"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.

70. "9MM" with Akon, David Banner, Snoop Dogg
Heard on The Greatest Story Ever Told | Download

This is one of those songs that has a line so memorable we couldn't omit the track from our list:

I got a girl you wanna meet her?
Her name is nine millimeter!!

The rapper is insane, flowing like a mad river. Indeed, Weezy's verse is short but incredibly sweet. He keeps the number nine as a central theme and has--by far--the most interesting section of the track. -bw

69. "Nike Boots" with Wale
Heard on The Drought is Over Pt. 5 (Grand Closing) | Download

I once read a piece that talked about Wayne's break-out track, "Tha Block Is Hot". It mentioned that Wayne's theatricality was showing even at that young age, because he chose to whisper the chorus, where others would have yelled it. It concluded that Wayne understood the power of messing with the expected.


The beat to this song is brash and droning and, yet, still energetic. But Wayne approaches it from left field--he slows it down. He drawls. he draws on his Vocoder obsession. I can't say that this better than Wale, and Wayne's lyrics are the sort of thing that are great for rap, but only good for him. But the slowing entices you, it changes up the expected. It experiments. And, besides getting head and money, musical experimentation has come to define Wayne and shows his desire to move beyond the standard. He's already flyer than the rest of em--now he's trying to surpass everyone. -zolmes

68. "Army Gunz" with Birdman
Heard on Like Father, Like Son | Download

In the intro to this track, Wayne states: "I'm bout to murda this shit!" and he's not lying. Though "Army Gunz" is a track with a tongue-in-cheek title and an almost cartoony hook ("Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I got Army Gunz!!"), Weezy's flow is anything but a joke. I've often commented that much of Wayne's work on Like Father, Like Son is transitionary, displaying a move from straight-laced, formulaic rhymes to the more abstract and experimental lyrics that he is known for today. "Army Gunz" is no exception to this:

But dem niggaz won't touch not a part of me, bet on it
Dem niggaz belong in a sorority, ain't that a bitch?
Burn they bodies up for the authorities, no evidence
You gon' stop fuckin' with them warriors from New Orleans


When reading those lyrics on paper, the words feel disconnected and stale, but on the track, Wayne brings them alive and makes rhymes appear where none were before--this is what it means to have a 'flow', a word that is often applied incorrectly. To remember just what it means, have a listen to Weezy's three verses on "Army Gunz."

His most important line: "You niggaz is scared of the southern part of America." Word. -bw

67. "Sweetest Girl" with Wyclef
Heard on Carnival Vol. II: Memoirs of an Immigrant | Download

"Sweetest Girl" is like a lot of songs, including Wayne's own "Good Girl Gone Bad," as such, the subject matter isn't ground-breaking and, therefore, neither are a lot of lyrics. However it does have several things going for it strong enough to warrant its inclusion here. The first is the strength of its beats and backing--there's no denying Niia's beautiful singing throughout the track and the catchy-as-hell chorus. Second, is the way that a song about a prostitute becomes a sweeter song, a tale of childhood love gone wrong. Lastly, there's just something about the way Wayne says "she used to be the sweetest girl" that breaks my heart every damn time. Seriously. Going to show you that, more than a gangster or a thug or a hustler, Wayne is a lover, a sweetheart first. -zolmes

66. "Let's Pray" f. Juelz Santana
Heard on Lil Wayne and Friends 3 | Download

Here again, Lil Wayne demonstrates his superb ability at making the traditional rap hook interesting. He's got short verse, but his croak (and here it truly is a croak), never fully disappears from the track; in fact, it holds the thing together.

I anticipate that this pick will be pretty controversial: the mainstream blogs panned "Let's Pray," dismissing the song almost immediately after devoting a token post to it. (Is this an acknowledgment that as much as the blog hate Weezy, he generates mega-hit counts for them??) In any case, Wayne adapts his voice perfectly to this beat--his forte--and drops an unforgettable first line:

Like I dropped straight from Heaven
Five strong words Rest In Peace Lil Kevin
And this ain't how I was born, but this is how I live
So that's how I'll die and do not close my eyes
Cuz when you see me in the casket I'ma look right back at you.

Is anyone else worried about Weezy dying? If anything, this song might be encouraging us to pray for him: the amount of drugs he does is absolutely mind-bending, and the promethazine and codeine mix he is so fond of has claimed more than a few lives. Weezy has always seemed resigned to his rockstar lifestyle, come what may. On this track, he expresses that sentiment one more:

I represent that Saint's sign
I'm so high I can paint signs
And if she ain't fine, she ain't mine
Thank God I'm alive
But if we end it all today
I have done more than I can say
Amen

No one can really argue with that last line: he has indeed done more than he (or any of us) can say. This countdown is one testament to that tremendous body of work that Wayne has given fans of good music everywhere (for free, I should add). It's true, this is a short song, but I have a feeling more than a few Wayne-heads are listening to it on repeat. -bw

65. "I Took Her"
Heard on The Drought Is Over Pt. 4 | Download

Lil Wayne likes bitches, and this song is a self-aggrandizing, misogynistic romp through Wayne's world of women and money. The beat sounds like something that didn't make the cut for 5 Star Stunna, and is reminiscent of "Pop Bottles," only a lot fucking darker. Though the subject matter is a bit unpalatable at times, there's a lot of great shit going on musically here, particularly at the beginning of each verse when the beat perfectly punctuates each word from Weezy's grill (see New Orleans-repping start of verse two).


