Rebirth was promoted as Wayne's rock music debut, though it includes some hip hop tracks.

The album features guest appearances from Eminem, Kevin Rudolf, Shanell and Nicki Minaj.

The album has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with domestic shipment of a million copies in the United States.

[6] Young Money artist, Shanell, stated that the delays were due to Wayne's desire for the album to be "perfect".

[11] He reportedly paid homage to the Beastie Boys,[12][13] as well as included a song that involves him rapping over stringed instruments, described as being similar to Coldplay's "Viva la Vida", on the album as well.

[18] Billboard magazine received an e-mail from a customer of online retailer Amazon.com stating that Amazon.com shipped copies of Rebirth as early as December 14.

[19] Young Money Entertainment president Mack Maine stated that the album would have different tracks than that of the leaked version.

[21] When the lead single, "Prom Queen", quickly fell off of the charts shortly after entry, there was some speculation that the album would be shelved.

[36] Chicago Tribune critic Greg Kot panned Wayne's stylistic change and described his lyrics as "crushingly banal".

[1] Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone found Wayne's "taste in rock" to be "very questionable" and the album's flaw.

[38] Joe Clay of The Times panned Wayne's singing and songwriting, calling his lyrics "devoid of humour and imagination".

Richards of PopMatters panned its music as "an endless stream of abysmally written, Auto Tune-drenched nothings".

[47] Christopher R. Weingarten of The Village Voice wrote that Wayne's lyrics "still walk some fascinating line between signifying unmistakable genius, curious savant, or total dick", but viewed the album as lacking substance, stating "Wayne's big problem is that he seems to like the idea of rock music more than any actual rock music itself".

[48] Pitchfork Media's Ryan Dombal called Rebirth "an unlikely, unqualified, and quite unbelievable rock album".

[37] Slant Magazine's Jesse Cataldo described it as "a total misperception of what makes a rock record" and found its sound "mostly unrecognizable, a twisted amalgam of tacky set pieces collected from throughout the genre's history".

[39] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian stated, "Given that everyone knows Carter can do so much better than this, it all smacks a bit of condescension, of locating a different audience, then talking down to them".

[33] Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly stated, "[Michael] Jordan returned to the basketball court after one ill-fated season in the farm leagues; we can only hope for the same for Wayne".

"[51] He cited "Drop the World" and "American Star" as highlights and quipped, "So smart and scary about death as the flip side of ecstasy, so unperceptive and embarrassing about emo".

[35] Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that its lyrics "stay dutifully on topic" and found "how it reveals a rapper's view of rock" as interesting, writing "For Lil Wayne rock is bombast and cliché in which high-school traumas are avenged, heaven and hell are frequently invoked and existential predicaments are taken seriously".

[59] HotNewHipHop suggested that the negative reception to the album was a "glaring [example] of the music media immediately shutting down Black artists for stepping outside of the confines of what is deemed as ‘Black music.’"[60] The publication also said that Lil Wayne's use of autotune on the album and it's "raw rock attitude" would prove "to be highly influential on the next generation of rap rockstars.

In its third week, the album dropped to number five on the chart, selling 59,000 more copies, bringing its three-week total sales to 324,470.