"Whatever's Good, Weezy's Better: The C2C3 Countdown" is a list of the top 80 tracks that Lil Wayne released between The Carter II and The Carter III. Each week, we'll post between 10 and 15 tracks--with mp3s and reviews--and on the Monday before C3 drops, we'll drop the top 10.

Previously:
C2C3 Countdown, tracks 80 - 71
C2C3 Countdown, tracks 70 - 61

60. "One Night Only"
Heard on The Drought is Over Pt. 4 | Download

A heightened mournful melodic sample loops as the introduction and chorus and serves as the foundation for the for the song's rythms which are further articulated by flat, crisp percussion. Fleshing out the song's driving, building throb are foreboding piano and strings tracks. Above the layers of production Wayne's rap has the long-shot narrative effect of the Berlin School films, stretching the content over an ambiguous landscape of one night stands and road-narratives. Conflating the vocalist loop with his own story, the repitition of the phrase "one night only" fills in intentionally theatrical breaks. Overall the song feels like riding a bike up a steadily-increasing incline for two miles, an endurance that fades out of the frame rather than portray its implied climax. -JESS!CA

What IS this track? A love song? A comment on groupies? The realities of womanhood? Wayne is rarely not a hero in his song, but in this track he plays an ambiguous role--he's a hell of a good lover, but the poor fan who's in love with him has to accept terrible circumstances for the relationship. He can make her love him forever--but he's gonna leave you. Is he worth it? I'm not going to say Wayne is a rapper who is able to tell ladies stories, but here, as in songs like "Prostitute Flange", he works the other end of the love story, the other end of being a groupie, of his love 'em and leave 'em life. It's a flip of perspective, a wry smile, a sort of sadness. -zolmes

59. "Poppin (Remix)" with Cassidy
Heard on Wayne's World Vol. 5 | Download

With the vocal focus largely on Cassidy, rather than Lil Wayne, this is a mild introduction to a series of new material. Redundant in both instrumentation and rythm, the first two-thirds of the track have the resulting effect of chant only distinguishable as verse or chorus. In this regard at least the attention is, as usual, drawn to Lil Wayne's gymnastic mastery of the four-four time signature. His verse, both visibly showier and more conversational than the previous two rappers, serves almost as the song's detractor on the whole as splitting the song into a version of itself that wouldn't include him and would itself be forgettable, but at least not disjointed and the current manifestation with an imbalanced distribution of talent and objective. -JESS!CA

58. "N.O. Nigga"
Heard on Da Drought 3 | Download

"N.O. Nigga" is one of those extraordinary tracks on which Lil Wayne claims complete ownership of the beat. Originally produced by the Runners for Young Jeezy, "Go Getta" was a smash hit--it even featured R. Kelly on the hook--but that initial recording is quickly forgotten in the wake of Weezy's verbal onslaught, an effort that erases any memory of Kels and Jeezy. That quality--of being able to redefine a song on the strength of one's words alone--is seen throughout Da Drought 3, and has always been Wayne's strong suit.

that red dot cover your nose like a clown bitch
so don't run cuz I'ma gun you down bitch
bitch, don't I smell don't I sound rich?
I'm like stunna, I'm blowin out the pound bitch
I don't need help I ain't gon' drown bitch
cause in the pool I'm on the ball like the round tip
Yeah, 8 ball side pocket, I leave the club with two bitches in my pocket.

Though laced with sick lyrics ("They share me like oxygen!"), the song is more than a bunch of fun wordplay. Wayne takes a track that is solidly club and transforms it into a street anthem to represent his hood--something slightly more concrete than R. Kelly's crooning in the club, and something much heavier than the original. The bottom line is that Wayne sounds at perfectly at home on this track, which is what makes it so rewarding; with lines like, "Now pack ya'll K's and leave ya'll knives! This is the life for us, gorillaz! Coke dealers! Dope dealers!" it's clear who Wayne's audience is. -bw

57. "S On My Chest" with Birdman
Heard on The Best Rapper Alive Vol. 3 | Download

This is a sing-a-long track. Wayne's flow drifts back from his more esoteric efforts into a straightforward, traditional Birdman-Weezy duet that bangs. "S On My Chest" also provides two of Weezy's most classic lines: "I'm a let the Big Mac whap ya, boy!" and "Weezy baby, cayenne pepper, no salt." This song is a chest-thumping good time that just happens to sound perfect on any car stereo--straightforward, memorable and carried by Weezy's confident flow. -bw

