Monday, Nov. 03, 2008

Lil Wayne's A Milli

Like all rappers, Lil Wayne rarely lets a song go by without declaring at some point that he's ill. The difference is that he really seems to be. The backing track here — little more than a bass kick, some plastic-y snares and an endlessly looped sample of the words "a milli a milli a milli" stolen from A Tribe Called Quest's "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" — never coheres into a chorus, and all the elements move in different rhythms. It's like hearing a song through cough syrup — perfect for Wayne, who wheezily declares "I don' write shit 'cause I don't got time," and then conjures up enough crazy, off-balance wordplay to convince you he's either a liar or a savant. Either way, he's definitely some kind of ill.

Hear excerpts from all the top songs of 2008: