Lil Wayne

The masses heard a short cash-money millionaire saturating the American airwaves this summer. Yet the pop crowd probably didn’t realize that the dreadlocked Lil’ Wayne has mounted the jewel in his hip-hop crown. “Tha Carter III” represents the culmination of the most dramatic hip-hop trilogy of recent memory.

As far as content goes, Lil’ Wayne’s newest album doesn’t depart far from his traditional material. With sugary club hits like “Lollipop” and “Got Money” (featuring the perpetually auto-tuned T-Pain), Lil’ Wayne has covered his bases and ensured complete dominance of the pop charts.

The material on the album doesn’t depart far from what we expect. Weezy loves to tell us stories of the women with whom he’s had domestic relations, describe the sports cars he drives, and explain the benjamin baths he takes to clean off after a hard day’s work in the studio.

But “Tha Carter II” was dropped three years ago, and in the interim, Wayne stepped up his game and promoted himself heavily with mixtapes.

Sprung from the mind of the drug-addled, five-foot-six, dreadlocked Wayne, “Tha Carter III” has no shortage of mind-bending metaphors and turns of phrase, and Lil’ Wayne is as successful a rapper as he is a self-promoter and pop icon.

Here are four bars from Jay-Z collabo “Mr. Carter”: “I got Summer hating on me cause I’m hotter than the sun / Got Spring hating on me cause I ain’t never sprung / Winter hating on me cause I’m colder than ya’ll / And I would never, I would never, I would never fall.”

Weezy’s talent on the mic is indisputable. “Tha Carter III” is backed by a roster of some of the hottest (and most expensive) producers alive: David Banner, Kanye West, The Alchemist. All together, a majority of the tracks on the album are hot, whether for the club or for a stereo.

So here’s the big question: if hip-hop is truly dead, as Nas tells us, does Dr. Carter have the schooling to revive it and stitch it back together? Who’s the best rapper of all time? Most people will say “Notorious B.I.G.” or “Tupac,” two candidates to the throne but also the most famous martyrs of rap’s sometimes-violent history. In “Mr. Carter,” arguably the best track on the album, Weezy makes that claim outright: “Next time you mention Pac, Biggie, and Jay-Z / Don’t forget Weezy Baby!”

Has Wayne accomplished enough in his career to be associated with legends? Depends on who you ask. Some say that Wayne raps too much about trivial and cliche rap stuff (guns, women, money, bling). Others will say that the only thing that matters is ambition and technique, both of which Wayne has in spades. Whether that debate will be solved on radio stations, in dorm room debates, or on the streets, one thing is for certain: “Tha Carter III” is pure fire.

—Staff writer Alec E. Jones can be reached at aejones@fas.harvard.edu.