I can’t believe it was only six months ago that I wrote my first post on RA about Jersey Shore, when the show was just a few episodes in and the media/pop culture firestorm surrounding it hadn’t yet reached its peak. Oh, how things have changed.

The first episode of the much-anticipated second season premiered on MTV last night, and unless you live under a rock (or are older than 35) you know that the network’s eagerness to get the now-famous cast back on air led them to shoot Season 2 in Miami when it was still snowing buckets on the East Coast.

So far, the geographic change seems at worst harmless, and at best necessary. Since JS Season 1 only ended a few months ago, it would be exceedingly hard to revive the novelty of the show’s first weeks in the same house and at the same bars. Indeed, it’s not such a bad idea to test the legs of the cast—can they be as interesting, or perhaps more interesting, when removed from the very scene that gave the show its name? Answer: yes.

Watching The Situation, Pauly D, Vinny, Ronnie, Sammi, Snooki and JWoww (more on Angelina later) reunite was like meeting up with old friends again, and even though we know many of the cast members have spent the last four months within arms’ length of one-another, it still felt like they were all excited to be re-living the very experience that got them here in the first place. Sort of like how the three months you spend planning the prom (what, you guys didn’t have overanxious female friends in high school?) didn’t manage to undermine the greatness of seeing your peers in evening wear. (Well, that, and the drinking; everyone’s looking forward to the drinking.)

So far, MTV has approached JS2 with a balance reminiscent of its Real World/Road Rules Challenges – playing up the drama laid out in Season 1 (and over the last few months), but still promising the kind of off-the-cuff hilarity that made JS popular in the first place. To be honest, MTV doesn’t have to do much—the “give them a bed, a bar and a beverage” production model, which has floundered on Real World in the last few seasons, is perfectly suited to Jersey Shore’s characters, who are at their best when simply permitted to speak freely to each other, or to strangers, or really at all (see: every mainstream media interview Snooki has ever done). Extensive trailers for this season, shown repeatedly over the last few months, reassure me that JS will be just as good this time around as before; there promise to be fights, hookups and one-liners galore. All in all, I’m pumped, (no pun intended).

That said, watching JS now, after the media explosion, makes for an interesting anthropological study in the trajectory of reality TV stars. After all, part of what made the cast endearing in Season 1 was how their overwhelming vanity clashed with their relative obscurity. This is an entire culture (I refer here to guidos and –ettes) centered on looking and feeling fresh, getting women, fist-pumping and making a general spectacle of yourself. The show’s cast is just a microcosm of something going on in midtown literally every night of the week, and in that sense it was novel simply to peer into the lifestyle at all, whether we were watching its most hilarious ambassadors (Mike, Snooki) or least vociferous adherents (Vinny).

All of that is different these days. We know how famous the group is now and, more importantly, they know. The cast has gone on countless television shows, been the subject of at-length media coverage and even showed up in Manhattan this week to ring the bell at the stock exchange. To ring. The bell. At the stock exchange. In other words, their universe has flipped upside down.

To this end, MTV has an interesting approach, one I’m not yet decided on. On the one hand, there were times last night I wished they’d just up and acknowledge how things have changed. Like why is the group staying in relatively cramped digs in Miami, when Real World cast members, whose show has, let’s face it, become about a third as popular as JS (if that) are still shacked up in pimped-out mansions? Why did the network spend the first 15 minutes pretending the JS crew had randomly decided to take a trip to Miami together? Why didn’t they know Angelina was coming (when we certainly did)? Why the fuck did anyone actually carpool? (To this end, for all the press attention that the cast members’ $30,000/episode paychecks have gotten, they’re not exactly living it up). The overwhelming attempt to play off their fame is particularly noticeable when the group goes out—gone are the shots of an empty bar shore-side, where JWoww nurses a drink and Snooki dances by herself. More than once I got the distinct impression the group was being photographed, and the boys’ unadulterated confidence in their ability to get hot girls (Vinny ponders bedding 60 women in the 60 days of filming) suggests they are reaping the benefits of pop culture fandom.

On the other hand, Jersey Shore wouldn’t be the same if everyone  started talking about their newfound celebrity. Not to mention, most of the cast members still live in their home states—as of yet, no one has moved to LA to pursue an acting career—and those who lived with mom and dad apparently still do. Their clothes are just as tight, tans just as fake. Unlike The Hills, whose cast members were more or less encouraged by fame to become glossy plastic versions of themselves, the crew of Jersey Shore started out glossy and plastic; changing who they are to suit some Hollywood perception of beauty or class would be anathema to the source of their celebrity.

