Lil Wayne embraces his long awaited moment of glory on ''Tha Carter V''

At some point,

Six years after it was first mentioned, a dozen of projects in between, the fifth instalment in the series, ''Tha Carter V'' was delivered on his birthday and it arrives packing fire, passion, lyrical acrobatics plus wit, a totality of all we have come to know Lil Wayne for.

The 23 track project parades a number of collaborations that include XXXTentacion, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, Reginae Carter, Snoop Dogg and more.

The album opens with 'I Love You Dwayne', which feature his mother saying prayers that will make a grown man cry. The intro is well planned to get you into your emotions and it works out quite fine.

'Don't Cry' featuring the late rapper XXXTentacion keeps the momentum of the earlier track burning, breaking every wall of hard defiance listeners. He is mentioning his mother, talking about death, Wayne is quite unbarred and reflective, as he rhymes, ''Talent is God-given, be grateful, fame is not a given, be humble, and conceit is self-driven, drive carefully''

He is going in hard on 'Dedicate', the flow is pristine Wayne and the song captures the voice of Barrack Obama throwing him a 'co-sign' while giving a speech.

The album continues to unearth real gems in songs like 'Monalisa', where Wayne and Kendrick go at it in an energetic lyrical fest with Kendrick switching his flows to amazing effect.

Other songs like 'Start This Shit Off Right' and the album closer, 'Let It All Work Out' which samples Sampha and has Wayne talking about a shooting incident, contemplating suicide with the imagery on the third verse bringing the project to a fascinating close, making for a seamless listen.

But songs like 'Dark Side of the Moon' with Nicki Minaj and 'Famous' alongside his daughter, Reginae Carter proves that Wayne is fallible after all, as they are unable to match the creativity and magnetism of the other songs.

Wayne’s greatest strength has always been his flow and distinct rap style, which he puts to perfect use across the entire project; singing, rapping and rhyming insane bunch of words together and somehow making sense of it.

The lyrical theme on the album are his most personal and unguarded in a while.

However, the major problem of the project is the length, at 23 tracks, Wayne struggles to maintain the fire and vibrance that he kicked off the album with, allowing room for almost as many misses as there are bangers.

At one point in the first half, the album is on a roll and he can't seem to do no wrong, then it begins to lose its buoyant feel, with many songs sounding more like album fillers and out of place.

''Tha Carter V'' is not Wayne morphing into a new status, he has done that already, it is a triumph for his loyal fans who have waited so long for the project.

Wayne embodies everything that the new breed of rappers represent, and he continues to push the boundaries of his art, only this time, he does it more openly, like the elder statesman that he is, rapping about his life and struggles, giving a prompt that after all these years, Mr Carter remains a dominant presence in the circles of mainstream rap.

Rating – 3.5

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