists’ singing lyrics are annoying like an adult talking to a baby in what they think is baby-ese. The rhymes are so slow that the punch-lines feel rudimentary and telegraphed.

“That Ain’t Me” finds Wayne doing his best Jay-Z impression with his vocal inflections and the type of beat he chooses. Jay Sean on the hook is okay but not strong, almost not up to the enormity of the track. Very nice change of pace leading to the conclusion. He returns to that Young Money type music on the closing track “Bill Gates.” The heavy dramatic brass and the pounding keyboards combined with that double snare have more than enough oomph to take Wayne home in style.

I Am Not A Human Being is an album worthy EP that displays all that makes Wayne great. It doesn’t overdo it too much in any one area and that balance combined with the work’s brevity is a perfect prelude to Weezy’s road home. Well done.

Lil Wayne Feat. Drake-Right Above It

Lil Wayne Feat Drake Right Above It
3.75 out of 5

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