There's also tons of interesting wordplay, and more than a few ridiculous scenes setup by Wayne (mostly in the second and third verses). Take this one, for example, where Weezy breaks down a situation that most everyone has encountered at the club before:

Why your boyfriend actin like secret service
I'ma get you by yourself and get my secret service

Secret Service? Fuck yeah, I've seen that guy out with his girlfriend before--why do they even step into the club, I wonder? As Wayne explains later, though: "The girl may be yours but the pussy is mine!"

The most memorable part of "I Took Her" is actually a moment of silence: "See I am from the jungle, the mighty jungle, and the guns go..." As we've mentioned before on this countdown, Weezy integrates perfectly with pretty much every beat he spits on, and the full connection between music and voice is really one of the main factors drawing fans his way. If you didn't know, now you knew. -bw

64. "Cali Dro" with Birdman f. Kurupt and Daz
Heard on Like Father, Like Son | Download

Track 18 off Like Father, Like Son, "Cali Dro" is a monster of a song. I'm not sure why Birdman and Weezy included it so late on their collabo album--it's surely one of the best efforts on the disc, and with Kurupt and Daz on the beat, everything feels complete.

And I stay high and a still got my diploma
And I still keep the maggie on me like Homer
And I'm too sick man I'm spittin' out a coma
And I'm still lettin' the money pile like Gomer.

Wayne be with the stars, and he ain't talkin' Tinsel Town. "Cali Dro" is one of those guilty pleasures that ends up on repeat in the iPod or the whip; the beat is heavy and the lyrics were written for the weekend. -bw

63. "Self Destruction"
Heard on Bad Ass Grasshopper (The Introduction) | Download

Super-heavy-metal-rock-star Wayne drops all pretense for this one and let's the auto-tone tell it as he screams, "I fucked up, yeah I fucked up! And I'm headed for self-destruction!" More than anything, "Self Destruction" is a reflection on a life lived recklessly, and a love lost in much the same way.


In the final bars of the song, Weezy repeats an emotional plea: "It feels like I'm falling, no one here to save me! I don't want to die alone, I don't want to live alone, I don't want to be alone!" Holding these lyrics up against Wayne's large assortment of straight-club tracks, one has to wonder what's really on his mind. As much of a sex-fiend as he is, tracks like "Self Destruction" reveal that there's a much more complex suite of feelings below the surface of his work. Weezy's never been afraid to show this side (remember "Prostitute Flange," anyone?), but discerning just what his true feelings are is difficult.

"Self Destruction" is a sobering, backstage look back at the past and forward to what Wayne increasingly paints as the inevitable future (suicide, death; self destruction). This track is only one example of this theme, which recurs over and over again in Lil Wayne's catalog. -bw

62. "Duct Tape & The Mack" f. Curren$y & Mack Maine
Heard on Wayne's World Volume 5 | Download

If you've got a system in your car, you're probably already familiar with this song: it's a straightforward gangster track that beats hard and is chock-full of great lines. Wayne mostly concentrates on his various weaponry and translates the sound of gunshots into something everyone can recite:

Don't know how to build a house but I got a box of tools
I'm talkin' 'bout that 'pop-pop-pap-pap-bang-bang-blacka-boom!'
The coupe I'm in say va-va-voom, then it go 'pyuuum'!
Then I'm gone... I see you soon... on the moon!

The only thing in the world that Wayne seems to love as much as women, drugs and money would be guns. He pretty much exclusively refers to gats in the feminine form, and treats them as a companion that he could never do without:

I'm heavily blunted, me and my gun loaded
She ridin' with me till the motherfuckin road end

Robert Horry and Corey Maggette also find their way into this rhyme--but only as a way for Weezy to explain his superior marksmanship. It's clear that Wayne handled "The Mack" half of this song, though I would have liked so hear a bit more about duct tape from him. Somehow though, Lil Wayne doesn't strike me as being on the kidnap tip. -bw

61. "Damn I'm Cold" with Bun B
Heard on II Trill | Download

No disrespect to Pimp C, but Lil Wayne and Bun B sound perfect together on this track--let's hope this is the beginning of a serious Texas-NO connection. These two could easily do a collabo album together that would destroy the industry. Bun B's voice has always been overpowering and demands a higher-pitched, bizarre counterbalance to make it work. Up until his death, Pimp C had played that part in UGK, but after hearing "Damn I'm Cold," it's clear that Weezy's voice can also serve as a highlight to Bun's Port Arthur drawl.


We've said a lot about Wayne on the chorus, but nowhere is his prowess with the hook more apparent than this track. Since this thing dropped, I've found myself brushing my teeth each morning crooning, "Damn I'm cold! Man I'm cold!" over and over again; if the goal of a hook is catchiness, Weezy's effort here gets a gold medal.

The other outstanding part of "Damn I'm Cold" occurs during the last verse when Bun and Weezy trade verses. It's a beautiful thing: two of the best artists in the south going back and forth over a flawless Chops beat. Ultimately, they make it sound easy, and like a shitload of fun. The thermometer here in the Monterey Bay topped 80 today, and this is definitely one of those windows-down kind of jams that will be on repeat all summer. -bw

If you dont want to download the songs individually, you can grab all ten tracks (70 - 61) in a zipped pack. Enjoy.

We'll be back early next week (Monday or Tuesday) with another 10 songs on the C2C3 countdown. It's only going to get better from here as we make our way to number one, and ultimately to The Carter III.