Rebirth — Lil Wayne

Riding high from *Tha Carter III*’s million-copy first week, Lil Wayne pivoted to rock — a genre shift that left both hip-hop and rock fans cold. The single “Prom Queen” charted solely on curiosity, peaking at #15 on the Billboard Hot 100, but the album sold 500,000 fewer copies in its first week than its predecessor. Even Wayne later called it an “experiment,” a polite term for a project that alienated his core audience. Compared to *Kingdom Come* (#4), which at least sold 680,000 copies on goodwill, *Rebirth* is the only album here where the artist openly disowned it, making it a 30% weaker legacy move than Jay-Z’s misstep.