Lil Wayne's 'Rebirth' gets another, pre-Christmas release date

Lil Wayne

Credit: ap photo

If this Lil Wayne "Rebirth" album really is going to drop, it's getting a start with a whimper, not a bang.

Universal Music Group has updated its website saying that the rap star's rock album experiment is due Dec. 15 this year, via his Cash Money label. It will be packaged with the Young Money collective debut disc "We Are Young Money."

Weezy's website, at press time, does not reflect the announcement.

"Rebirth" was originally supposed to drop April 7 earlier this year and experienced a couple other tentative release date changes. It's first two singles didn't perform up to Lil Wayne standards, with the No. 15 peak of practical non-song "Prom Queen" and a No. 33 stop of "Hot Revolver." You can listen to both below: most fans, including this one, agree it's not the star's finest moments.

It's that exact sentiment that made many critics believe "Rebirth" would never see the light of day. But after more tracks leaked online and Wayne could get feedback, he reportedly went back to the drawing board, according to MTV.

"I play guitar on 80% of the songs and there’s a lot of rock influences and rock beats," Lil Wayne told Billboard magazine last month. "But I don’t want people to think I’m trying to do something I can’t do. Don’t think you’re going to put on the album and hear me screaming and singing.

At least three stars will be guest performing on the set: Travis Barker of Blink-182, Lenny Kravitz and Drake.

Returned interest to the set could have come when Wayne hit a wall this fall: after continued work on mixtapes and prepping "The Carter IV," he was hit with a guns possession conviction, with sentencing to one year in jail due in February. Right now seems like a good time for the rapper to wrap-up some unfinished business.

In other Lil Wayne news, "The Carter" the documentary is getting its own release... straight to DVD, next week. The film got a premiere at Sundance in January, but Wayne and his management tried to block its release all this year. It reportedly includes scenes of the rapper smoking pot and abusing cough syrup. Trailer below.

Katie Hasty
Managing Editor

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After five years as a columnist and editor at Billboard, Katie Hasty joined HitFix in 2009 for music and film reporting out of New York. The Midwest native has worked as a writer, music promoter and in A&R since 1999 and performs with her band Numbers And Letters.