But just in case you think watching 20-somethings lounge around in deck chairs won’t be as entertaining now that they’re “famous,” there’s plenty of semi-fabricated drama to distract you. Ronnie and Sammi have broken up, though there are already less-than-discreet references to what I imagine will be an eventual reunion. Along the same lines, MTV deftly invited Angelina back this season (perhaps the truest testament to JS‘ unexpected popularity was Angelina’s Season 1 departure, something she has clearly been kicking herself for over the last year). In the first few minutes she pathetically tells the camera that she’ll do anything to ingratiate herself with the cast; by the end of the episode she’s gotten into a screaming match with JWoww and become the second person in one episode to refer to Sammi as a c-word. All in all, very promising.

If you don’t watch JS, you should definitely start now, before it’s too late and you’re like one of those weird people who somehow missed major television bandwagons like Lost and The Wire. And if you do watch Jersey Shore, and you didn’t intend to watch this season already, well, I don’t know you, and I don’t like you.

‘Another thought about Other Voices, Other Rooms. Capote’s 
complex figurative language and religious allusions give the 
narrative a sense of cosmic, or metaphysical significance. For 
instance, near the beginning the landscape is described as 
looking if it were under the sea. Another work of literature 
which has this “metaphysical sense” is Moby Dick.’”

Enough said.

All I want to know is: How did ChickenDiapers.com remained unclaimed until 2002?

[WSJ]

So here’s what I’m watching this summer, and what you should be too, if you know what’s good for you.

Verdict: Watch with a hand on the remote. Some scenes—like Ali being serenaded by anyone, anywhere—are too perfectly awkward to miss. Others, like the ENDLESS rose ceremony, are easy to skip.

Verdict: If you’ve watched the last six seasons, you might as well keep on keeping on. But make sure you have food around; after one particularly tantalizing episode I found myself dipping pretzel rods in butter.

Verdict: If you like Bravo’s other fare, this one is well worth the time. And if you don’t like Bravo’s other fare, why the fuck are you reading my blog?

Verdict: When it comes to the on-camera demonization of 20-somethings who have never had to work or think for themselves, I am decidedly in favor.

It’s pretty obvious the oil spill is a job for a superhero. In fact, it’s exactly the kind of pseudo-natural disaster for which superheroes are uniquely prepared. Can’t get into space on a whim? Call Superman. Need to ascend that skyscraper in 30 seconds flat? Text Spiderman. And if you just need a quick fix of a woman in latex, I’m pretty sure Catwoman hasn’t done much of anything since the early 90s.

So who in our long parade of superheroes and villains is best suited to handle what’s arguably the biggest environmental disaster in our country’s history? Well we at RA thought of some ideas that, frankly, don’t sound all that batshit next to “throw tires in there.” (Note: Aaron thought of most of this. His knowledge of superheroes is unparalleled and, were it not so helpful to this post, I would be mocking him).

Got your own ideas? Let us know. But let’s be honest, they won’t be nearly as awesome.

1. REAL WORLD/JACKASS

Both of these stalwart MTV franchises have been lagging in recent years—on the Real World, MTV vacillates between self-involved intellectual types and balls-to-the-wall party kids, with little gray area. Meanwhile Jackass, once the symbol of our viral video times, has since the beginning of the decade fallen into a murky audience zone. The 20-somethings who followed the show during its heyday are too old to appreciate it anymore, and there’s something inherently creepy about 13-year-olds watching men their father’s age attach things to their balls.

Combo show: Eight strangers picked to live in a house and have their various attempts to injure themselves or one-another taped.

2. SURVIVOR/LOST

The “plot” of Survivor is ungodly easy to follow—drop desperate losers off on an island and let them duke it out; each week, someone is given the boot. Lost, by contrast, has long since stopped making sense for even its most devoted followers. Throwing these two together would make Survivor fans moderately smarter (as Lost is prone to obscure literary and philosophical references), and Lost fans slightly less confused. After all, what is an island full of fame-seeking morons if not some sort of televised purgatory?

