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DJ Hitz & Lil Wayne - Lyrical Homicide Pt. 2Album Review by:
William E. Ketchum III
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
 With Lil Wayne being today’s rapper du jour, mixtapes featuring the New Awlins’ native’s verses are a dime a dozen. Certain DJs have teamed up with Wayne to create cohesive full-length efforts (see: DJ Drama’s Dedication series, The Empire’s The Drought series), while others have simply chopped up cameos and selected songs from his catalog and put a tracklist with them. Each has their pros and cons—the former are more cohesive, fulfilling efforts, while the latter are great to help familiarize listeners or to give them the tracks they already love—so each have been successful with their releases. DJ Hitz’ Lyrical Homicide 2 falls somewhere in the middle.
Hitz does a commendable job in terms of his track selection. The guest list is especially large for a Lil Wayne mixtape: the disc’s first track is DJ Khaled’s “I’m So Hood” remix with Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, Ludacris, Baby, Fat Joe, Busta, Big Boi, and T-Pain. The Game, Juelz Santana, Jim Jones, Collie Buddz and Young Chris also make appearances, with most of them being on point as far as bar-by-bar quality and relative exclusivity. “Operate On Me” and “Comfortable,” which feature Wyclef Jean and Babyface, respectively, are also included, giving listeners new, less-heavily circulated material that’s likely to end up on Wayne’s anticipated Tha Carter 3. Just to cover the bases, Hitz also includes previously-released/leaked highlights like “S On My Chest,” “Scarface” and “Barry Bonds.” Lyrical Homicide 2 is definitely a great selection of songs.
Unfortunately, Hitz’ multitasking is also a possible downfall for Lyrical Homicide 2. The aforementioned abundance of guests notably takes away much of the shine from Wayne, making the disc sound more like a bloated iPod playlist than a DJ’s mixtape. Hitz seemingly attempts to avoid this by including various solo tracks by Wayne, but they end up feeling like contrived efforts make the mixtape more universally accessible, despite them being high quality songs. What the listener ends up with is an excessive 28 tracks that don’t flow together—and with that many songs, structure is essential in keeping listeners consistently interested, even with the all-star guest list that Hitz employs.
But despite Hitz’ miscalculations, Lyrical Homicide 2 lives up to its title, and is still a solid collection of tracks if you can get through all of it. Lil Wayne isn’t the center of attention that he’s been on his other recent mixtapes, but in a way, it’s refreshing to see a DJ who gives other artists shine. The guests on this mixtape more than carry the load: the three verses by Juelz Santana are some of his hardest material in years, and The Game’s cameos feature the same hungry, raspy flow that fans have grown to love from him. Both have purported extensive collaborative efforts with Wayne, so their chemistry on these songs is exciting. The Lil Wayne songs included are also undoubtedly dope and do a fairly good job of showing Wayne’s breadth: tracks like “S On My Chest” and “Rock On” show his ability to tear through verses with his vicious delivery and witty punchlines, “Operate On Me” and “Smokers Section” show him getting his concept game on, and “Pussy Monster” and “Comfortable” are both surefire lady anthems.
While DJ Hitz doesn’t do everything right with Lyrical Homicide 2, you damn sure can’t blame him for trying. With a solid selection of songs, contributions from the right MCs and a unique presentation, this disc is sure to satisfy listeners in one way or another.
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