Lil' Wayne is not, as he claims, the greatest rapper on earth. At the moment, Billboard has got him at number four, behind Plies, TI and Ludacris. But it's undeniable that there is something special about him. How else do you explain the ubiquitous appearances on magazine covers, from Source to Rolling Stone, the TV spots, music videos, the radio play, the fact that his albums make the top 50 lists of publications that barely focus on rap?
Maybe he's the greatest rapper who is currently rapping, but that doesn't mean he is the best to ever rap. Take, in my opinion, one of the best rap records of all time: Mos Def's 1996 Black on Both Sides. Sometimes the rhymes fly at you a mile a minute, and it takes twenty listens before you can catch every single meaning and all the puns and plays on words. There are plenty of rappers out there doing what Mos and those before him did, but why aren't they as popular as Lil' Wayne?
Answer: Lil' Wayne is slow. Not dumb, his flow is slow. You can take in everything he says with one listen, and all the words tend to get stretched out so the meaning hits you immediately, instant gratification, no need to listen twenty more times for the hidden gems. Songs and albums like this wear out fairly quickly, but it seems Lil' Wayne understands this. By dropping two or three mixtapes before the actual album comes out, you may get sick of one track, or even one album, but you can bet there will be more material to come very soon. Pretty smart move.
Lil' Wayne has proved his marketing skills in other ways as well, like making rap performances with live bands the standard once again. It's kind of fun to watch Lil' Wayne on stage, putting down the mic to struggle through a guitar solo. It shouldn't be all that surprising. He's been at it since he was a teenager. Always on tour, and always writing, he is definitely in competition with Kanye for hardest working rapper. The thing is, whereas Kanye seems to take his time, Lil' Wayne never seems to edit or revise his work. If a rhyme fits, or if a line works, then it's a keeper. Take the song "I'm Me," or as it was called on The Carter II Mixtape, "The Game," which I happen to really like. Despite the killer beat and the mood the whole song evokes, calling back to the days of Cash Money, he seems to string together lines that aren't totally connected. I listen to the song and I don't completely get what it's about. It seems like he could have thought about it a little longer and made it something excellent. But that's not Lil' Wayne's style, and that's why I don't think he's the greatest rapper on earth.
Now that Lil' Wayne has reached star status, he can afford to surround himself with the best studio engineers, producers and virtuoso musicians. As well as Plies is doing right now, I don't think he can afford to sample The Beatles like Lil' Wayne does on Carter III. What Lil' Wayne has is mass appeal, and just because a lot of people like something, that doesn't mean it's good. He's got a strong image of who he wants to be, a unique voice, a solid flow and a pretty amazing work ethic. It would be unfair to say he hasn't earned his success. But the kind of success he's after is not always long-lasting. Will our children hear his songs on classic radio thirty years from now?
Maybe Lil' Wayne needs to take a vacation from the rap game for a few months, slow down. I think, with a lil' maturity, one day he could be the greatest rapper on earth.
~Ryan
