It’s hard to believe that its been 10 years since the release of the Carter 3. To back even further, it’s hard to believe that Lil Wayne has been in the game over 20 years now. I’ve been a fan of Wayne since the Hot Boys days and he took over the game with those mixtapes he released. Many people don’t remember those Sqad-Up days where he was dropping he damn near every week. Lil Wayne started his Carter series in 2004 with the release of The Carter. The following year, he released The Carter 2 and like the previous Carter, it was well-received. Between releasing The Carter 2 and Carter 3, he released several mixtapes with anticipation of the newest Carter. Finally, on June 10th of 2008, he released The Carter 3. The album sold over a million copies during the first week and has sold over 3.5 million copies.
https://youtu.be/8R0ON-XpUUY
The anticipation was starting to build as he released the first single, Lollipop right before the Spring of 2008. I’ll be honest, this track wasn’t for me, but I understood releasing a radio-friendly track. Despite my thoughts, this is Lil Wayne’s most successful single as it sold over 5 million copies. A Milli was his second single he dropped and once again, this was another track that didn’t do it for me. Back in 2008, MTV ranked it as the best rap single of the year. Got Money was his 3rd single released and it dropped about a couple of weeks before the album dropped. The single featured T-Pain, who at the time was one of the hottest dudes singing hooks. During this time, Auto-Tune was successful in hip hop and Wayne and T-Pain used it heavily.
Mr. Carter was the next single he released, and it featured Jay-Z. This was released a few days before the 4th of July and this was more of what I liked. Lil Wayne and Jay-Z traded bars back and forth, plus we thought Lil Wayne could jump ship to Roc-A-Fella Records. Throughout the summer of 2008, The Carter 3 was something everyone was bumping all the time. On September 11th, he released another single before the end of the summer. Mrs. Officer was the track and I’ll be honest, this is my shit for real. Mrs. Officer featured Bobby Valentino and Kidd Kidd and this was a banger right here. To finish out the singles from the album, he released Comfortable and it featured the legendary Babyface. Once again, Lil Wayne delivered as this one was for the ladies.
My favorite track on the album was Tie My Hands featuring Robin Thicke. Other standout tracks are 3 Peat, Dr. Carter, Let That Beat Build and You Ain’t Got Nuthin. Juelz Santana, Fabolous and Busta Rhymes are other artists that’s featured on the album. Lil Wayne has been in the news recently as he’s finally settled on the lawsuit against Birdman and Cash Money. As far as Lil Wayne albums, where do you rank The Carter 3? What’s your favorite track off the Carter 3 album? Which of the Carter albums is your favorite? Leave a comment below about related to the Carter albums or Lil Wayne.
