I Like 99 Rappers But Lil’ Wayne Ain’t One
Hit me
April 9, 2009
Since most of mainstream hip-hop’s lyrics tend to center on themes like hoes, cash, and more hoes, it comes as no surprise that the genre is, for the most part, panned by critics and serious music listeners alike. However, in what has become a truly historic year for America, rap artist Lil’ Wayne has succeeded in winning over some of those skeptics. By emphasizing quantity over quality, Wayne has, without a doubt, become the most ubiquitous and prolific figure in the hip-hop universe. Wayne has earned more Grammy nominations than Radiohead and been praised as ‘Rapper of the Year’ by every god damn music magazine in America It’s hard to go about your day without meeting at least one person who isn’t head over heels for the guy. Considering the outlandish nature of award shows like The Grammys and “music magazines” like Rolling Stone, I usually don’t bother paying attention to this kind of media hype. But the fact is that Wayne has managed to sway some of the most pompous and resistant-to-anything-borderline-mainstream music publications in his trek for super stardom (ie: Pitchfork gave The Carter III an 8.7/10.) Could it be that I’d been wrong about this foul-mouthed,
hard-to-understand, New Orleans native after all?
The only thing more trivial than the media’s obsession with Wayne are his die-hard fans, which can be just as cantankerous as your most rabid Phish head. Most people don’t just like Lil’ Wayne, they LOVE him; so much that the fans I spoke with failed to really justify their fixation. “He’s just so sick… his flow is…the best,” or something to that effect.
I needed to know what I should be looking for and managed to run into one listener who so emphatically put it by saying: “Just check out Tha Carter III. Just listen to it…. listen to the lyrics”.
At a party the other night, I couldn’t help but notice someone across the room who’d been singing along to “A Milli” playing in the background. Astonished by the fact that this guy was able to recite the words, I asked him. “Hey so do you have to look up the lyrics or can you actually understand what this guy is saying?” As you can guess, this didn’t go over well. Lesson of the story: Don’t insult a Lil’ Wayne fan…. Unless you’re behind a computer screen.
If Lil’ Wayne is so bold to declare himself ‘The Best Rapper Alive’ he’ll need to offer some lyrical content that is fresh and original and steers away from your standard ‘I’m-hot-you’re-not’ line of attack. Within the first ten minutes, Tha Carter III says everything it needs to. It is self-glorification at the highest caliber and Wayne doesn’t even bother stating his case. He leaves you with little evidence of why he’s a supposed lyrical genius and instead provides a cluster of songs, most of which are ill defined and filled with line after incoherent line of mindless drivel. Not only is the content absurdly narcissistic, but a majority of the lyrics make little sense. It seems as if Wayne is celebrated more for his delivery rather than what he’s actually saying.
In addition to preposterous lyrics are some atrocious vocals. Wayne always sounds as if he’s struggling just to get to the next verse and I found myself thinking— ‘Dude this guy shouldn’t be on a CD, he should be on fucking life support!’
His vague and perplexing self-absorption is best portrayed in the train wreck of a song, “A Milli”. Wayne, over what is one of the most irritating beats I’ve ever heard in my life, boasts about how “If hip-hop is dead, then I’m the embalming fluid.” The sheer irony of this statement is that a lot the things said to be detrimental to the spirit of hip-hop can be attributed to Wayne himself. About twelve years ago, when he got his official start, it was clear that the genre was becoming heavily commercialized and drenched in subject matter more materialistic than ever. Arguably, Wayne’s most famous contribution to rap’s shift in content would be his role in 1999’s “Bling Bling”. A song that is more or less emblematic of the present day rap culture. Did I mention it was released on Cash Money Records? How can one fail to see the blatant hypocrisy? He spends half a decade jabbering on about the ice on his chains and 26 inch chrome rims and then all of a sudden he’s the self-proclaimed savior of hip-hop just because (Jay-Z retired) he said so?
It’s not that Lil’ Wayne can’t rap. He can definitely rap. It’s that what he does isn’t songwriting or lyrical in any sense of the word. Wayne dishes out whatever comes to him and it ends up being a miss more often than a hit. But still none of that explained the relentless fawning. Then it hit me. It was all about persona. And after putting it in that context, it’s no longer surprising to me. Most of society just seems to be drawn to these big personalities rather than actual musicians. I mean just look at Amy Winehouse.
Thanks to the wonders of marketing and the self-generated buzz created by countless mixtapes, Wayne has managed to propel himself to the top of the food chain without being, well, a complete dick about it. Whether you like him or not, the grip Wayne has on the rap game has no parallel in mainstream music has in the last ten years. Nonetheless, it is certainly still a sad day to see the same genre that housed lyrical legends like Chuck D and KRS-One, reduced to something that wouldn’t have had a chance at succeeding if Tupac or Biggie were still around.
Thank god for underground hip-hop.
