Lil Wayne: ‘Rebirth’

Rating: D

Last month the online retailer Amazon leaked hip-hop superstar Lil Wayne’s rock album “Rebirth” when it accidentally shipped 500 copies two months before its release date.

Since then Lil Wayne has pushed back the album’s release until June, but after listening to “Rebirth” this week, here are some other projects I’d like to see happen soon.

n The next Transformers movie featuring a screenplay by Maya Angelou.

n Oprah’s last show where she announces her replacement is Dick Cheney.

n Andy Rooney quitting “60 Minutes” to focus on his nationally syndicated sex-advice column.

More people need to get out of their comfort zones! And maybe these projects wouldn’t be as terrible as “Rebirth.” They probably would.

These are all truly awful ideas, after all, and I should reiterate that “Rebirth” is really very bad. In fact, after listening to the album all the way through, I’m unconvinced Lil Wayne has even listened to a rock record.

He obviously has a concept of what it means to be a rock star and sprinkled throughout “Rebirth” are over-the-top gestures: gratuitous electric guitar, a “Stairway to Heaven” reference, a wretched power ballad, a decent mall punk song, an awful hardcore punk song and numerous nods to ’80s hair metal.

At one point Wayne compares himself to Michael Jordan, and that is an apt comparison. “Rebirth” is kind of like Jordan quitting basketball to play baseball if all Jordan had known about baseball was the movie “Major League” and a couple of homerun contests he’d watched during the All-Star Games.

Not that I begrudge Wayne for making a rock album. “Rebirth” is far more entertaining than your garden-variety modern rock album.

Daughtry wishes he could make something with half the personality Wayne packs into this monstrosity. Even when Wayne, with his froggy croon, tries to sing banal rock lyrics like, “Your girlfriends say I ain’t the one, they hate it when I can call you,” he sounds all the weirder for it. Not enough artists are willing to fail this big.

Best tracks: “Get a Life,” “Drop the World (feat. Eminem).”