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Popcast: Lil Wayne, Sobriety and the Damage Done

Lil Wayne's new album, “I Am Not a Human Being II,” was released this week.Mark J. Terrill/Invision, via Associated Press Lil Wayne’s new album, “I Am Not a Human Being II,” was released this week.

This week, Jon Caramanica and host Ben Ratliff talk about Lil Wayne’s “I Am Not A Human Being II,” the third in his theoretically drug-free era â€" he has consented to regular, court-ordered drug tests since 2010 â€" and talk about Wayne (again, theoretically) pre- and post-sobriety.

How have drugs showed up in hip-hop and other music as a sonic shaper What place do stimulants, depressants, narcotics and hallucinogens have in our understanding of pop sounds â€" tempos, textures, legibility What can we infer about how sobriety may have marked the music of Wayne, Eminem, or even John Coltrane

Or is talking about drugs a distraction from the real issues in a musician’s life: youth and aging, creative flow and ambition, working habits, means of production

Listen above, download the MP3 here, or subscribe in iTunes.

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Jon Caramanica on Lil Wayne’s “I Am Not a Human Being II.”

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
Tracks by artists discussed this week. (Spotify users can also find it here.)