56. "3 N Morning"
Heard on Weezyaveli (Weezy F Baby Part 3) | Download

Clearly a track that was leaked from the original Carter III recording sessions, "3 N Morning" starts with Wayne instructing a mock crowd to: "Put your 3's up!" and continues with a few quick, emotional verses on Wayne's favorite subject, women. "3 N Morning" isn't about shaking ass or popping bottles in the club, rather it finds Wayne focusing on relationship struggles. This was a theme that Lil Wayne explored with some depth on many of those first C3 recordings: the dichotomy between the rap life and real life, between real relationships and what happens backstage. On "3 N Morning," Wayne reveals a few things to his audience, but unfortunately for most fans, the track has been forgotten--as happened with other leaks from the Carter III, rap pundits feigned ignorance while heads were left to sort things out for themselves. Of all the artists rapping today, Weezy certainly has more "lost" tracks than anyone, and two decades from now I can guarantee that there will be 10 and 15 CD sets for sale celebrating these hidden gems. Think of the way that Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan box sets line the aisles in Best Buy. Tough for the haters to stomach, I'm sure. -bw

55. "Workin' Em"
Heard on Dedication 2 | Download

It's Gangsta Grillz, you bastard. When I heard Dedication 2, it was the first time I'd listened to the lil' gremlin since I bought burned copies of Tha Last Meal and Lights Out back in 2000 at five bucks for the set. Fuck if Weezy didn't change my opinion immediately with Drama. I heard Workin 'Em first, and that's a hit. It was during some lunch break at the start of summer and I couldn't believe it. That's Weezy? What the fuck man.




Weezy f Baby, the motherfuckin' Carter
bitches on my stick, but my name aint Harry Potter

I'll call him Ron Weezy instead. Cuz that boy's a musical magician. I still don't know who lends his voice to the chorus on this one, but it sounds like an angry Cube. I can feel the spit splashin' on my face each time the chorus goes pimpin', listen:

I be pimpin' them hoes
pimp, pimpin' them hoes

Wayne's been doin' it. Believe that you camel-dick riders.-logic

54. "No Other" f. Juelz Santana
Heard on Dedication 2 | Download

Listening to "No Other," you can hear that Wayne's not quite to excellent yet. His words come off as slurred and that results in a convoluted delivery. His rhyme schemes in "No Other" seem rudimentary compared to the free verse he's mastered in his most recent efforts. But by comparing this song to those of today, off of all the mixtapes and the Carter III sessions, one can precisely gauge the level that Wayne has elevated himself to. And I'm dumbfounded by the elevation. Juelz, on the other hand, sounds the same on this track as he does now. Get your ass in the studio Santana.

Favorite line:
"Bitch Katrina turned my city to a sea shore."

Next:
"Pump put a hump in your back, they call it Igor."

And:
"Your bitch come at me for wood, and I'm the lumber jack."

They're so simple, his ideas. But the delivery, the way he words all of those drug-induced ideas and then links them, cannot be easily duplicated. Although, as I mentioned above, the ideas behind his lyrics for "No Other" and other Gangsta Grillz tracks are not up to par with his current skill level. Still, they are great songs. And this song deserves to be on the countdown. But the differences found when comparing this to recent tracks are profound. It's not apples to oranges, it's more like comparing apples to Maybachs. I doubt that many rappers, or musicians, could change their approach so drastically and expect to match the success Wayne has achieved. Practice, practice makes better than perfect? Is there such a thing? Wayne is that thing. I can't wait for Tha Carter V.

I gotta cut this short; I can't feel my face.-logic

53. "Step Back" with Freeway
Heard on Various Mixtapes | Download

Don Cannon absolutely rips the production on this one--it's one of those beats that comes in hard and makes the hair on your neck stand up in anticipation; it's a feeling every true Wayne fan has had once or twice. When Weezy isn't given the opening verse of a new track, that first listen can be exhilarating as the beat bangs and fans suffer through a mediocre rapper or two, all the while wondering in excitement, "What the fuck is Weezy going to do with this shit?!"


In the case of "Step Back," Wayne comes in for the second verse and takes complete command with a series of brilliant lines that are flawlessly tailored to Don Cannon's heavy-beat production:

Out in the desert you're not worth the effort as I Hefner
Hugh, do like you, who? Not me, never. Ever.
Never never have I ever met the devil
But spit like I got a 'fevver,' I mean fever, whatever
It's whatever, I got several black loaded pieces of metal

Not the most enlightening few bars, and yet when set to music they flow like liquid, inseparable from the soundscape. This is the difference between Wayne and Your Favorite Rapper: the Carter gives himself to every piece of music he encounters, internalizing it and then inserting himself so appropriately that other rappers on the track become irrelevant. Sorry, Freeway--we love you but wish it had been Wayne for every second of this one. -bw

52. "Love Me or Hate Me"
Heard on Weezyaveli | Download

This song is epic. Wayne is like an ultra-vulture. He don't even write--no author. So harder, so smarter, all about a dollar like four quarters.


