Tha Carter II

Last updated

Tha Carter II
Tha Carter 2.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedDecember 6, 2005 (2005-12-06)
Genre Hip hop, hardcore hip hop, R&B
Length77:22
Label
Producer
Lil Wayne chronology
Tha Carter
(2004)
Tha Carter II
(2005)
The Dedication
(2005)
Singles from Tha Carter II
  1. "Fireman"
    Released: October 25, 2005
  2. "Hustler Musik"
    Released: January 10, 2006
  3. "Shooter"
    Released: April 9, 2006

Tha Carter II is the fifth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne. It was released on December 6, 2005, by Cash Money Records, Young Money Entertainment and Universal Records. Recording sessions took place from 2004 to 2005, with Birdman and his brother Ronald "Slim" Williams serving as the record's executive producers. Additional producers on the album included The Runners and The Heatmakerz, among others. The album serves as a sequel to his fourth album Tha Carter (2004), and was supported by three singles ("Fireman", "Hustler Musik" and "Shooter").

Contents

Tha Carter II received critical acclaim and ranks highly in retrospectives of Lil Wayne's best work. [1] [2] The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart. [3] The album was later certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in September 2020. [4]

Singles

The lead single from the album, called "Fireman" was released on October 25, 2005. The song was produced by DVLP and Filthy. While they were recording the song at the time, both DVLP and Filthy first burst into a music scene as the production duo, called Doe Boys.

The album's second single, "Hustler Musik" was released on January 10, 2006. The song was produced by T-Mix and the unknown producer named Batman. A music video was released for this song that was directed by Benny Boom.

The album's third single, "Shooter" was released on April 9, 2006. The song features guest vocals from an American R&B singer-songwriter Robin Thicke, who also produced this track. The song also was later included on Thicke's then-upcoming album, titled The Evolution of Robin Thicke (2006).

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [5]
Blender Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [6]
Entertainment Weekly B [7]
The Guardian A [8]
Houston Chronicle Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [9]
Pitchfork 8.1/10 [10]
PopMatters 8/10 [11]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [12]
USA Today Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [13]
The Village Voice B+ [14]

Upon its release, Tha Carter II received widespread acclaim from music critics, with several praising the lyricism and artistic growth demonstrated by Wayne on the album. AllMusic's David Jeffries praised the album's balance of "hookless, freestyle-ish tracks" and "slicker club singles", commenting that "the well-rounded, risk-taking, but true-to-its-roots album suggests he can weather the highs and lows like a champion." [5] Entertainment Weekly 's Ryan Dombal wrote that Tha Carter II "transcends [Wayne's] inflated ego" and complimented the album's "sturdy funk-blues tracks... that offer genuine value". [7] David Drake of Stylus Magazine called the album "one of the year's best releases" and lauded his "entire persona, an aura, a rap creation that seems fully-developed and fascinating". [15] Despite writing that "Wayne's verses need a good polish", Nick Sylvester of Pitchfork wrote that the album contains "jaw-droppers aplenty" and complimented Wayne's growth as a lyricist, stating:

People who met Wayne on "Go DJ" and thought him a lunchroom hack emcee – who knows what's happened since then, but damn has he learned how to write. His squeak is now a croak, his laugh a little more burly, his flow remarkably flexible. Sometimes he's deliberate like syrup cats ("But this is Southern, face it/ If we too simple then yall don't get the basics") but when he needs to be, he's nimble as that Other Carter: "I ain't talking too fast you just listening too slow." Remy and weed, fast things and women, the corner – these are Wayne's wax since B.G.'ing with B.G., putting piff on the campus before he ever enrolled in college. [10]

IGN writer Jim During gave the album an eight out of ten and commented that Wayne "[punishes] the mic with hard-hitting verbal tenacity", and wrote that the album shows him "at his most focused, and is a strong next step for a relatively young career." [16] Matt Cibula of PopMatters wrote ambivalently towards that album's production, writing that "the producers here are mostly no-namers who do their jobs well but not spectacularly", but praised Wayne's "amazing" words and remarked that "Straws really IS the best rapper alive, at least when he tries". [11]

In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it the 370th best album of all time. [17] It was one of only 86 albums from the 21st century to be added to the list.

LA Weekly included the track "Best Rapper Alive" in their list of "Ten Rap-Rock Songs That Are Actually Awesome". [18]

