Cole, he failed to show up when it mattered the most. The project showed promise on tracks like “So Dedicated” and “Cashed Out,” when Wayne was paired with instrumentals that best suited his forcefulness, yet on “Green Ranger” featuring J. In those four years, Wayne unleashed a string of middling releases, from the creative atrocity of Rebirth to the shallow but ultimately satisfactory I Am Not A Human Being, to the polarizing Carter IV. Wayne was searching for the boundless energy and swagger of his late 2000s releases, but he kept coming up empty. Released four years after Dedication 3, in 2012, the series’ fourth installment captured the lowest point of Wayne’s career since becoming one of the biggest musical acts on the planet. For 25 tracks, Dedication 2 demanded its audience’s attention as it pillaged the hits of Wayne’s biggest hip-hop peers and rivals and transformed them into his own creations, effortlessly putting up jumpers no matter the defense in front of him.ĭedication 2 also proved that the series would neither limit itself to feature only Wayne himself, nor weightless subject matter. Wayne knew when to step aside, and songs like “Where The Cash At,” “Poppin Them Bottles,” and “Ridin Wit The AK” allowed slowly burgeoning Young Money talents like Mack Maine and Curren$y deserving opportunities.ĭedication 4 suffered many of the same issues, while also introducing additional obstacles. His gun metaphors, once brazen but unfinished in their lasting effects, felt like Mike Tyson haymakers with lines like “ Them boys pussy, born without a backbone / And if you strapped we can trade like the Dow Jones / Wet ' em up, I hope he got his towel on / I aim at your moon, and get my howl on.” The cleverness of “ I’m the fireman, she just call me when she steamin' / I wet her up, and put her out, and leave the bitch dreamin'” was never just about how the rhymes looked on paper, but in the newfound, effortless sleekness to each and every verse.

The genius was never just in what Wayne said, but in the way he said it.

Lil wayne new album dedication