"Love Me or Hate Me" sounds like something that had been slated for C3 and then leaked--which is terribly unfortunate, because leakage tends to relegate songs (even the best ones) to a world of obscure mixtapes inaccessible to mainstream listeners. "Love Me or Hate Me" is no exception to this, and feels a lot like buried treasure. The track is unconventional, defying traditional hip-hop song structure and relying on a tremendous orchestration that is nothing short of royal. "Love Me or Hate Me" opens with one minute of near-acapella, word-association rhyming that builds to a statement of what must be Wayne's central thesis: "My future will be better than my past. You can love me or hate me, I swear it won't make me or break me." No doubt.

Baby I am the real deal no pickle
Spit sickle cells, like O
I go off like a motherfuckin' rifle
and I'm from the underground baby like a pipe hole
I will stand tall like light poles until the lights blow

The lyrical experimentation going on here is pretty much unprecedented, a fact that most critics refuse to acknowledge. Rap has always been about bringing a unique style--the innovators are praised, the biters shunned. In this context, Wayne certainly stands at hip-hop's frontier, injecting new blood into a genre increasingly characterized by stale lyrics, derivative songs and soporific themes.

I'm just trying to stay ahead of my shadow
Man, I'm floating like a boat and a paddle
Alligators and rattlesnakes, but I promise I will take a nigga off like a Saturday
Got money to validate, I'm icy like carrot cake
Different colored diamonds make me look like a sack of grapes
I'm straight out the alleyway, it's the nigga your daddy hate
Weezy F. Baby, great.

That's the main point that Weezy's fans have been trying to make for years now: he has brought fresh blood to a game that Nas correctly identified as dead. When everyone is doing the same shit, what's the point? Wayne does what he wants, and for that, you can love him or hate him.-bw

51. "Pussy, Money, Weed"
Heard on Drought is Over pt.4 | Download

I'll do all I can to not quote this entire song, but I'm not making any guarantees. It's that good. PMW is a love song to Wayne's perfect woman, the lady he loves as much as pussy, money, weed. With Weezy, we know that's got to mean true love. Wayne starts this joint off by paying homage to outkast and then starting into his ostensibly unconnected flow, going from a doctor prescribing himself as medicine to a religion, then a dresser(a clothier), to his woman's feathers all in . Oh yes, Lil Wayne gives her wings, not Red Bull.

Oh yes I love her like Egyptian
Want a description? her body's sickenin
I can be her prescription, I can be her physician
Sexual healing, I can be her religion
And now shes kneeling, praying to the ceiling
I bless her as if she sneezed
Must be the weather, I dress her, I am her sleeves
I am her feathers, shes fly,
Flyer than you, flyer than me,

But on closer inspection, Lil Wayne is laying out all of his emotions in PMW. I don't know if she has a face, or if he's just describing his model woman, but it's obvious Wayne has been deeply in love before. And he's not afraid to profess it.

I love her, she loves me too
I love her three..times more than her mom
Time will tell that im the nigga
That she should, we should
Be wherever she wanna be

And no, Wayne doesn't miss out on a chance to get in his ob--so fucking--scure reference, "Shes poison and I am Michael Bivins."

That's only the first verse. Jesus. As Wayne, and the song, moves on, he looks to the future, beyond his wedding day, to a place in time where there are five little Carters running around his mansion. Don't miss that John Paxson reference; swoosh.

Oh yes I love her like I ought too
I see you at the alter Mrs. Carter
I see you with me daughter
Or son, more than one
Maybe five like the Jacksons
Or John Paxson

There's no passion, nor lyrical creativity, lacking as this make-believe relationship comes back to the present at the close of the second verse. Do read into it, but definitely listen to the song, because I cannot give it enough praise.

Got her wet like shes sweating out a fever
Leave her to me and she'll be smiling
Every single time you see her
From ear to ear
I wanna be beside her when she sleep and she lay
Or we can stay awake and watch the next day
Clothes are overrated, panties are debated
Einstein--her head is the greatest

Brilliant. And as if some of us weren't completely sure, or don't quite believe what Wayne is talking about in PMW, each verse is separated by a chanting reassurance that's similar to the variations that start each verse.

(oh yes I love her like) pussy, money, weed
pussy money weed, pussy money weed


Wayne starts to show off his ridiculously wide range in Pussy, Money, Weed. He can do it all, just as his always-improving approach to music has proven. His talent is unsurpassable.

I'll leave the third verse for everyone to explore for themselves. As a sidenote, this song is definitely in my top ten Weezy tracks. So cop it. Now.-logic

That does it for this installment of the C2C3 countdown. From here it will only get better as we explore the top 50 songs that Wayne put together between The Carter 2 and his forthcoming Carter III album.

Grab all ten tracks (60 - 51) instead of downloading them individually. We'll be back later this week with more Weezy. Stay tuned.