8.5/10
The "Tha Carter IV", and initial "Tha Carter V" were a bit of a let down. Tha Carter V deluxe really should have been called Tha Carter 6 because it's a completely different album. The Carter V opened with a XXXTentacion tribute and a lot of straight forward generic bars. The deluxe edition is consistent. He has a lot of really strong bars/ideas. Every song is fantastic. A couple Drake hooks/good hooks, would have made these songs perfect, but Lil Wayne did a great job. He may be little on the outside but in some of these songs, he sounds taller than any rapper in the past 5 years. These songs are above the collective quality of most hip hop tracks in its lane. He sounds like the confident younger weezy F that people raved about with "Tha Carter 3".