Haven’t read the article yet — i’m about to– but let me say this: you are WAY too good to be writing for Idolator, what with the American Idol and all other whack-ass R&B bullshit love-in over there.

i think what it comes down to is the extent people’re reading into dude’s lyrics. personally, i think Wayne’s deserving of a lot of the hype he gets because he has a unique, entertaining overall style and really dope versatile flow. we can talk all day about this and that weak simile, him dropping the ball on ‘Ye’s album (i think his “Hello Brooklyn” hook was entertaining,) but to me it’s the way dude delivers it in his own off-kilter style (like his weirdo “offbeat” flow on “A Milli”) that makes it all work. now if i was just reading a lyric sheet it might be different.

“Lollipop” is dope and hilarious for the reasons Breihan mentioned — the beat’s nice, and it’s obviously intended as a play on the third-rate 50 Cent single style you mentioned. i cracked up the first time i heard a few of his lines there, he’s obviously not taking himself seriously on it at all.

y’all need to tell me what’s supposed to be great about this Wale dude though. i get the Wayne comparisons based on his flow but everything i’ve heard from him is pretty boring.

Someone like Wale, who’s slowly making his name in part, rapping on weirdo non-beats like Justice songs and rapping crazy, all over the place junk, would be a non-entity if Wayne hadn’t made this “style” acceptable. Being from MD, I’ve been hearing a bit about Wale since 2005 and it’s only in his most recent Wayne-ish style that he’s been getting hype.

Good job over at Idolator. I knew that the writing smelled familiar to me. For a second (during moments on Carter 2 and Dedication 2), I was excited about the possibility that we may have found another rap great, but his output since then has been so uneven that I wouldn’t be checking for his shit if he didn’t have an album dropping soon.

Way to take advantage of that medium and it’s worth noting that Breihan pussied out cause he didn’t want to get in a “blog pissing contest.” I think you guys should have a podcast where you debate Wayne’s pros and cons. I can’t imagine much damage being done either way as long as you don’t send Nico The Beast after him.

i enjoyed reading the essay, even if i don’t necessarily agree with you. it was refreshing to read a level-headed take on the wayne phenomenon.

good or bad aside, i find it hard to believe you don’t find anything weird about lollipop. 50 would have spit weird sexual come-ons, but wayne is so confident (or arrogant) that he didn’t even feel the need to rap on the track. also, the hook is a joke (funny because its so lame) off of the black eyed peas’ “my humps”. how is that for weird?

Trey:

I wanted to add to your point:

” but i can’t really get with the idea that he’d go from OK to great if he flowed and rhymed the exact same but about more important topics”

It’s not that Wayne isn’t good now–it’s that he’s only great is really, really small portions of his music. I listened to both Carter albums and both Dedications (roughly 80 songs, give or take). Out of 80, I’d say 20-25 had any replay value. It’s not his topics–he covers the same shit on every song. It’s the overall quality of songs that’s lacking with Wayne.

The problem is that no one on the internet seems to call out Wayne’s wack songs. He’s talented, has a weird ass voice, and experiments frequently with cadence, inflection, and flows, all commendable for any MC. But he has a shaky catalogue and an internet-only pedigree in the hip hop cannon. Nas and Jay catch SO MUCH SHIT on the internet with every release, whereas Wayne doesn’t.

Both Jay and Nas are at least top 10 all time with classics under their belt, and on a pure skill level they still bring it 10-15 years after they came out. But everytime they drop, people hate because it’s “not as good as Illmatic” nor as “introspective as Blueprint” or whatever. Jay and Nas do make bad songs and bad albums, and do get called out on it. Wayne doesn’t. That’s the problem.

Basically, you summed every single reservation about the Lil Wayne phenomenon in one post.

How somebody at a major publication hasn’t put it together that Wayne’s biting Ol’ Dirty Bastard when he pulls his weirdo vocal tics, I’ll never know. It’s completely frustrating to me as an amateur historian that people don’t make these connections and act as if Wayne is re-writing the book on hip hop lyricism on the fly.

Oh true, their voices are night and day different otherwise it would be obvious but Wayne is not the first person in history to use an unorthodox delivery and I wish some critics would acknowledge that. Nor is he the first to use stream-of-conscious lyricism, either.

“I don’t think anyone is claiming either of those things, Doctor Z.”

No but they act like it which is just as annoying.