Lil’ Wayne f. Robin Thicke "Shooter"

“Shooter” (mp3) is more of a cartoon western operetta than a rap song, really; it constantly jumps between characters and musical dynamics, and sprinkles police siren and machine gun sound effects throughout. Robin Thicke starts things off, in a different mode than his standard Timberlake-lite schtick. He’s actually pretty effective here, slowly and and deliberately describing the details of a stick-up like Pryzbylewski from The Wire shaking like a punk during a botched sting operation (if you don’t know The Wire yet, know it soon). He’s all “they got me with my hands up,” but you know everything’s gonna be alright, because that’s Wayne in the background, ready to save the day. He kicks in the door to save the day like Lester Freamon, and the song obliges him by expanding into a swinging saloon jazz jam, or everything that Outkast should have done with Idlewild. But he’s not playing a role during his verses, especially the second one, where he asks for a little well-deserved respect from radio (good luck, man): “Stop being rapper-racist, region haters, spectators, dictators, behind-door-dick-takers. It’s outrageous.” He advocates with an unusual air of nonchalance (like Lester Freamon would) that just gives even more potency to his words. His best and most deceptively intelligent line comes at the end of that verse: “This is Southern, face it. If we too simple, then y’all don’t get the basics.” From what I can tell, he’s pushing for even more lyrical and thematic complexity and potency from a scene that’s making some of the densest music around right now. So, that would be pretty cool is what I’m saying.

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