The Great Debate: Is "Lollipop" the Most Important Song of the Last Five Years?

"No, I want the lollipop HERE!"

So first of all, apologies for the blatant infrequency. Chalk it up to an internship at Seventeen magazine, a really hard politics class, a radio show, and an awesome girlfriend for me to be distracted by this semester, I guess. But now it's summer, I'm done school, (almost) done my reign at Seventeen, and ready to blog. Two changes to come for "From Tha Chuuuch" over the next few months: it's gonna be almost exclusively focused on music, and it's gonna be daily. That second promise may be difficult to pull off, but fuck, man. I'm ready to make it happen.

As "Tha Carter III" gets endlessly pushed back, Lil' Wayne, largely recognized as the best rapper alive, has given us "Lollipop" to suck on. In the time Weezy released "Carter II" in '05, he's used sublime guest verses and a ridiculous mixtape output to become a critical hit. This isn't particularly newsworthy; Clipse basically did the same thing before "Hell Hath No Fury". The difference between the two is that Lil' Wayne has become equally recognized and respected in the mainstream market. He's on the cover of Vibe and XXL, dropping verses on Kanye and Jay-Z albums, and noticeably growing a cult fanbase, based on... what, exactly? "Da Drought 3"? I mean, as lethal as that mixtape is, it's still a mixtape, a medium that's not too optimal for commercial success for obvious reasons. "Carter II" is a solid disc, but it wasn't huge in '05, and its singles never received much airplay. So, Lil' Wayne has made himself a superstar based on material not available in retail stores, and now "Carter III" is more hotly anticipated than albums from veterans like Nas and T.I. It's a stunning achievement, honestly, and it sort of speaks to just how good those mixtapes (most notably "Drought 3" and "Dedication 2") have been.

Now... "Lollipop". Is this a joke? A cross between 50 Cent's mystical-penis misogyny and T-Pain's Framptonized vocoder vox? This is the new king of rap music? Lil' Wayne became famous over the past two years for his acrobatic rhyming skills and his incredibly unique voice. On "Lollipop", there's no rapping. None. Also on "Lollipop", Weezy F. Baby sounds nothing like our regular, beloved Weezy F. Baby. He uses a tired metaphor throughout the song (I'll let you guess what it is), discusses how he let some ho "lick the (w)rapper", and gives us a stinted drum machine with some minimal Souljah Boy synths. The fuck?

Well, "Lollipop" is a huge hit. It's also kind of good.

It's hard to defend "Lollipop" for several reasons, the biggest one being that it's a pretty terrible, stupid song. It's also difficult to justify its existence without appearing to be some apologist Lil' Wayne fanatic, refusing to admit that their idol sold out to hit #1. "No way," an apologist would say, "Weezy's just taking us in a new direction, perfecting the R&B-vocoder genre and giving us some catchy shit to nod our heads to. And plus, he's not really gonna make music like this forever."

All of this is more or less true. It is a new direction for Wayne, albeit a calculated attempt to capitalize on a booming music niche. But for all of its shortcomings, "Lollipop" has more soul than all of the last eight T-Pain singles combined. The first time you hear "Lollipop", you disregard it as trash. The second time, you notice how insanely emotional Lil' Wayne is throughout the song: he strains every ounce of his being to nail lines like "I liiiike that!", "Call ME/So I can make it juicy for ya", and "I make her feel RIGHT when it's wrong like lyin'". The third time you hear it, you will have the refrain "She li-li-licked me like a lollipop" stuck in your skull for the next six hours. Frustrated, and craving one more goddamn listen, you listen to it for a fourth time, and you start to think that the drum machine is actually pretty sweet, that Static Major is a serviceable hook-singer, and that the last minute is sickeningly great. It's a hypnotic process, really. Now, I keep retreating to "Lollipop" like a shameful sex junkie looking for just a quick piece of nookie. I know it's wrong, that on paper it's a terrible piece of music, but it's gotten me under its spell. I've been made a sucker.

Plus... c'mon, Lil' Wayne is still an amazing rapper. This is just the single to draw the masses into an album chock full of "I'm the man in this bitch/They say money talks, well, I'm the ventriloquist"s, right? Sadly, upon hearing "Lollipop", it's hard to expect the brilliance of "Da Drought 3" to linger over into an album seemingly made for commercial success. Expectations have to at least partially subside, because no one wants an album full of "Lollipop"s; one song without rhyming and with vocoder should be enough, thanks. Plus, the fact that its release keeps being delayed is never a good sign, especially when such spontaneous output as the mixtapes was like lightning in a bottle. No matter if you hate "Lollipop" or are kinda charmed by it, its existence has to make you a little nervous about what everyone believes to be a classic. And so, the "Carter III" wait uncomfortably continues...

But "Lollipop" should be noted for more than spiking anticipation about the album. This song, and everything it represents, is FASCINATING. An artist who started out as a Cash Money figurehead and Juvenile supporter ("Back That Azz Up", indeed) falls out of the limelight only to become a critical success on the basis of some raw mixtape power. Gaining some cred, he boosts his profile by guesting on some high-profile tracks, and suddenly the man's a rising star once again, though without that signature single as an anchor. "Tha Carter III", fast approaching, has been annointed the critical and commercial zenith in a genre quickly losing big names. With all the pressure in the world to live up to unusually curious fans and die-hard critics, Lil' Wayne releases "Lollipop".

This song feels like a plot twist no one saw coming. It's a complete musical departure, sure, but the audience it panders to sent it straight to #1; fuck me if this track isn't the jam of the summer. Critics eyeball it like Pandora's Box, either treating it like a puerile mess or praising it for, ya know, being okay and stuff. This isn't what they wanted. They wanted "I Feel Like Dying" to become a radio staple! Simply put, "Lollipop" is the point in which fans and critics have collided and coiled themselves around each other. It's the career apex for Weezy's popularity; it's the long-awaited surge of the critics' new pet rapper. No single song since "Hey Ya!" has had such a huge impact on the commercial and critical world -- the past five years have seen the radio cling onto Ne-Yo and Nickelback, and the 'zines heap praise upon Ghostface Killah and Panda Bear. This is generalization, but crossover between the two sects has been very small. "Lollipop" is the point where the critical darling becomes the people's champ, and the bloggers who nursed him back to health don't know what to do. Hate it or love it, Weezy The Underdog's on top, with a fucking vocoder and a lollipop. How is this NOT the most important song of the last five years?