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The Downfall of Lil Wayne: A Good Rapper Making Bad Music
Even whilst recovering from a seizure that occurred over the weekend, people still can't stop hating on Lil Wayne. The rapper started his career with such promise, so why all the anger towards him?
For a period of about four years it was impossible to watch any hip-hop/rap-related video on YouTube without a thousand comments in the spirit of “This is better than Lil Wayne.” With the arrival of the like/dislike bar came the ever-inventive “52 people listen to Lil Wayne,” where the poster of the comment assumes their joke will still be relevant in two hours when the dislike bar gains another couple of thumbs down – it won’t be. Or for the straight-talking among us there was always the eloquent simplicity of “fuck lil GAYne.”
Recently the fallen rapper has been hospitalised after apparently collapsing. It’s good to see that he’s recovering and that the seizure he reportedly suffered hasn’t damaged him too badly. But even in the midst of a potentially life threatening episode, people were still insulting the rapper on Twitter.
For a while I was confused as to where all this animosity came from – he was just another rapper, after all, a successful embodiment of the American dream who wasn’t really offending anyone in a thug life “fuck the world” kind of way, but to this day gets more shit than anyone in hip-hop. (Except maybe Drake, but I’m pretty sure he deserves it.)
In my mind Lil Wayne was the rising star of the Dirty South – from 1999 to 2002 he had dropped three solid-to-good albums in the southern bounce style, going on to show his progression as a rapper with the release of ‘Tha Carter’ in 2004. By 2005’s ‘Tha Carter II’ he was on fire, to which the flow-spilling album opener, “Tha Mobb,” will attest. Three years later and the third instalment in his Carter quartet helped the rapper make his shift to universal stardom, packing a combination of smart hip-hop humour in tracks like “Dr. Carter” and a more mainstream vibe with the Robin Thicke sing-a-longs and T-Pain autotune choruses.
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But then I realised something – this wasn’t the Lil Wayne everyone else knew, least of all in the UK, where ‘Tha Carter III’ was his first album to chart and even then only off the back of four singles, three of which were arguably the worst songs on the album. As far as Britain was concerned, Lil Wayne was the guy who looked like a cross between Yoda and your grandma and sang a thinly-veiled song about blowjobs and wrappers (get it – rappers?). Then, once Weezy had the attention of our nation, he rallied the Young Money militia to put out 2009’s rap-response to the Carry On innuendos of days gone by – “Call me Mr. Flinstone ‘cos I can make your bed rock” was everywhere and Lil Wayne was the guy to blame.
It was also around this time he recorded that now-infamous Tim Westwood ‘freestyle,’ but cut the guy some slack – you try spitting a hot verse when you’re swimming in more sizzurp than Augustus Gloop. Meanwhile, when he wasn’t appearing on everyone-else-in-music’s singles, it became common knowledge that Wayne was busy working away on his rock album, presumably tweaking those notes on his guitar solo or slapping bass on the old Fender Jazz. The problem is rap-rock or nu-metal, or whatever it gets called, is always bad. We used to head-bang to Papa Roach at Year 8 discos and that’s pretty much where it should have stayed. But surely Lil Wayne could pull it off? No, not really.
It’s not really fair to say Lil Wayne fell off – his bars can still pack a punch, for example last summer’s shot at Jay-Z; “Talkin’ ‘bout baby money? I gotcha baby money – Kidnap your bitch, get that ‘How much you love your lady’-money,” – but his musical output definitely lacks the thirst and energy of his mixtape-crazy run-up to ‘Tha Carter III.’
For a rapper who had their debut album out at the age of 17 I think Lil Wayne is so often overlooked as a significant part of modern hip-hop and the enormous role he plays should never be underestimated. It’s just a bit too easy to be cynical about Lil Wayne and a bit too much effort to go back to the era when he was still making exciting, relevant music. All I can really say is how thankful I was for the release of “6 Foot 7 Foot,” the Bangladesh-produced fireball that sounded like “A Milli” on bath salts, and the subsequent redressing of the Carter series – part four wasn’t incredible, but it was good and kind of made it a bit easier for me to defend Lil Wayne at parties. People don’t really invite me to parties anymore though.
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COMMENTS
lil wayne "BEST RAPPER ALIVE"..fuck off u dumbass u doesn't know about rap...!!!
The only reason u don't get invited Anymore is ppl finally figured it out on how big of a fucking dumb douchebag u r and u don't no SHIT about lil Wayne BITCH!!!
What a load of shit!!!! True Weezy fans don't keep looking back on his past and instead adapt and accept his change_If you don't, then die! But stop going on about how his music now, doesn't and can't compare too his music then, perhaps He doesn't want it too!! People need too stop judging what they don't know and understand! No other rapper can do what he does. End of story.
yeah man if you dont get his music then die! who the f*ck says that?? don't understand calculus? tax returns? geothermal dynamics? then die. Enter the real world Shazia, if I want a sofa I go to DFS, I dont expect to walk in and get handed a hamburger because they've 'moved on'. People buy lil' Wayne because they like his sound, change the sound and you might as well change the artist.
