It is pretty apparent that Lil Wayne has gotten to a point in his life and his musical career where he does not have anything to prove to anyone on any level. He has already released multiple series of awesome albums, as well as so many iconic mixtapes. If you would like to read about how much I love Lil Wayne and how important I think he is to hip hop and also how he changed hip hop(you definitely should because it is a great article), type “Lil Wayne” in the search bar and read my piece Everybody Wants to be Weezy after you are done reading this one! Having already released multiple great concept albums and multiple awesome series of albums, it is obvious that Wayne does not feel like he has to do this with his music anymore. I do not think this is because he has become lazy or bored, I think it is more because of the fact that he knows how great he is and he just loves rapping for the sake of it, and regardless of what the format is of the music he is putting out, he has millions of loyal fans that will immediately download any of his releases. Lil Wayne’s Funeral almost seems like a mixtape where Wayne wanted to see how many great bars he could think of and see how many types of instrumentals he could rap on. There is not really any continuity to this album; it is full of random sounds and beats, new and old. I heard that Lil Wayne decided to have 24 songs on this project to honor the late Kobe Bryant, and I do wonder how many of these songs were supposed to be throwaways. It is obvious that there were a few songs put on Funeral that are only meant to fill the tracklist; it is pretty obvious which ones fit this mold because they feel a bit incomplete and definitely feel like they do not belong. With all of that being said, Lil Wayne’s Funeral is not a total bust by any means, and there are quite a few pretty great songs on this project that I know I will be listening to in the future quite a bit. Instead of analyzing all 24 songs and having to talk about how most of the project does not flow or transition well, I thought I would just talk about all of my favorite tracks from Funeral. Let me know in the comments below what you think of Lil Wayne’s Funeral, and if you think the songs that I picked are indeed the best ones! I would love to know what y’all think and which songs from this project that you are into as well! I will have the whole project linked below, so if you listen to it and think some other songs than the ones I picked are the best, please comment! I would love to hear your thoughts.

HARDEN

‘Harden’ is the first song I wanted to talk about today because I think that we need a lot more Lil Wayne romantic songs like this. Some of Wayne’s best work in the past has been some of his deeper cuts that are basically just love songs; from ‘Receipts’ to his remix of Mario’s song ‘Crying Out For Me,’ Lil Wayne has always killed it when speaking the language of love. I wish that Lil Wayne would experiment this soul-trap style more; Lil Wayne is known for having some of the sickest flows, and he sounds so smooth over this soul-funk sort of melody. The instrumental for the track feels a lot like something Chance the Rapper would rap on; in fact, the only thing that would make this track better, in my opinion, would be a feature by someone like Chance or Smino. If you are into pop-trap sweet love rap songs, I know that you will love ‘Harden.’

T.O. FEAT OT GENASIS

One of my favorite things about new rappers like Dababy is the fact that they immediately dive into the beat. They give you no time to breathe, hitting you with bar after bar right from the first second of the track. A lot of people do not know, though, that Weezy was one of the first to start doing this. Most people know about Lil Wayne’s iconic lighter flick that will appear at the beginning of a lot of songs (including a bunch of songs on this album), but they do not know about mixtape Wayne and how he start rapping literally as soon as the track comes on. The instrumental for ‘T.O.’ goes so damn hard as well. It reminds me of old school horrorcore style trap that came out of Memphis back in the day. It definitely feels like the type of song that Three 6 Mafia back in the day. OT Genasis does exactly what you would expect of him on this song; he provides an awesome amount of energy and brings the hype level of this ‘T.O.’ to the max. If you love cutthroat in your face trap music, this is the one for you.

GET OUTTA MY HEAD FEAT. XXXTENTACION

All this junk is in my head, then it sunk into my head. Little monkeys in my head,
Goin’ bananas in my head. Shootin’ cannons in my head. Hittin’ targets in my head. Playin’ pianos in my head, keyboards, organs in my head. Smash guitars in my head. Fast cars in my head, with loud ass horns in my head. Horns stickin’ out head...

