Lil Wayne dropped his surprising album “Tha Carter VI” on Friday (June 6) and while initial reactions are mixed, it proves his longevity and relevancy in today’s rap.
It’s hard as it is for rappers from the 90s to 2000s era to still shine in 2025, and only a few from that iconic generation are still releasing music to date that resonates with fans. Even if the reviews for Lil Wayne’s “Tha Carter VI” are mixed, judging from the share amount of reactions means rap fans are still looking forward to new music from the New Orleans native.
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“Tha Carter VI” is Wayne’s first album in six years, which is a big gap for any modern-day musician given how quickly music gets stale these days. The album boasts a star-studded tracklist with guest appearances from Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Wyclef Jean, Mannie Fresh, and Lil Wayne’s son, Kameron Carter.
There were early rumors claiming that Drake and Nicki Minaj would be making appearances on the album, Teeing things up for another Young Money reunion, but that didn’t happen. This only fueled rumors that the Young Money era is officially over and the three rap titans have not worked together in years amid rumors of a Drake and Lil Wayne feud behind the scenes.
Neither Drake nor Nicki Minaj have posted or promoted the project on their social media accounts, which in itself is surprising for the two. These three rappers were three of the biggest artists in the genre of the last 15 years. Now it begs the question if we will ever get another iconic run like what we saw from these Young Money stars.
What fans say about Tha Carter VI
The main talking point about the album this weekend is the reactions from fans on social media and whether it was culturally earth-shifting or lukewarm. Some fans stopped short of calling Lil Wayne washed while others simply admit the project is far from his best work.
“Back in my day Lil Wayne and Kanye used to put out good music,” one fan commented while sharing a Simpson’s meme suggesting that the days of good music from Weezy are over. Another wrote, “This wasn’t what I was expecting. Y’all have fun with that washed up Wayne album we got real raps coming back in a month.”
Part of this might even be a fault of Lil Wayne for setting the bar for himself and other artists quite high with his previous bodies of work. One fan alluded to this saying, “Truth be told the album isn’t all that bad but remember Wayne set the bar high so its hard even for him to reach that level again we saw that with Kanye.”
In the end, the numbers after next week will give us a clearer idea of how well the project performed.