Artist: Birdman & Lil WayneTitle: Like Father, Like SonRating: 4 StarsReviewed by: Sidik Fofana
In a certain music genre, it is not gangsta to love your father. In fact, it is customary to forsake your pops because, oftentimes, it makes for a quality tune. Now, Birdman and his adopted son, the South’s posterboy Lil Wayne, have dropped a duet album called Like Father Like Son (Cash Money/Universal) with its lead single “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy”, and the Hip-Hop world is befuddled. What do we when somebody admits he has a daddy? Do we spread rumors that he is gay? Trust, people have.
Like Father, Like Son is what an ideal Cash Money release sounds like. Songs like “Know What I’m Doin'” featuring Rick Ross and T-Pain and “Out Pound” have the signature Cash Money horns (provided by TMIX instead of Mannie Fresh) that you can find in a Grambling University halftime show. Lyrically, Lil Wayne is naturally responsible for many of the album’s quoteables. In “Over Here Hustlin'”, he quips, “Wayne straight like a key of that good/And if a b*tch don’t know the rules then I will read her the book.” Birdman does a good job of just being a roleplayer on this album, offering cute couplets here and there.
Birdman and Lil Wayne make Like Father, Like Son successful because they understand their dynamic well. Yes, Birdman was the benevolent guardian who took Weezy under his wing long ago, but he also understands that everything Lil Wayne spits is propane and allows him to do his thing on the CD. “1st Key” is an instant classic and it is similar to many of the tracks on the album which feel like Wayne is spitting coherent flows off the top of his head.
Deductions come from the overly cliche Mafia skits sprinkled throughout the album. We already comprehend the album’s concept of family, but the skits beat us over the head with too many reminders. Also, there are couple of songs that lag, like the sentimental “Don’t Die” and the collaboration with Allstar Cashville Prince “No More”, which just sounds like Cash Money plagiarism from 2001. All in all, with Lil Wayne’s platinum vocals and Birdman’s business savvy, Cash Money is redefining child support in ’06.
