Weezy F Baby serenades with an album of epic clumsyness in Tha Carter III. I have to say that Lil' Wayne has had the most remarkable career trajectory in rap history. He went from afterthought to hip-hop maven in a relatively short period of time. He's a witty kid, who clearly seems to have learned from spending time around the brainiest in the game and has taken notes and crafted a style of his own.

It's clear that he's trying to use this album to burnish his credentials at the top of the game. So what does he do? Stick to the formula:

1. Lots of cameos. Check (Jay-Z, Fabolous, Juelz Santana, Robin Thicke, T-Pain, Bobby Valentino and others...)
2. Gotta have a slow jam. Check (Listen to Mrs. Officer.)
3. Need a club jam. Check (Listen to Got Money with T-Pain)

Umm...the problem with Wayne is that he seems to want to be Jay-Z. That is, he wants to go to the booth, spit all of his lines in one track and go home and do whatever it is he does in his spare time. Problem is, he needs an editor. Someone needs to stop letting this guy go on the mic and say things like he's a 'venereal disease' because that's not hot.

What is hot are two tracks in particular -- Mr. Carter, which features Jay-Z himself slaying Wayne on his own track (violating a time-honored tradition of not letting the person upstage you on a song you're letting them hang out with you on...) and a similarly eponymous track Dr. Carter, which is clever as hell.

I've really been impressed with his wordplay in recent years. He could produce that all of the time, but he spends too much time making mixtapes and giving his best work out for free, recycling themes we've heard before.

His strange flow and simpleton rhymes almost make you want to call Lil' Wayne a nursery rapper. That is, a rapper whose rhymes are as simple as nursery rhymes. I'm not sure that qualifies him for the pantheon of today's legends of the game, but...the game has been littered with boys among men for a while. Might as well add his name to the list.