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Music

A Year of Lil Wayne: "Throw It in the Bag"

Let's take a look at Wayne's romantic side.

Day 3: "Throw It in the Bag" – No Ceilings, 2009

Yesterday's post​ was pretty heavy, so today I'm going to test the spirit of this blog concept by posting what surely nobody in the world would consider a standout Lil Wayne song. The cool thing, of course, is that even a throwaway Wayne song has better bars than a lot of perfectly respected rappers. If J. Cole rapped the way Wayne raps on "Throw It in the Bag," today's pick, well, he'd be going double platinum with no features!

No Ceilings is a frequently overlooked Wayne tape, but I've always loved it because he tackles three iconic beats—"Wasted," "Swag Surfin," and "Ice Cream Paint Job"—and also because it was the last proper rap project he put out before he went to prison in 2010, which to me marked the end of his most storied run. Anyway, "Throw It in the Bag" isn't even one of the best songs on the tape, but I love the beat because The-Dream and Tricky Stewart made it (the source material, "Fancy," is one of my all-time favorite songs). And also it's a good romantic Wayne song, which is a side of Wayne that doesn't get enough respect. I mean, he raps about his girl leaving "Betsey Johnson all over my bathroom counter." You've got to be paying close attention to draw distinctions like that! And then he points out that he's going to get her a car with "no ceilings," which as you may recall is the title of the tape. Props for thematic consistency!

There's also a good line about Wayne getting his dick copyrighted and a now charmingly anachronistic reference to iChat. Also this series of rhymes is fun to listen to, in part because I love imagining Wayne and his girl on a Victorian-style romp through Europe, visiting tailors in Milan and then maybe dining on grapes or duck à l'orange at Lake Geneva: "Fresh out the salon / I took her to Milan / I speak a little French and hers is no better than mine." How good is Wayne's French exactly? Well, that's a topic for another day.

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