Once Hot Boy turns luke warm with the release of his “Dedication 4” mixtape.

Lil Wayne’s metaphoric whimsical wit draws the attention of fans and current listeners, but is not enough to keep it.

Wayne’s 15-track mixtape attempts to recapture the lyrical beast that was unleashed in his previous dedication projects, but unfortunately falls short.

It is no secret that Wayne approaches his mixtapes showing other artists their beats are up for grabs.

There is no safety zone when Wayne gets on that track.

His delivery pattern even resembles the original artists’ delivery style.

It is safe to say Wayne goes harder on the majority of those tracks than the original artists.

He improves and enhances the quality of his tracks by featuring artists such as J.Cole, Nicki Minaj, Young Jeezy, Jae Millz and more.

The song selections are impressive.

Wayne pulled some of today’s hottest tracks from Meek Millz “Amen” to old school classics such as G-Dep’s “Special Delivery.”

In contrast, Wayne’s lack of lyrical creativity and duplicated themes throughout his songs brings into question whether the once dubbed “greatest rapper alive” has now turned into a punch line rapper.

Wayne utilizes the Dedication 4 as an advertising platform to promote his new clothing line Trukfit in many tracks.

Wayne introduces 13-year old Lil Mouse on his track “Get Smoked” that leaves a bad aroma with listeners.

Lil Mouse speaks of life inside the club as if he learned about it through outside sources, which may very well be true with bars like, “Heavy load, throwing hella bands, in the club doing the money dance.”

Certainly Wayne has done nothing tremendous with his mixtape. His best work is not reflected and “Dedication 4” should be a free-for-download.

GRADE D

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• Brie-Anne Robinson,Contributor