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All 14 Lil Wayne Albums, Ranked (Staff Picks)

Lil Wayne's album: Best and worst, ranked of his entire studio catalog.

Then, there’s the standout Hot Boys posse cut “Shine,” which proved once again that Weezy and Cash Money weren’t just a Southern Rap phenomenon: It was a favorite in the New York City area back then, getting major play in this writer’s car specifically. Meanwhile, “Mona Lisa” made good on the long-awaited sparring match between K-Dot and Weezy with a tongue-twisting flurry of a song, and Nicki Minaj offered an excellent R&B feature on “Dark Side of the Moon.” Still, there were only a few obvious standout moments across the album, which is surprising considering its nearly hour-and-a-half runtime. And while those tracks foreshadowed what he had up his sleeve lyrically with his much talked about mixtape run that came after, a record like “Shooter” featuring Robin Thicke showed that he also had the mainstream appeal — which we would see come to a head on the massive third Carter album, when he sold a mind-boggling one million copies during its first week.

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