Combo show: Send a few dozen idiots to an obscure island with limited supplies and plentiful mysteries. Stage random assaults via wild animals and smoke monsters. Each week, someone gets kicked off (and put on a plane that will subsequently crash).

3. REAL HOUSEWIVES/CELEBRITY APPRENTICE

Anyone who’s seen even one episode in the Real Housewives franchise knows housewife in this case is synonymous with “marrying rich so you can start your own line of face cream/cocktails/jewelry/insert other pointless product here.” But what would happen if you actually put the self-absorbed and mildly insane women of RHNY to work for someone like The Donald? Though Sinbad and Bret Michaels have provided no shortage of hilarity so far on this season of Celebrity Apprentice (to say nothing of perennial politician Rod Blagojevich), the two-hour show is quickly wearing thin (at Episode 2, mind you). Some good old-fashioned cat fights would definitely do the trick.

Combo show: Pit two teams of Real Housewives ladies (personally, I vote for New York vs. New Jersey) against one-another in a series of challenges aimed at “raising money for charity” (by which I mean degrading people who think they’re above menial labor).

In honor of today, March 3, 2010, otherwise known as the day Nip/Tuck died, I’ve pasted below, in its (almost) entirety, the whole of N/T character Matt McNamara’s Wikipedia page. I’ll be the first to admit that the last two seasons of the show have been rather lackluster, though I feel this was to be expected from a program that in Season 1 brought up drug cartels and self-circumcision, obese people stuck to their couches and wanton disregard for safe sex. Either way, it’s recaps like this that remind us why we all started watching, and just couldn’t bring ourselves to stop.

Farewell Nip/Tuck; I’ll miss you.

Matt McNamara
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Matthew McNamara

First appearance: Pilot (episode 1.01)
Created by: Ryan Murphy
Portrayed by: John Hensley
INFORMATION:

Aliases: Matt, Matty
Gender: Male
Age: approx. 22
Occupation: Student, Mime, Armed Robber
Family: Unnamed rapist (biological paternal grandfather)
Spouse(s): Kimber Henry (ex-wife)
Children: Jenna McNamara (daughter, with Kimber)
Relatives:

Christian Troy (biological father)
Julia McNamara (mother)
Sean McNamara (legal father)
Emme Lowell (paternal half-sister)
Annie McNamara (maternal half-sister)
Conor McNamara (maternal half-brother)
Gail Pollack (biological paternal grandmother)
Erica Noughton(maternal grandmother)
Thomas McNamara (paternal grandfather)
Colleen McNamara (paternal grandmother)
Max Pollack (biological paternal half-uncle; same age as Matt)
Sarah Pollack (biological paternal half-aunt)
Kimber Henry Troy (step-mother)
Matthew “Matt” McNamara is a fictional character on the American television series Nip/Tuck, portrayed by John Hensley.

Matthew “Matt” McNamara, was raised as the son of Julia and Sean McNamara, although his biological father is Christian Troy, a man he regards as an uncle. Matt has two half-sisters, Annie (whose father is Sean and mother is Julia) and Emme Lowell (daughter of Christian with a woman named Darlene Lowell) and a younger half-brother, Conor (son of Sean and Julia). He is approximately 16 years of age at the beginning of the show’s first season. Although he isn’t as much as a ruffian in the beginning, it is implied that he was a delinquent in his early years, as Sean says to Christian, “I spent 17 years trying to corral your bad genetics”.

Season One
Matt tells his parents that he wants to be circumcised, as he doesn’t want to gross out his girlfriend Vanessa, whom he wants to have sex with. Sean declines to perform the operation, telling Matt there is nothing wrong with being uncircumcised. But when Vanessa is turned off, Matt decides to circumcise himself after reading a how-to guide on the internet. The circumcision unsurprisingly goes wrong, and Sean and Christian are forced to perform the operation. After the surgery, Matt discovers that Vanessa is a lesbian and having an affair with a popular cheerleader, Ridley. When Ridley shows signs of wanting to end their affair, Vanessa asks Matt to have a threesome with them to keep Ridley interested. The threesomes continue, until Sean and Julia find out and have a family intervention with Ridley and Vanessa’s parents. Weeks later, Matt and his friend Henry commit a hit and run while under the influence of marijuana. Both cover up their involvement, but both grow attached to the victim, an outsider whose strict Christian Scientist mother won’t allow her to have the necessary surgery to repair her injuries.

