Lil Wayne — No Ceilings

Earlier in the year, it seemed likely Lil Wayne's first official release of 2009 would be his more than likely ill-advised foray into rock music, the cringeworthy experiment Rebirth.

From the auto-tuned "Prom Queen" to his mediocre fame-reflecting mixtape Dedication 3, to the many unauthorized (and uniformly terrible) remix compilations assembled by unknown DJs, Weezy's post-Tha Carter III output has been more a PSA about the dangers of excessive syrup consumption than a deserved victory lap.

Now, in pre-Carter IV hype-building style, Wayne has dropped an official mixtape into cyberspace without much warning, and suddenly any notion of diminishing returns needs to be reassessed. Like his previous mixes, Wayne takes existing beats — most notably Jay-Z's "D.O.A. (Death Of Auto-Tune)," the Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feeling" and Kanye West's re-imagining of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" — and simply pulverizes them lyrically to the point where his wacky purees outshine the originals.

At his best, Wayne's extended freestyles range from incomprehensible to completely mystifying: streams of non-sequiturs and braggadocio that often surprise Weezy himself, given his propensity for laughing during his own raps. The nonsensical four-minute lyrical voyage "Wasted" is one of his most impressive raps, a steady build-up that starts with typical sexual slang before the 21st Century Ogden Nash goes into a put-down trance ("You're local news/I'm 60 Minutes... from start to finish/Usain Wayne...") and even references the comedy film Step Brothers for good measure ("It's going down like Catalina Wine Mixer").

If it confounds, and if you can't help but stop whatever you're doing and give your speakers a cock-eyed stare, then it's classic Wayne. Forget about Rebirth; the real Weezy isn't dead yet.