Lil Wayne - “Playing with Fire”

Rolling Stones - “Play with Fire”

The guys who own rights to the Rolling Stones’ song “Play With Fire” are suing Lil Wayne for ripping off the song. They claim that Wayne released an altered version of the same song without asking for permission. Universal Music Group was also named in the copyright infringement and unfair competition lawsuit.

The folks at Abkco Music Inc. said that Wayne’s version uses “explicit, sexist and offensive language,” and could give people the impression that the Rolling Stones approved of the rap version. At the risk of being booed, I have to say that their main concern seem to be that Wayne is a rapper. Plus, they want a slice of that Carter III cake.

NPR on CarterIII-mania

While driving to lunch yesterday, I ran into an NPR special (see link above) on the rapper everyone loves to hate, Lil Wayne. The podcast delivered by veteran music critic Robert Christgau examines Wayne’s marketing strategy for Carter III, his speedy rise to hip-hop dominance, as well as his ability to redefine the game by turning conventional wisdom on its head. I have 2 major points disagreement with Christgau’s piece.
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*Yawn*

So, Tha Carter III took a humongous 70% dip the 2nd week on Billboard. How do you go from 1.1 million in one week to 350k the next? I guess that confirms my suspicion that Wayne’s label bought half of those CDs to give people the perception that Tha Carter III is a must-have album. We all know that much of the music industry — not just hip-hop — thrives on perception. Of course I’m recklessly speculating here, but it’s not entirely impossible. Hell, everyone I talked to prior to Carter III’s release either owned a bootleg or had no interest in picking up the album.

So, who bought all those CDs?

Lil Wayne’s 7-minute tirade on “Misunderstood” about Sharpton is stirring up a wild storm. As if that’s not what it was intended for.

Lil Wayne - “I Got Money” (Feat T-Pain)
More lethargic v-pop from Weezyana, this time featuring the king of v-pop.

I guess this is Wayne’s way of convincing T-Pain that he’s not throwing rocks at the vocoder throne. Besides, you would think he’d be buying better beats with all that money he supposedly makes from guesting on people’s albums. This thing sounds more like a default Casio beat.

Bonus:
Lil Wayne & Kanye West - “Lollipop” (Remix)

Though this delirious cover has been floating on the net for a couple months, I always thought it was one of those mockery type covers. So, I wanted to wait until it’s been ruled as official. I’ve confirmed it with Universal and, yep, this is really what we’re getting on June 10.

Now let’s just hope he doesn’t record the whole album with a vocoder.

Classic! Greatest Rapper Ever! WEEZY Tha BEST!! I LUB IT!!!