Season Two
Henry is arrested and charged for the hit and run, and Matt testifies against him in court, claiming he wasn’t in the car at the time of the accident. Meanwhile, Sean and Julia worry about his attitude and ask him to visit life coach Ava Moore. As part of a trust exercise, Ava asks Matt to take a naked photograph of her, and later offers him sexual intercourse in return for good grades. Matt and Ava sleep together, and Matt discovers that she has a teenage son, Adrian. Meanwhile, Sean, Julia and Christian all discover Ava’s duplicitous, dangerous nature, and Christian takes it upon himself (due to recently discovering he is Matt’s biological father) to try and keep Matt away from her after he is arrested for masturbating outside of her window. Matt eventually discovers the truth about his paternity, shattering his relationship with Sean. Adrian begins to display disturbing behavior (stemming from his incestuous relationship with Ava) and runs away from home, while Matt wants to run away with Ava to Paris, France. Sean, Julia and Christian discover that Ava is a MTF transsexual and in return for enhanced vaginal surgery, Ava promises to leave Matt. As she packs, Adrian shows up and kills himself in front of Ava, who leaves his body and flees to Paris.

Season Three
Matt discovers Adrian’s body and discovers that Ava used to be a man, pushing him to the edge. He visits a transsexual bar and picks up a woman named Cherry Peck. When he discovers that she is a pre-op transsexual, he physically attacks her. In revenge, Cherry and her friends chase after Matt and urinate on him. After the incident, Matt shaves his head and taunts Sean. Sean punches Matt, so he files a restraining order against his father. The court order is later dropped, but Sean and Matt continue to be on bad terms. Matt starts dating Ariel Alderman who, along with the rest of her family, are Neo-Nazis. Matt watches as Ariel bleaches her skin and listens to her racist beliefs. Meanwhile, Cherry comes to McNamara/Troy and asks them to fix her botched plastic surgery for free, as Matt beat her up. Sean is against it, as Cherry and her friends attacked him too. Having an epiphany, Matt encourages Sean to operate on Cherry and he befriends her. Things spiral out of control when the Alderman’s spot Matt and Cherry together and kidnap them. Mr Alderman forces Matt to either cut off his penis, or Cherry’s. Cherry tells Matt that it’s okay, and Matt presumably cuts it off. Mr Alderman then drives Matt and Cherry to wasteland outside Miami and forces Matt to bury Cherry alive. But Matt stands up to Mr Alderman at gunpoint and Cherry hits Mr Alderman from behind with a shovel, then shoots him.

Season Four
After the traumatic events of last season, Matt is having a hard time coping and turns to exercise as an outlet. Matt runs into Kimber Henry at the gym, and learns about her religion of Scientology. Hoping that the religion will help him deal with his guilt, he joins - but it soon becomes more of an excuse to see Kimber. Kimber encourages Matt to move out of the McNamara home due to it being “toxic”, and ends up cleaning roadsides as part of his religious training. After being rejected by Christian, Kimber tries to get back at him by sleeping with Matt. Several weeks later, Matt and Kimber tell Sean and Christian that they are married and expecting a baby. The couple move in together and Matt films a porn movie with her in an effort to spice up their sex life. Matt confesses to Sean that he knows Kimber only married him to get back at Christian, but he really does love her.

Season Five
Matt shows up in Los Angeles with newborn baby Jenna. He claims that he is now poor as Kimber gave all their money to Scientology, and that he has left her. In truth, this is nothing but a ruse to get money to pay for his and Kimber’s spiraling addiction to crystal meth. Kimber tries to return to the porn industry, but is shot down by producer Ram Peters due to her habit. He does, however, want Matt in a gay porn movie after seeing the size of his penis in the homemade porn movie they made last year. Matt is willing to do the movie, until Kimber stops him. After quitting drugs through Scientology, Kimber agrees to dump Matt in return for surgery on her meth-ravaged face and teeth. Kimber tells Matt that she never loved him and moves in with Ram, taking Jenna with her. Devastated, Matt turns to meth and accidentally blows up the motel he is staying in, inflicting severe burns on his body. While resting in hospital, Matt bonds with his burns counselor, Rachel Ben Natan, who was left horrifically scarred when a terrorist in her native Israel blew up right next to her. Matt and Rachel start dating, until Rachel ends things as she cannot see a future with him. Matt yells at her for daring to be “picky”, and that she should consider herself lucky to be with him. Matt meets one of Christian’s patients, Southern girl Emme Lowell, and sleeps with her. Matt and Emme feel a connection like none they’ve ever felt before. This is explained when Emme reveals that she came to Los Angeles to find her biological father: Christian Troy. Matt and Emme come clean to their parents about their love, and are told to end things immediately. Emme plans to return home, but despite his feelings Matt makes the right decision and lets her go. While helping Sean with his physical therapy, Matt revealed that he wanted to go into medicine, and that he was taking pre-med courses at a local community college. A few episodes later, Matt realizes he only wants to play a doctor on television, and goes into acting.

