Weezy F. Baby has done it again. The enigmatic rapper (Lil Wayne to his fans, Dwayne Carter to his family) unleashed his umpteenth album Rebirth this Tuesday after a year of promises following his ground-, and record-, breaking 2008 album, Tha Carter III. After selling over one million copies in the first week, Tha Carter III proved to America that hip-hop was not dead and that Lil Wayne was its new voice. However, following this critically acclaimed turn, Wayne went surprisingly dry — only releasing one mixtape last year, No Ceilings. When he came back though, it was with an album that everyone expected, but no one was ready for. Rebirth is a rock album, no doubt about it, but it’s also a unique artifact of how one of the world’s hottest MCs sees the gritty world of rock and roll.

There have been many iconic/ironic moments in music where the audience is privy (for better or worse) to what rock artists think of the rap world. These range from the glory days of Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers to the ill-fated “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)” that Limp Bizkit so hoped would define them and their nu metal genre. None of these, though, have had any affect on the shape of rock as a whole, which has stayed in generally the same shape since its inception as the dominant popular music genre.

As many critics have pointed out, Rebirth is unique album in which the audience is able to take a inside look at what one of rap’s most engaging personality’s thinks of rock music. The result is an album heavy with big guitars, big drums, background singers and lots of synths. Not since Run-DMC’s 1986 “Walk This Way” collaboration with Aerosmith has a dominant hip-hop presence revealed how they would rock. Wayne does it in much of the same style as his previous rap albums, especially Tha Carter III, employing a wide range of rock genres to match his vocal prowess.

Rebirth is a diverse album that showcases a musician at the peak of his confidence. From the opening rock discordance of kickoff track “American Star” that showcases a loose approach to rock music, to the tight knit pop punk “Knockout,” whose instrumental could easily appear on any radio friendly pop hit of the last five years, every song has a fresh sound, such as the immediate boom of hard-hitting singles “Prom Queen” and “On Fire.” Wayne even throws in his rap roots in some of the album’s strongest moments, including the track “Drop the World,” featuring a standout guest spot from Eminem.

While the music may be intrinsically flawed, Rebirth is an album well worth a listen. It’s a genuine portrait of what happens when a talented musician pushes himself well outside of his comfort zone. In the same way that “A Milli” and “Mrs. Officer” showed two equally powerful sides of an artist at his prime, Rebirth perfectly complements the audacity and diversity of Wayne’s previous catalogue.

A for Effort