Lil Wayne "No Ceilings"

Weezy returns to mixtape form, where he shows off his digressive, distracted spirit-- still a huge part of what makes him great. Ggiven the increasingly scattered nature of his post-Carter III work, the existence of No Ceilings is just a tremendous relief. After last year's wildly disappointing Dedication 3, Wayne's finally back to something like his Dedication 2/Drought 3 fighting shape and doing what he does best, swiping beats from all the songs on rap radio and rendering the originals obsolete. Pity F.L.Y. and Dorrough after what Wayne did to "Swag Surfin'" and "Ice Cream Paint Job". Beats like those are where Wayne traditionally comes off best; those cheap, tense, springy synthetic tracks make Wayne's berserk rasp sound something like catharsis.