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''No Ceilings'' is a mixtape by American rapper
Lil Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. His career began in 1995, at the age of 12, when he was signed by rapper Birdman (rapper), ...
. It was scheduled to be released on October 31, 2009, but was leaked before the official date. ''No Ceilings'' was officially released on October 31, 2009, with 4 additional tracks. The mixtape is available as a free and legal download and it received widespread acclaim from critics. An abridged version was officially released to streaming services on August 28, 2020, excluding ten songs.


Recording and release

Two Lil Wayne tracks, "Wasted" and "Swag Surf," were leaked onto the internet on October 11. These were followed by "Run This Town" on October 25. The majority of the mixtape was leaked out to the public on multiple websites October 26, 2009. The mixtape contains various freestyles over popular rap and R&B songs' instrumentals and features artists from his
Young Money Young Money Entertainment is an American record label founded by rapper Lil Wayne. Young Money's president is Lil Wayne's lifelong friend and fellow rapper Mack Maine. The label was an imprint of Cash Money Records and is distributed by Republ ...
label including
Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accent ...
, Short Dawg,
Gudda Gudda Carl Eugene Lilly Jr. (born March 11, 1983), better known by his stage name Gudda Gudda, is an American rapper from New Orleans. He was originally a member of Sqad Up with Kidd Kidd and Lil Wayne. After forging a long-time friendship with Wayne, ...
,
Shanell Shanell Lynn Woodgett (born November 15, 1980) known simply as Shanell or SnL, is an American singer and songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia. She is signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment, which was formerly an imprint of Birdman's Republ ...
,
Jae Millz Jarvis Mills (born September 11, 1983), better known by his stage name Jae Millz, is an American rapper from Harlem, New York, who was signed to T.I.'s record label Grand Hustle Records and Atlantic Records. His debut major label studio album, ...
, and
Tyga Michael Ray Nguyen-StevensonMicheal Ray Stevenson ...
. It was officially released on weareyoungmoney.com via a live
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video and included higher quality audio as well as four additional tracks. The song "Single" was released on May 11, 2010 as a single on iTunes titled "I'm Single", and charted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. The single was also released on Wayne's ''
I Am Not a Human Being ''I Am Not a Human Being'' is the eighth studio album by the American rapper Lil Wayne. It had a digital release on September 27, 2010, and on compact disc on October 12, 2010, by Young Money Entertainment, Cash Money Records and Universal Motown. ...
'' album. The song "No Ceilings" was released to iTunes under the title "Pop That" on the ''Loyalty'' EP, which also included Birdman's new single "
Loyalty Loyalty, in general use, is a devotion and faithfulness to a nation, cause, philosophy, country, group, or person. Philosophers disagree on what can be an object of loyalty, as some argue that loyalty is strictly interpersonal and only another h ...
", which featured
Tyga Michael Ray Nguyen-StevensonMicheal Ray Stevenson ...
and Lil Wayne. When police pulled over Wayne's tour bus after claiming to smell marijuana, the rapper pleaded guilty to "attempted criminal possession of a weapon." Although pleading guilty still landed Wayne in Riker's Island Prison for a year, it greatly reduced his possible sentence. Wayne was dealing with his arrest and charges while writing the mixtape, and he actually mentions his arrest multiple times in lyrics throughout the tape.


Critical reception

Reviewing in April 2010 for ''
MSN Music ''MSN Music'' was a part of MSN's web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. The website also served as a digital music store from 2004 to 2008. History I ...
'',
Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
hailed ''No Ceilings'' as Lil Wayne's best release since ''
Tha Carter III ''Tha Carter III'' is the sixth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne, released on June 10, 2008, by Cash Money, Universal Motown & Young Money Entertainment. It follows a long string of mixtape releases and guest appearances on other hip h ...
'' and a "welcome alternative" to his contemporaneous
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
album ''
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'' (2010). Noting a richness and humor in his lyrics, the critic said that Lil Wayne "recycles beats from Dirty South throwaways whose originals you need never think of again, shows
Fabolous John David Jackson (born November 18, 1977), better known by his stage name Fabolous, is an American rapper. Raised in Brooklyn, he first gained recognition while still a senior in high school, when he performed live on American music executive ...
how fabulous the '
Throw It in the Bag "Throw It in the Bag" is the first single from Fabolous' album '' Loso's Way'' (2009). The song features singer The-Dream, who also provided the production alongside Tricky Stewart. Music video The video for "Throw It In The Bag" was released on ...
' remix might have been, holds his own with
Jay-Z Shawn Corey Carter (born December 4, 1969), known professionally as Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and founder of Manhattan-based conglomerate talent and entertainment agency Roc Nation. He is regarded as one of ...
and the
Black Eyed Peas Black Eyed Peas (also known as The Black Eyed Peas) is an American musical group consisting of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, Taboo (rapper), Taboo. The group's line-up during the height of their popularity in the 2000s featured Fergie (singer ...
, and eases the mixtape's title onto every track". In another piece for ''
The Barnes & Noble Review Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...
'', Christgau elaborated on his praise, but also offered points of criticism: " is is a gift except when some dolt like Tyga or Jae Milz 'sic''.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''gets a verse ... though the boasts are mostly prime and the rhymes fun enough, it's all pretty surface—there's nothing as tricky as 'Walk It Out,' much less 'I Feel Like Dying.' And the occasional references to his forthcoming [prison bid] are strictly by the book." Christgau later ranked ''No Ceilings'' as the 18th best album of the year.


Sequel

A sequel mixtape, ''No Ceilings 2'', was confirmed on the 6-year anniversary of the original mixtape's release by Mack Maine on his Twitter page. Lil Wayne performed his freestyle over
Future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...
's "Where Ya At?" at an event prior to its release and two 30-second clips of that performance can be found online. He also recorded his freestyle over
Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...
's " Back To Back" before an interview.


Commercial release

On August 28, 2020, over 10 years from the initial free release, the mixtape was released to streaming platforms. The commercial release omitted all 3 skits and 7 songs, presumed to be due to sample clearance issues. A bonus track titled "Kobe Bryant" was also included. It is a rework of Wayne's 2009 song with the same title.


Track listing

The mixtape's 2020
streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...
edition excluded 10 tracks, 3 of them being skits, while adding the song "Kobe Bryant".


Charts


References


External links


Lil Wayne – No Ceilings Mixtape stream and download
{{Authority control Lil Wayne albums 2009 mixtape albums Albums produced by Cool & Dre Albums produced by Noah "40" Shebib Albums produced by The Legendary Traxster Albums produced by Fatboi