It's not a great sign that the immediate standouts from Lil Wayne's hotly anticipated new mixtape are spoken-word rants: Wayne's thoughts on hooking up with Sarah Palin, his declaration to other rappers that "to you, this is your job-- to me, this is my life." Dedication 3, the latest installment of the New Orleans rapper's Da Drought-rivaling mixtape series with DJ Drama, hit the internet today, and it's packed with pretty much what the early leaked tracks suggested: some Auto-Tune, lots of guest stars, and an array of well-chosen instrumentals from tracks by Outkast, Too $hort, Soulja Boy, T.I., Young Jeezy, etc. etc. Sex and violence are, unsurprisingly, two recurring themes; on "Ain't I", Weezy gets a few good lines in about the latter.The gothic church bells and sweeping Southern-style synth-gloom come from the original "Ain't I" by Yung L.A., an Atlanta-based rapper on T.I.'s Grand Hustle label, and that's a great choice: haunting, distinctive, under-praised. Harlem rapper Jae Millz, one of several Young Money-affiliated rappers on the Dedication 3, does a pretty good job as the rough-voiced heavy to Wayne's deranged Martian, rhyming about death and weed. Wayne just gives us his raspy Auto-Tune-weirdo thing: There's still probably no one else who would sing-rap about Geico, Oakland Raiders running back Darren McFadden, and how it's "no problemo" to blow your brains out, all in the space of a few lines. Still, at this point Dedication 3 mostly just makes me wish Lil Wayne had his own TV show. The whole mixtape is streaming here, and mp3s are floating around. (via Nah Right)[from the Dedication 3 mixtape; out now via Gangsta Grillz]