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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Tha Carter III
by Lil Wayne


7.3

based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 82 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Official Artist Site

The latest album from the rapper includes guest appearances by Jay-Z, T-Pain, Babyface, Busta Rhymes, and Robin Thicke.

LABEL:	Cash Money
RELEASE DATE:	10 June 2008
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Rap

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

NOW Magazine

It’s eclectic, eccentric and yes, essential.

MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)

From the start you know this is no mixtape because it's clearer and more forceful. Every track attends to detail, with fun tricks like the chipmunk-chorused "Mr. Carter"'s sudden descent into screwed-and-chopped before Jay-Z comes in.

Blender

There's an exhilarating, disorienting sense of freedom tot he album, the ruse of rules being ignored. [Aug 2008, p.79]

Rolling Stone

This isn't a mixtape, it's a suite of songs, paced and sequenced for maxaqimum impact.

Urb

Maybe that's how we need to view this record--a little less anxious in our anticipation and balanced out with a little more enjoyment. Then, it just might be a classic.

The Phoenix

All rappers ride on the claim that they’re the best, but on III Wayne makes his case.

Pitchfork

Instead of hiding his bootleg-bred quirks in anticipation of the big-budget spotlight, he distills the myriad metaphors, convulsing flows, and vein-splitting emotions into a commercially gratifying package that's as weird as it wants to be; he eventually finds his guitar but keeps the strumming in check.

Prefix Magazine

Tha Carter III soars because of Wayne’s to-date under-appreciated ability to turn himself down.

RapReviews.com

The album is listenable, exciting and succeeds in reigniting interest in hip hop and rappers that dedicate their life to become great MC's, not just hustlers.

cokemachineglow

Though wrong and stupid kinda work (in a good way!), Tha Carter III is more a balanced, self-conscious synthesis of everything viably great about Lil Wayne, hyperbolic or not, than the penultimate statement of the MC’s “legendary” status.

Uncut

In which the prince of hip hop get a blessing from the king. [Sep 2008, p.110]

Paste Magazine

Tha Carter III hearkens to when rap meant rapp: Isaac Hayes talking for days about some girl he broke with, or Bobby Womack signifying while strumming a blues guitar.

The Guardian

He breaks language down into building blocks for new metaphors, exploiting every possible semantic and phonetic loophole for humour and yanking pop culture references into startling new contexts.

Billboard

With help from A-list guest stars (T-Pain, Robin Thicke) and producers (Kanye West, Swizz Beatz), Lil Wayne backs up the boasts [of "best rapper alive"] on the oft-delayed Tha Carter III.

PopMatters

Tha Carter III is a monumental album full of powerful, self-defeating statements that obliterate rap’s internal logic without offering too much more than indifferent bong logic in return. Judged, however, as a collection of singles and quotable verses--the criteria on which we’ve been grading hip-hop records since the end of disco--Tha Carter III is an agonizing piece of work.

All Music Guide

Filled with bold, entertaining wordplay and plenty of well-executed, left-field ideas, Tha Carter III should be considered as a wild, somewhat difficult child of Weezy's magnum opus in motion, one that allows the listener an exhilarating and unapologetic taste of artistic freedom.

Boston Globe

That said, it's not an instant classic, but it is the best rap album since Kanye West dropped "Graduation" last year.

Hartford Courant

We should have known. If his raspy, cartoonish voice didn't mark him as different, his quick wit, offhanded wordplay and quirky subject matter should have in a genre populated largely by grim-faced imitators.

Los Angeles Times

Ultimately, Tha Carter III will have you believing in Wayne's greatness but wondering why, as often as not, he just isn't very good.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

He's the man of the moment, but the disc's best moments strive for timelessness and attain it.

Slant Magazine

One could easily pick and choose from the songs here to make a more coherent 12-track album; such a record would likely have more immediate impact. But it'd also be kind of painful to cut anything.

Austin Chronicle

It's Wayne's personality that both floats and sinks TC III.

Entertainment Weekly

For merely running in place, TC3 can be transfixing. But it is not enough. [20 June 2008, p.66]

Hot Press

Gifted MC loses the run of himself without Mannie Fresh.

Sputnikmusic

Tha Carter III is scattershot, which oddly strengthens its faults, as if any lull in quality means that the next batch of producers can just reset the formula.

Tiny Mix Tapes

Now, equipped with the stylish, but too-often substance-less Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne seems poised to flip the script on the “rapper racists” (radio stations, MTV) by evolving into the “biggest” rapper alive.

Spin

Dazzlingly flawed, Tha Carter III isn't an album to grade--it's one to bang insanely all summer, and not try to understand. It's that kinda year.

The average user rating for this album is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 82 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it a3:
If I wanted to hear an auto-tune ridden pop-tastrophe I would've just bought a T-Pain album. I guess I was mistakenly anticipating Weezy's attempt to bring his underground Drought 3 and Dedication 2 prowess to the mainstream. Woe is me.

Bob F gave it a5:
Highly over rated, well produced but nothing revolutionary. Not ground breaking, a little better than the norm but the norm is low. Doubt I'd be listening to this a year from now.

Bryan T. gave it a7:
I have not actually listened to this album at all, I just thought i would comment on how Metacritic screwed up on the rating that Spin magazine gave the album. If one actually reads Spin's review it would seem more like a 60 or 70, not a zero.

Alex M. gave it a10:
Unbeliveable the best album of the year!!!!!!!!! Some club banngers but listen to the lyrics they have meaning. Guess how many albums he sold the first week...... A Milli A Milli A Milli.$$$

Benny A gave it a6:
I got the hype for Carter II, but everything after that, including this...the hype is somewhat mind-boggling to me as he's never able to live up to it. He picks great producers, but I can't help but get the feeling he just wasn't trying with his flow anymore. People are like "oh, that's what makes it interesting and awesome!" I say...no, he recorded this all drunk and high in one take. For real. Not to mention for every nice punchline he makes there are also really stupid ones: "my back, my neck / isn't it weird how that song isn't old yet?" And to the person below that said hip-hop isn't music: grow the hell up. Seriously.

Stoo gave it a10:
Guess what ? It's an amazing album. It's crazy controversial because it's audaciously and crazily good, and different, and it scares those who can't deal with something that is actually progressive quality music developing out of the mainstream rap they were already becoming way out of touch with. When all the reviews of an album are mostly very positive, praising its uniqueness, or reviews that give it a 0 saying "OMG THIS IS HORRENDOUS TRASH I AM PERSONALLY OFFENDED", you KNOW that there is something good going on there. every innovative artist faces the same narrow-sighted critics.

Kenny M gave it a7:
"rap isn't music," says a anonymous coward who calls him/herself 'A Normal Person.' He/She should retreat back to the hipster hole from whence he/she came, turn death cab for cutie back on, and cry him/herself to sleep. On another note, this album is great, but by no means the best in years. There are some incredible songs on the album (3 peat, mr. carter, dr. carter, shoot me down...etc.), but there's also some commercial bullshit (lollipop, got money, a milli). Overall, a great album. Lil Wayne does things with his voice that no other commercial rapper would ever dare. Lastly, "Normal Person," before you spout your hip-as-fuck wisdom again, listen to Aesop Rock's "Labor Days", or "None Shall Pass," and if you can create something more musical and groundbreaking, then and only then do you have the right you deny rap the hip-hop a classification under "music." by the way, death cab sucks.

Tha Carter III by Lil Wayne

Tha Carter III
by Lil Wayne