Commercial performance

Tha Carter II debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 240,000 copies in its first week. [3] This became Wayne's fourth US top-ten debut. [3] The album also debuted at number one on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, becoming Wayne's third number-one album on this chart. [3] As of March 2008, the album has sold 1.3 million copies in the US. [19] On September 25, 2020, the album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over two million units in the United States. [4]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Tha Mobb" The Heatmakerz 5:20
2."Fly In"
  • T-Mix
  • Batman
2:23
3."Money on My Mind"4:31
4."Fireman"
4:23
5."Mo Fire"
  • Carter, Jr.
  • Ronald "Young Yonny" Ferebee, Jr.
Young Yonny3:23
6."On tha Block #1"  0:38
7."Best Rapper Alive" Bigg D 4:53
8."Lock and Load" (featuring Kurupt)
  • T-Mix
  • Batman
4:46
9."Oh No"
  • Carter, Jr.
  • Ferebee, Jr.
  • W. Matlock
  • Young Yonny
  • Matlock
3:11
10."Grown Man" (featuring Curren$y)
  • T-Mix
  • Batman
4:06
11."On tha Block #2"  0:26
12."Hit Em Up"
  • Carter, Jr.
  • Zayas
  • DelGiorno
  • DVLP
  • Filthy
4:07
13."Carter II"
  • Carter, Jr.
  • Jones
  • Williams
  • T-Mix
  • Batman
2:24
14."Hustler Musik"
  • Carter, Jr.
  • Jones
  • Williams
  • T-Mix
  • Batman
5:03
15."Receipt"
The Heatmakerz3:48
16."Shooter" (featuring Robin Thicke)
  • Carter, Jr.
  • Robin Thicke
  • Robert Daniels
  • James Gass
  • Robert Keyes
Robin Thicke4:35
17."Weezy Baby" (featuring Nikki Kynard) Deezle 4:18
18."On tha Block #3"  0:13
19."I'm a D-Boy" (featuring Birdman)
  • T-Mix
  • Batman
4:00
20."Feel Me"
  • Carter, Jr.
  • Zayas
  • DelGiorno
  • DVLP
  • Filthy
3:48
21."Get Over" (featuring Nikki Kynard)
Cool & Dre 4:42
22."Fly Out"
  • Carter, Jr.
  • Jones
  • Williams
  • T-Mix
  • Batman
2:25
Total length:77:22
Sample credits

Personnel

Credits for Tha Carter II adapted from Allmusic. [20]

Charts

Certifications

RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA) [4] 2× Platinum2,000,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lil Wayne</span> American rapper and singer (born 1982)

Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, and is often mentioned among the greatest rappers of all time. Wayne's career began in 1995, when he was signed by rapper Birdman to his record label Cash Money Records, becoming the youngest member of the label at age eleven. From then on, he was the flagship artist of Cash Money Records before ending his association with the imprint in June 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cash Money Records</span> American record label

Cash Money Records is an American record label founded in 1991 by brothers Ronald "Slim" Williams and Bryan "Baby" Williams. In its early years, Cash Money Records released albums for Juvenile, B.G., and Hot Boys. Distributed by Republic Records, the label has since been home to a roster of mostly hip hop artists, including Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Tyga. The company is regarded as one of the most successful record labels of the 2000s–2010s; due to Wayne founding Young Money Entertainment, they were known together as YMCMB until 2018.

<i>Tha Carter</i> 2004 studio album by Lil Wayne

Tha Carter is the fourth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne. It was released on June 29, 2004, by Cash Money Records and Universal Records. The production on the album was mostly handled by Cash Money's former in-house producer Mannie Fresh, before Mannie left the label. A chopped and screwed version of the album was also released by Cash Money Records in 2004. The album spawned four sequels: Tha Carter II, Tha Carter III, Tha Carter IV, and Tha Carter V.

<i>Tha Carter III</i> 2008 studio album by Lil Wayne

Tha Carter III is the sixth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne, released on June 10, 2008, by Cash Money, Universal Motown & Young Money Entertainment. It follows a string of mixtape releases and guest appearances on other hip hop and R&B artists' albums. The album features appearances from Jay-Z, T-Pain, Fabolous, Robin Thicke, Busta Rhymes, Juelz Santana, Babyface, Bobby V, and Kanye West, among others. It also features Static Major, who is credited posthumously following his death in February of that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hustler Musik</span> 2006 single by Lil Wayne

"Hustler Musik" is the second single from Lil Wayne's 2005 album Tha Carter II. Although popular, it failed to live up on the Billboard chart to other singles put out by Lil Wayne. The song received airplay on East Coast radio stations and moderate airplay elsewhere, and a music video was also shot for it which also received moderate airplay. Lil Wayne has stated that this was one of his favorite songs he ever recorded. A remix was made sampling Anita Baker's "Mystery". In an interview on "The Richard Sherman Podcast", Wayne revealed "Hustler Musik" was the late Kobe Bryant's favorite song of his.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shooter (song)</span> 2006 single by Lil Wayne featuring Robin Thicke

"Shooter" is the third single from Lil Wayne's fifth studio album Tha Carter II being also the second single on Robin Thicke's second studio album The Evolution of Robin Thicke. The song was also featured on the Like Father, Like Son bonus disc. The song samples the electric piano from Vic Juris’ "Horizon Drive,". It is a remake of Robin Thicke's "Oh Shooter", from his first album A Beautiful World, which was inspired by Thicke's real-life experience of being caught in a bank robbery when he was 18.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">She Will</span> 2011 single by Lil Wayne

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