Lil Wayne

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

Go Super to Listen

• sentenced
• stall
• high profile
• over-exposed

• do time
• charges
• get caught
• semi-automatic

• auto tune
• stiff

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Go Super to Listen

Usually going to jail doesn’t do much for one’s career. In fact, people who spend time in prison often struggle to find a job once they’re out. But this doesn’t seem to be the case for rappers, or at least not for Lil Wayne.

Lil Wayne was recently released from jail. For the past eight months, he had been doing time for illegally owning a gun. But being behind bars didn’t stop Lil Wayne from dropping new hits. Now he’s out, and so is his latest album, I Am Not a Human Being. Hear Beren and Amy talk about how being in jail may have affected Lil Wayne’s style.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

Log in to Listen

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Beren

Amy

Beren:  Lil Wayne just got out of jail early on good behavior.

Amy:  Oh that’s good. He behaved well.

Beren:  I know, I’m super excited.

Amy:  Yeah!

Beren:  Yeah, you know, he was in, I think this time…I think it was gun charges. I’m always, you know, kind of slightly concerned that somebody like Lil Wayne is allowed to have a firearm, but then also surprised that he got caught.

Amy:  Right. It sounded to me that he had a lot of them, or particular ones that you’re definitely not supposed to have.

Beren:  Like semi-automatics.

Amy:  Yeah.

Beren:  Well, he had a fairly stiff sentence, like a year, and you know, for a rapper you’d think that would be kind of career-stalling, but he just had a new album come out and he’s been all over the radio, and I’ve seen new videos throughout this past year.

Amy:  So do you think that going to jail has been good for his career?

Beren:  Well, I don’t know if it’s been good. Before he actually got arrested he was all over the place, on the cover of every magazine. So, you know, he’s maybe not as high profile as he was, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. Like, you know, he’s not over-exposed now like he kinda was before his sentence.

Amy:  Do you think that he’s, you know, that any part of his experience in jail maybe made him a better artist, like do you think it’s changed his music or his message or anything at all?

Beren:  Well, I guess on the new album he doesn’t really use auto tune. And I don’t know, maybe because of the limitations he had in jail he wasn’t able to experiment with auto tune and technology. He just had pen and paper.

Amy:  So it was kind of more like back to the basics.

Beren:  Mmm-hmm, totally. So I guess it’s maybe not necessarily good for his career, but good for his musicianship.

Grammar Point

Go Super to learn "Adjectives" from this lesson

Quizzes

Go Super to take Quiz

Lesson MP3

Go Super to download full lesson MP3