Like Father Like Son

Cash Money CEO Birdman is not a rapper by trade, but he has enough clout and gritty New Orleans attitude to pull off albums of his own. Of course, Birdman is only the name on the marquee — the star of this show is Lil Wayne. It’s easy to assume that Like Father Like Son would be stronger as a Wayne solo album, but that theory discounts the ways in which Birdman and Wayne’s voices blend and complement each other. Birdman’s stolid, workmanlike delivery is the perfect set-up for Wayne’s mischievous detours. When they collaborate on the perfectly pitched sticky soul of “1st Key” or “Don’t Die” it's hard to imagine a more effective duo. Still, Like Father Like Son catches Wayne in the middle of his banner season (2006-2007), and he gets all the best lines. “About All That” blends James Brown with Black Sabbath, as Wayne proclaims himself “mashed potato smooth,” but it is the title track that really enlivens his imagination: “I put you niggas in the closet in the shirt space / You niggas yellow like Sesame Street Bert's face / Worst case scenario, burial / Two tone Carara like Mascara / The G4 take your boy wherever.”