Henry’s Music Blog

Lil Wayne is a controversial subject in music today. Many have called him a musical genius, a man to shape rap as we know it. Others call him a talentless idiot who makes all his talentless friends, like Drake and Nicki Minaj, fellow superstars. I am in neither of these groups. Mostly, I don’t care either way about Lil Wayne or his Young Money Roster. I am an outsider in this subject. So, I’m here to analyze Lil Wayne and relating artists, coming in completely new to the artist.

Now, I believe that the primary source of hate is the hype. Lil Wayne believes that he is the greatest rapper alive. Now this is not out of the ordinary for rappers. Artists like Jay-Z and Kanye West have perfected this craft to a masterpiece of narcissism. Even Eminem called himself the king on “Lighters”. But the problem with Lil Wayne is that even critics call him “The Greatest Rapper Alive”. And this is while Jay-Z, Eminem, Ice Cube, Dr, Dre, Snoop Dogg, Outkast, Kanye West, The Beastie Boys, and Busta Rhymes are still not only alive, but performing. That is a high mark for critics to go by. And going in, I don’t think he makes it.

Before this, I have only heard two of Lil Wayne’s songs. Obviously, these are “Lollipop” and “A Milli”, both huge hits. Lollipop is your standard song about sex you’ll get from every rapper. While it’s a bit high on the auto-tune, it’s a serviceable song. A Milli is one of the worst songs I have ever heard in my life. If it wasn’t for “My First Kiss” by 3oh!3, it would be the worst song of the last 10 years. But Lil Wayne is a rapper who got most of his fame from guest verses, similar to other artists like Pitbull and Ludacris. Lil Wayne has worked with artists from Chris Brown to Weezer and Fall Out Boy. I’ve heard a lot more guest verses by him than actual songs, so these are a lot more varied for me. I actually thought that his verses on “Forever” and “No Love” were excellent, even if he was overshadowed by Mr. Marshall Mathers both times. However, his verse on “I Can Transform Ya” is as awful as the rest of the song, and I really wish I didn’t like his verse on “Can’t Stop Partying” as much as I did.

And now there is the ranging quality of his actual albums. Tha Carter III was one of the most acclaimed albums of the 2000s, selling more copies than most bands sell in their careers. It spawned the massive hits of “A Milli” and “Lollipop”, along with “Got Money” and “Mrs. Officer”. And at the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Rebirth. Rebirth is one of the most derided albums by a popular artist in history, up there with Self Portrait by Bob Dylan. Critically, it’s comparable to Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed, and commercially, it’s Results May Vary by Limp Bizkit. All widely hated albums by popular musicians (Though while Lil Wayne went back in popularity and Metallica definitely will, Limp Bizkit never did get their popularity back,and I’m pretty sure Lou Reed is a zombie.) What’s especially surprising was how bashed he was in his take on Rap Rock, while “Let it Rock” with Kevin Rudolf was a hit back in 2009.

And finally, we have his posse, Young Money. Or really, the only two who matter, Drake and Nicki Minaj. Both are very large artists in music today, possibly even outshining Lil Wayne these days. Personally, Drake had one excellent song in “Forever” and a bunch of mediocre follow ups, and I’m not a big fan of Nicki Minaj to begin with. There’s also the rest of Young Money, but all we’ve really heard of them is “Bedrock”, a terrible song about sex, and “Deuces” by Chris Brown, with a verse from one of the interchangeable members. But the thing that bothers me the most about all these artists is what they all took from Lil Wayne; his rhyme scheme. People know that Lil Wayne does a line where he does a simile without a “like”; moron. And this has become so widespread that even artists like Ludacris are doing this (Though his “I fill ‘em up; balloons!” line from “My Chick Bad” is so bad it’s wonderful). Attention rappers, NO ONE LIKES THIS, PLEASE STOP.

And that’s what I have to say about Lil Wayne. Overall, he’s nowhere near the best or the worst: he’s honestly very average. Too bad he’s gonna be around for a long time. Trust me. He’s not going away, and while he’s around, Lil Wayne fans will continue with their war against Eminem fans, until everyone is dead from an overdose of fans taking things too seriously.