Season Six
In the season six premiere, Matt tells Sean and Christian that he has been taking miming classes and plans to perform as a mime as a living. Christian openly derides Matt for this and tells him to get a real job. After a horrific day in which he is both robbed of the little money he has earned and his stereo — Matt reaches his breaking point when he attempts to purchase coffee from a coffee shop employee and pulls out a fake handgun which terrifies the employee, and she hands over all the money in the register. Matt then decides to use this disguise to rob other places; he is eventually known as “The Mime” after robbing several stores. After being released from a line-up by the police (the witness failed to identify Matt) and interrogated by his fathers who have become suspicious of his newfound wealth, Matt is severely wounded attempting to hold up a convenience store when the clerk pulls out a shotgun and fires it at him. He makes it to Christian’s place and collapses on the floor; he removes his jacket and shows that he is severely wounded. After treating Matt’s wounds, Julia, Sean and Christian come to the realization that despite all their attempts, Matt is just a bad person (with Christian seeming to take it the worst, blaming his rapist father for passing those genes on) and that he should be turned in to the police. Matt, who heard Julia and Christian talking, leaves soon after and breaks into Kimber’s home to see his daughter. Kimber catches him, and after learning that he is leaving for Mexico begs to go with him. However at a truck stop, Matt encounters Christian who tells him that Kimber helped slow him down long enough for Christan to find him and pleads with him to turn himself in. Matt pulls out a handgun and fires it at Christian to get him out (the round shatters the driver side window). Matt leaves but ruptures his stitches and calls Sean, who comes to help him. After stitching his son up, Matt leaves and finds the police and Christian waiting outside. Matt is handcuffed and read his Miranda Rights as he is led to a squad car. At the urging of his grandmother Erica, Matt decides to be a witness in regards to Sean and Julia being unfit parents after Erica decides to petition for custody of Annie and Connor after Sean’s suicide attempt. She also urges Matt to become a “prison bitch” to survive inside, as she believes he will not survive otherwise. When Christian goes to the prison to visit Matt, he is greeted instead by Matt’s cellmate who plans on turning Matt into his “bitch” in exchange for his protection and that Matt has agreed to get breast implants. A shocked Christian leaves, and makes an arrangement with the warden to have Matt transferred to another cell (selling his beloved boat to raise enough cash), however Matt’s former cellmate is transferred as well and savagely beats Matt. Visiting Matt in the prison hospital, Christian refuses to perform the surgery on Matt but instead offers him another option; drugging his cellmate’s food with drugs used for chemical castration (thus making it impossible for him to rape Matt). This works for a time until Matt accidentally drops the bottle (which was hidden in a hollowed-out book) and his cellmate realizes what has been happening to him. He attacks Matt, who fights back by kicking him in the testicles and then strangling him with the lingere that his cellmate bought for him. In the season finale, in exchange for performing liposuction surgery on an overweight death row inmate, Wesley Clovis, (to ensure that the execution is successful), Sean and Christian make a deal that Matt is to be released from prison early. As the execution draws near, another inmate confronts Matt, who reveals that Clovis is in fact innocent, being wrongly blamed for the murder. As Matt is released in preparation for the execution, he begins to tell Sean and Christian about Clovis’ innocence. However, realizing that this revelation will cost him his freedom, Matt quickly changes his mind, instead saying that he thinks Clovis is sick, disturbed, has no chance at rehabilitation, and that executing him is the right thing to do.

