Why Lil Wayne’s Reign Of Hip Hop Is Officially Over, And How He Lost The Crown

 

Since late 2005, Lil Wayne has been the flashiest, and arguably the most influential, figure in hip hop. In what could become a case study for genius self promotion, the New Orleans emcee shifted into a whole new gear after releasing his best work to date, Tha Carter II. His reinvention of the mixtape game burgeoned his relevance and credibility, a myriad of featured appearances for artists from Jay-Z to Madonna increased his mainstream appeal, and quality full-length album releases were appreciated by even the most finicky hip hop heads. However, his meteoric rise would have never been as distinct without the leader-less, ambiguous identity of mid 2000’s hip hop. His claim of “Greatest Rapper Alive” would have been all but dismissed in the 90’s, but with crunk muzik ruling the charts and mediocre-to-poor releases by demigods Jay-Z and Eminem, it was instead embraced and considered legitimate. Lil Wayne’s popularity was so enormous it was practically immortal, allowing him to relax his efforts, attempt genre crossing, and release increasingly bad music without any effect on his fame.

 

Lil Wayne’s Mug Shot

 

Fast-forward 5 years later, and Lil Wayne has  just finished an 8 month bid at Rikers Island for weapon charges, and is re-entering a largely changed game as a shadow of his past self. Although not completed yet, his descent is well on its way in the form of tacky singles, failed attempts at rock music, and delegating the limelight with label mates Drake and Nicki Minaj.

 

Oxymoron: (n) – see above

 

 

So how did Wayne lose grip on the game he ruled for half a decade?

 

Jail Actually Made His Lyrics Worse

Jail can’t be THAT bad, right?… lol

Many rappers who have done time (T.I., Saigon, Immortal Technique, One Be Lo to name a few) credit going to jail in helping developing their creativity and skill. With hours spent alone and experiences most people have only seen when watching The Shawshank Redemption, rappers in jail gain a unique and introspective perspective and a noticeably more concentrated approach.  This usually improves an artists sound, and definitely raises street cred, but Lil Wayne’s style has always disregarded introspection and concentration and instead embraced cultural vanities and off-the-head creativity, so being out of the real world actually limits his capability.

Need an example, listen to his two newest singles ‘6 Foot 7 Foot’ and ‘John‘. Lyrics like “swagger down Pat, call my shit Patricia” are underwhelming, confusing, and absolutely pale in comparison to his once culturally relevant and fire-breathing delivery such as in ‘Sky Is The Limit’ from ’07- “I know the game is crazy, its more crazy than its ever been, I married to that crazy bitch, call my Kevin Federline”.  Weezy is at his best when staying ahead of the times, and you can hear the effect of his 8-month absence from overdosing on pop culture in his new music.

 

 

The mixtape industry he created became over-populated

Lil Wayne’s greatest influence on late 2000’s hip hop was exponentially increasing the relevance of the mixtape. Before Weezy dropped one seemingly every other week, mixtapes were primarly used by up-and-coming unknown artists attempting to get signed. But once other rappers, famous or not and all with less ability than Wayne, saw how effective mixtapes were for promotion and keeping fans happy, the mixtape game became flooded with so much new music per week and diluted with no easy way to decipher the quality releases from the 2-hour studio efforts. Sure, Lil Wayne makes noise every time he releases a new mixtape, but with his decreasing effort (see above) and the whole industry losing credibility, it is unlikely we will see the same hype that was over Da Drought 3 any time soon.

 

 

He Let His Protégés Take Over

Enjoy your 15 minutes…

Even though Lil Wayne was in jail, his effect on the game was still felt through his label Young Money and signees Drake and Nicki Minaj, who all but ran mainstream rap music in 2010. While this could be viewed as a reason why Lil Wayne is still rap’s king, these incredibly short sighted signings (trust me, 3 years from now we’ll have all but forgotten about Drake or Nicki Minaj) have diluted Weezy’s brand and delegated his star power. When Jay-Z moved to a signing role for Rocafella Records, he looked for artists who would shape the game and stay relevant and played a distance role in their careers (Kanye West, Just Blaze, Jadakiss) to ensure the staying power of his brand (ugh my marketing self is coming out). On the other hand, Lil Wayne’s Young Money is full of hugely similar label-mates who’s songs feature the same old orgy of artists all dependent on each other to releasing simply what’s popular now. While Jay-Z’s method molds to the constantly changing tastes of hip hop fans, Weezy’s new strategy puts him on a ship with a bunch of temporary stars that is likely to sink on the slightest whim of the public.

Another defense Weezy fans might have of this argument is that I Am Not A Human Being (his mixtape released while he was in jail) was a pretty good record. Although I disagree to a point, though I won’t deny that ‘Right Above It‘ is a nice track, my real beef with the IANAHB is that Weezy passes the mic to label-mates (Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Gudda Gudda are each featured three times) and featured artists so much that it doesn’t even seem like a Lil Wayne record. Real Weezy fans who remember solo tracks ‘Go DJ’ and his old mixtapes that only had a couple of features total cannot be satisfied with this delegation and carelessness apparent in Lil Wayne’s new music.

 

 

So… What does the future hold for Lil Wayne?

We have seen Jay-Z and Eminem recover their rap careers from irrelevance in the past couple of years, but can the rapper who has been famous since he was 16 do the same? Well, while we never can really predict the future, we should find out soon, as Tha Carter IV is slated to come out in 2011. Judging its first single ‘6 Foot 7 Foot’, though, it can be safely said that we have seen the best of Weezy F. Baby come and go.

While I have basically attacked Weezy’s rap status this entire post, there’s no doubt that he will continue to stay garner fame as an entertainer and make a ton of money. You can easily expect a few bafflingly #1 singles, movie or TV appearances galore, and a couple more face tattoos (if there’s any room left) over the next few years. Lil Wayne has left a huge, and largely positive, imprint in hip hop, and it will be interesting to see who can successfully fill his shoes. (For a minute I thought it may be Wiz Khalifa, but Rolling Papers just doesn’t have that uber-confident steez Weezy possesed.)

 

The right side of his mouth looks like the best option tattoo-wise here…

 

 

 

Consider Yourself Peeped!

 

 

What do you think about Weezy’s Future?

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