Comments & Discussion
“[Lil wayne] Wouldn’t even have a chance if tupac or biggie were still alive?” Have you ever listened to biggie? Everything you criticize lil wayne for being, biggie was: shallow, egotistical, narcisistic, but he was sick-the sickest-in the same way lil wayne is sick, which is to say: the seemingly effortless dispensing of complex verbal structure and wit. He made clay out of the english language, molding it to say whatever he wanted however he wanted, and contain it all within verse, like he was some modern version of a shakespearean villain-but he never gave well-thought out empassioned critiques on the current state of humanity-he wasn’t socially concious and he never pretended to be.
It seems to me you are making a very common mistake when it comes to comparing rappers. You are trying to compare the content and mechanics of rapper’s lyrics as if they’re qualitatively the same-and that simply isn’t true.
Different people prefer different things when it comes to hip-hop, tupac and biggie present a perfect example. My criticism of biggie’s content above should be clear enough, but by no means am I forgetting that tupac could be incredibly weak structurally at times: rhyming the same word with itself, only rhyming something with a word once, as opposed to biggies standard 3+, going whole songs without the strange combination between pun and simile that made rappers like biggie and little wayne famous-but he was deep-the deepest, he mades us look at the world in ways we never imagined and knew how to make his listeners feel exactly the emotions he wanted them to. His songs give goosebumps and misty eyes to the most stoic and gangster of us as automatically as biggie’s punchlines bring can’t help but make our jaws drop and our fists raise to cover them, like we just heard the best playground dis of our lives-because basically we just had.
That’s what lil wayne does, dole out schoolyard wit prolifically, and that’s why he’s considered a genius, not because he’s profound, and not because he’s big (personality-wise), but because he’s whitty-the whittiest. Jay-z once said that he saw rap more as a sport than an artform.
If lebron james’ basketball is poetry in motion, lil wayne’s rap is motion in poetry; literary athleticism, verbal agility.
Hip-hop artists don’t have a responsibilty to make us think about society in new and groundbreaking ways any more than do rock artists, country artists, r&b artists, or any other artist of any other genre of pop music. Rappers are held to that standard because back in the 90s-at the height of american political correctness, when hip-hop was dominated by gangster rappers, and exponentially more popular than it had ever been before, the response of said gangster rappers to people who called their music offensive usually was “we’re just painting a picture of society.” Sometimes it was true, usually it was bullshit, regardless, it was said to get detractors off their backs, and any critic of hip-hop should understand that. Any critic of hip-hop should understand that rap arose from the very sort of locker room and playground boasting lil wayne is famous for 30 years ago among kids who had barely left the playground themselves. And while the rap of the late 80s was fantastic and deserves to be praised again and again for its content, it is the socially concious rapers who departed from hip-hop’s roots, not the shallow ones. And while socially concious rap is great, saying rap can never be an immature egotistical bragging match again, is like saying that r&b can never be about sleazy sex or puppy love again because marvin gaye put out “what’s goin on.” It just isn’t fair or realistic. If you only judge rap by one standard then review rap that is created with that standard in mind, either that or dedicate some time to justifying why content is more important than mechanics. Skirting a discussion of what makes a rapper good or bad while at the same time arguing that one is bad is probably what is getting so deeply under the skin of lil wayne’s fans-at least this one’s.
When did I say he had to be socially conscious?
Of course rappers are always going to be a little cocky but when your entire catalog of music virtually consists of you talking about how much better you are than everyone, thats not just Wayne adhering to the traditions of Hip Hop. That’s him revealing that he really doesn’t have anything to say. Yeah, guys like Tupac and Biggie did this all the time, but they had other songs to compensate. They had songs that showed they had substance in addition to their deft battling skills . Wayne hasn’t managed to create anything as vivid or clever as the robbery scene in “Gimme the Loot” or anything as poignant as some of the stuff Tupac has released: “Changes”, “Dear mama”, “I ain’t Mad At Cha”… etc. When Wayne does something like this (which is rarely) he fails miserably (ie: I feel like dying, Georgia… Bush)
I agree with Tom.
Raghav, you’re just a hater.
It’s obvious that Wayne just gets fucked up and flows, but it seems to be working out quite well for him.
If you don’t like it…nobody cares.
Some rappers write, and some rappers just spit. If you’re going to be judging a freestyle rapper, then you should be judging him or her on how well the flow matches the instrumentals, or how well figurative language can be created on the fly.
Lil Wayne is from the streets of Louisiana, and he doesn’t really give a fuck about sounding prophetic, so it’s really pointless to judge the lyrical depth of his lyrics. The shits just fun to listen to.
ps amy winehouse has a great voice.
Also, I think the writers and critics over at places like Rolling Stone and Spin probably have a bit more credibility when it comes to reviews, and they seem to be enjoying the fuck out of Wayne’s music.
All this being said, I will agree that wayne puts out a giant amount of wack shit, but he has a few gems that really stand out.
Dear Joema,
You are entitled to your own opinion and I’m okay with that, BUT:
“If you don’t like it…nobody cares”
This is probably true but nonetheless, thank you for taking the time to read the article and then making the additional effort of logging into the website and leaving your feedback in spite of your obvious (and everybody else’s) lack of interest.
Really. I do appreciate it.
That is all….
smart asssssssssss
Raghav,
Your article makes more sense than getting in a time machine and telling Joema’s parents to not have children. And that, my friend, makes all the sense in the world.