(My addition): In the latest episode, Ava’s unexpected return, leper-baby in tow, starts that whole plot line up again. After re-wooing Matt (who knows she used to be a man but doesn’t seem to care and really, at this point why would he?) Ava tells him to go through with his random-ass marriage to Boring McWhatsername, who is either part of some massive reveal tonight or served absolutely no purpose on the show. But then, whilst on the altar, Matt receives a mysterious text message. Without speaking, he walks out of the ceremony and into a limo, where Ava is waiting for him.  Credits.

[Wikipedia]

FOD is unquestionably sophomoric, so there were times I felt disadvantaged by my lack of a 14 to 25-year-old penis, but overall the show had enough gems to make it more than worth it. This is one of them:

This stuff never really gets old. Also, he’s French!

Were “Hailey’s Song,” in all its experimental glory, an entire album – it would be Lil Wayne’s Rebirth: daring, bold, endearing, and not entirely …good.

As a preface, I should say I’ve been listening to an illegally downloaded ultimate version of Rebirth, which includes all of the tracks officially released this week, as well as a few that had been leaked months ago and were later pulled from the CD. In all, after more than few delayed releases, Weezy popped out nearly two-dozen songs for Rebirth, which was marketed as (and is) the rapper’s attempt to merge his own hip-hop style with rock influences. I don’t have the energy to figure out which songs were part of the final release and which weren’t—moreover, all of the songs were arguably intended for inclusion on a professional album—but I figure having a few extra ones to go off of just means Wayne gets a more comprehensive chance at impressing me.

In some ways, Rebirth is impressive, and if any mainstream rapper were to attempt the integration of rock and rap, I would argue Lil Wayne is definitely up to the task. His style of rap, especially on Tha Carter III, is fairly unique already, in that many of his songs have kooky hooks, or no hooks, and he isn’t afraid of alternating the speed or tenor of his rapping, even in the course of one song. In short, Wayne never really followed rules, so ignoring them entirely doesn’t seem a stretch. Indeed, some of the songs on Rebirth—“American Star” and “One Way Trip” among them—could have easily been songs on Tha Carter III. And others, like “Prom Queen,” “Knockout” and “Hot Revolver” are pretty inspired mixes of rap and rock.

Further, and without getting all wishy-washy, there’s something to be said for the fact that he even tried. Though music has become nothing if not more egalitarian over the last decade, the line between rap and rock is still pretty solid. Both make it into Top 40, but in a sort of mutually exclusive way, much as Z100 manages to follow Taylor Swift with Linkin Park. For Wayne, who after the wild success of Carter III could have easily coasted with another solid rap album, to even attempt something as brave as Rebirth is, in my book, admirable. It shows a respect for music as a whole that not enough artists even bother faking.

But all ass-kissing aside, Rebirth still feels like something of a missed opportunity, and for several reasons. The first is that despite altering the backgrounds, hooks and rhythms of his songs, Wayne does little to alter his voice. In fact, he seems to go further in the other direction, employing Autotune with a fervor only paralleled by T-Pain himself. I’m not a huge fan of Autotune to begin with, in rap or pop music, but while it’s mildly bearable in the context of a bass beat and other studio enhancements, as a part of rock songs it’s woefully inappropriate …sort of like a guitar’s distortion pedal, but for your voice. The fact that Wayne’s idea of “singing” is to simply shout while rapping only makes matters worse.

But what bothers me more than the Autotune—which, let’s face it, is too ubiquitous to condemn at this point (unless you’re Jay-Z)—is that virtually no members of the rock community are featured on Rebirth. This is particularly surprising considering Lil Wayne’s long history of cameos on songs from rap, rock and pop artists. Blink 182’s Travis Barker plays drums for one song on Rebirth, but frankly I would have expected more from Weezy, who is arguably the feature-slut of the music world. Having contributions from bands like Fall Out Boy, Modest Mouse or The White Stripes would have done a lot for the credibility of the album, and I dare say having their pop/punk/rock influence would have probably helped make the songs more accessible. Instead, songs like “Get a Life” and “The Price is Wrong” sound like Wayne just read “Rock Songs for Dummies.”

Ultimately I like Rebirth – it’s refreshing, especially after Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3, which though awesome, is very much a straight rap album. Further, Rebirth adds to the perception I have of Lil Wayne as someone who’s more concerned with besting himself than anyone else. Unfortunately, Rebirth doesn’t best Tha Carter III, or even Tha Carter II. Instead, it seems more like a prolonged and experimental jam session with a truly gifted rapped but not-so-stellar rocker.

But oh well, he tried.