‘Get Outta My Head,’ which features the late XXXtentacion, is definitely the edgiest and non-typical song on this record; it sounds like something that Lil Wayne has probably always wanted to try out, but has never been able to execute properly. I do know that Wayne was one of X’s biggest inspirations, and in a way, X’s musical style was a more metal and intense version of what Lil Wayne was doing in his rock-rap era. This track actually sounds like it should have been on an XXXtentacion album instead of being on a Weezy project; sonically, this song is so different and far off from the rest of what is on this record. It definitely stands out and pops, though, which is probably why they decided to include it. This might be one of the only songs on this project that actually sounds like it would be on an album called Funeral. If you are a fan of Jpegmafia or XXXtentacion and want to here what Lil Wayne would sound like if he had fully embraced his dark and metal side, you will love this song. It is way different from anything else on this record, and honestly, it is pretty awesome.

BASTARD (SATAN’S KID)

Out of all of the songs on this project, this is one of the songs that sounds the most like premium mixtape Wayne. It is like Lil Wayne traveled back to 2007, back when he would just jump on the track and spit rapid-fire for three minutes and tell us a story. On ‘Bastard,’ Lil Wayne is telling the story of how his dad left his mom when he was really young, and how it negatively affected him. We always hear stories about how easy it is for kids who grow up in the hood to get attracted to gang violence and illegal activity, especially when the kid was not positive male role model to look up to, and this track is a pretty vivid depiction of that. ‘Bastard’ would probably be considered one of the more boring and uneventful songs on this record by most people, but I really like how it helps us listeners understand Lil Wayne’s way of thinking better, and why he does the stuff he does. If you are a big Weezy fan and like introspective music, make sure you download ‘Bastard’ to your playlist.

KNOW YOU KNOW FEAT. 2 CHAINZ

Anytime Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz get to team up on a track, it is a reasonable expectation that it is going to be fire. Ever since this duo teamed up on the timeless classic ‘Duffle Bag Boys’ back in the day, Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz have teamed up on so many great trap song and killed it every single time. ‘Know You Know’ is no different; once again, this duo has the perfect chemistry and they just feed off of each other’s energy. I love the beat and the melody of this track; it reminds me a lot of early 2010s trap. I could definitely see someone like Gucci Mane jumping on this instrumental back in 2011. I actually do wonder how long this song has been in the vault because it would not suprise me if it really was recorded like 6 or 7 years ago. Regardless of when 2 Chainz and Wayne actually made this song, if you are a big fan of this duo, you will be a fan of this song because it is exactly what it should be, and that is awesome.

BING JAMES FEAT. JAY ROCK

Gang gang. Rose gold Richard Mille, n****a, plain Jane. Two twin Blickers, lil’ n****a, ying-yang. Strong strong weed, lil’ n****a, Ving Rhames. Big crown on, lil’ n****a, Bing James. Bust down glowin’ lil’ n****a, Bling James…

‘Bing James’ creates a really weird juxtaposition to me. On one hand, this song easily has the most addicting chorus out of any song on this album, and the flow that Weezy raps with on the verses is so perfect. ‘Bing James’ is a great example of the fact that Lil Wayne still has the perfect pop-rap tendencies, and that he can still create super infectious hooks. On the other hand, though, what the heck is up with the weird horns that are providing the “melody” for this song? It literally sounds like the alarm that you would hear if the apocalypse was happening. I swear, those horns that create te melody do not sound that far off from a tornado sirens. It does not sound that bad, necessarily, but it is just such a weird choice of melody for this track. Jay Rock’s verse, which is in the middle of the song, is great as well. ‘Bing James’ is definitely very unique, I will give it that. As I said, I do still enjoy it, though.

I DON’T SLEEP FEAT. OFFSET

‘I Don’t Sleep’ is probably the most modern-sounding song on this whole record, in my opinion. This is kind of funny to me, in a way, because this song almost sounds like Lil Wayne trying to sound like all of the artists that drew inspiration from himself. There are a lot of popular artists today, like A Boogie or YNW Melly, who state that they are totally influenced by Wayne, but have honed this sound into a more pop sound. ‘I Don’t Sleep’ sort of seems like Wayne is trying to show that he can do this pop-rap sound better than all of the people that are copying him. In my opinion, ‘I Don’t Sleep’ is better than a lot of the songs by artists that are trying to be like Wayne, so he definitely accomplished his goal. If you love new pop-trap, I think that you will also love ‘I Don’t Sleep’ by Lil Wayne and Offset.