Not a fan of little wayne and all his little mates like drake and florida. Sorry but this is not Hip Hop, its r&b at best. Did you see Jay Z and Nas at Hackney Weekend? That's Hip Hop.
I like when he tries to skateboard. Looks like a midget on a surfboard.
Well said WAMBAM.
@shazia what a stupid thing to say. Well said wambam.
Never rated Lil Wayne, his voice sounds like he's been sucking on a helium balloon and his recent foray into skateboarding is just embarrassing. Plenty of superior rappers from the south like Big K.R.I.T. Killer Mike or even T.I.
Musicas da horaa.... Lil Wayne sucesso pra voce mano
100% Rap Brasil 100% Rap funk hiphop black Abraço
People hate Lil Wayne because Lil Wayne makes out it like he hates everyone, including his fans. (and I have a strong feeling he does, but I'm not him so I can't say for sure). Also, he isn't kidding about his violence in his lyrics, he literally seems to believe that taking another life is a non-issue, and I'm sure many of his listeners feel the same. People hate Lil Wayne because Lil Wayne is trying to bring the whole world down to his level; the living hell he has created for his own life and thus taken out on everyone else around him. I could be wrong, but having listened to many rap/hip-hop artists in the past, you learn to tell when someone is joking or being serious in their lyrics. One look at the tattoos scattered all over his body and you can tell he's not only serious, but dedicated to imposing his belief systems on other people, one of which being violence towards anyone who doesn't share his ideals.
I've listened to a lot of his stuff, thinking I must be missing something, but I've now concluded that he is shite.
is not just easy to make a lyrics,and he (lil wayne)is doin it ,is not just so easy.
Those first three comments are priceless.
Lil Wayne and his entourage ran up a bar bill of 3000Euros in Toulouse and put it on my room number. It took ages to sort out. I know where my animosity comes from.
The guy looks like a massive weapon, that's for sure.
Lil Wayne is one of the top fashion icons of today with his unique sense of style.
so you like him no wait you hate him what was the point of this again? oh right he's got worse...he's probably pretty happy
People hate lil wayne becoz of his unique style of killing rap and to me he's mi best rapper alive.
Wah feel is he dont got any lyrical talent his equipments make his. Song sound a1 percent above shit jus like majority of theses call rappers rap was built on being a speaker a person that also song to dance but also speaks for dah people in duh ghetto young and old. And for yuh people duh black community not about how shit u got telling stores it started .old hip hop is duh real hip hop r.i.p tupac!!&biggie!
lilwayne i love u i want to join you in illuminati am form nigeria
Lil Wayne's not a bad rapper, some of his recent work is shit but when wayne goes in he's beast.He has to rapp like he did in carter 3,no ceilings and everything before those albums.
I agreed with most of the things you said until you mentioned something about tha carter 4 being good or decent. I feel like he's gotten progressively worse over the years (Not to say he was ever amazing like people make him out to be), and his old albums & mixtapes were wayyyy better than that new "Mirrors" shit with Bruno Mars. And no @An_Hero, no one thinks that he is actually violent in real life, his persona is just that, it's a character that he plays for the media. He would never actually kill anyone, just like Rick Ross never actually sold crack... Final thought: Drake is a good rapper/musical artist, and lil Wayne's music is horrific now, and lil Wayne as a character is a fruity homosexual...
Agreed, but if you're going to blog about a topic such as this, fucking SPELL CHECK!
He is a terrible rapper one of the worst ever. I don't consider him even a rapper actually I consider him a pop artist. Listen to Nas' Illmatic, Guru, Biggie, 2pac, Wu- Tang Clan, Binary Star Kendrick Lamar, Joey Bada$$, Slum Village, Mos Def, I could go on for a while but you get the idea. Lil Wayne makes hip hop and rap look bad he is very influential. Right now mostly real hip hop isn't dead it is buried underground.
Lil wayne was on form pre 2008.. I HAVE to listen to old school now days to get any substance. (expect few like jcole, kendrick, immortal tech, andre 3000) All other rappers are just shallow and empty - NO REAL CONTENT
I am not a fan of him, I simply dislike him for ruining my favorite artists' songs. Those songs, in my personally opinion, would be so much better without him.
Aww man its time for me to get tagged in on the subject its good to see u correctly know how to spell all the words you've used to disrespect a person that's making more than u, your mayor, and your city but its bad to see u talk bad about the best rapper alive, and by the way um not dick riding um being realistic because I enjoy pussy but do all the true lil tunchei fans a favor okay mr.hater delete this page of bullshit and post something relevant up and leave the country and head to somewhere where lil wayne name isn't mentioned u fucking Cunt!!!!!!!!!
Lil Wayne sucks dick and the fucking reason he had the seizure is because he does a shitload of drugs! You're a fuckin dumbass!
Lil Wayne is the best rapper alive period.
SABOTAGE
