By Anthony Benigno

Two years ago, Lil Wayne’s cockamamie plan to make a rock album called Rebirth has raised a lot of eyebrows and a lot of questions. Does Wayne know the first thing about how to make a rock song? And even if he does, would it be any good? And even if it were, why would the self-proclaimed Greatest Rapper Alive decide to try his hand as an axeman?

The answers: more or less, yes, and because he felt like it. Wayne can structure a solid rock song as well as he does with rap; it’s his lyricism that needs work.

For the most part, Wayne takes a page from Fred Durst’s book and spins emo-esque tales of a high school loner and the girls who reject him. “Prom Queen,” the album’s first single and biggest hit, sounds like a seventh-grade dork anthem: lost, hurt, and a little confused. In other cases, it seems like he wrote a bunch of hip-hop lyrics and tried to sing them, which can make for some awkward moments. Rapping the line “hey Barbie/are you into black men?/hey Barbie/well I can be your black Ken, ” is a feasible task; it’s the kind of clever wordplay we expect from Lil Wayne. Slathering Wayne in Auto-Tune and having him singing those lines is a less appealing idea.

Still, even with the missteps, Rebirth is a mostly positive endeavor. It’s hard not to admire Lil Wayne’s tenacity and passion even for a project that, at least at the moment, is a little outside his range. And, when a song clicks, Wayne fires on all cylinders (why the eerie, funky “Hot Revolver” was dropped from the album remains a mystery). “Drop the World”, for example, is a solid rocker (minus that terrible hook) and features a furious guest spot from Eminem.

There’s also “Ground Zero,” the album’s best track and one of the few that manages to blend his rap lyrics and rock-star style into something that works. Over a pounding drum beat and squealing guitars, Wayne snarls, “walk on air/show me to the edge and I’ll walk off there.” Maybe that’s a clue as to why he tried something like Rebirth; who knows? In any case, it’s applicable. He doesn’t quite fly this trip off the edge, but chances are he’ll take the leap again, so it’s probably best to think of Rebirth as a test run of sorts.