Lil' Wayne Has Some Words For Jay-Z...My Thoughts

The pic above is a pic of Weezy from OZONE Magazine. Just look at it. The evolution of Lil' Wayne. Evolution is the key word. I've been following hip-hop for 10 years now. As far as I can remember, I've never seen an artist evolve so drastically. Let's face it. When Lil' Wayne was starting out, he was awful. Do you remember hearing him on Back That Azz Up and Bling Bling and all the other retarded Cash Money songs? The lyrical content of those singles and albums all amounted to nothing. Zilch. It was just jibberish over some catchy beats and hooks that set the black race back about 20 years. I mean...he was a teenager. There were a lot of heavy hitters on Cash Money. Big names with no talent. Including bums like Juvenile, BG, and Turk. Not to mention the brain-dead Bigtymers. For real hip-hop heads, they were the joke of hip-hop. Most of those guys still are. What has Juvenile, BG, or any of those clowns come out with that has been of significance? They haven't even come out with anything were listening to one time just to see how bad it sounds.

We often will hear Lil' Wayne rap about his homies that left cash-money, the Hot Boyz. He talks about how he misses them, and he talks about how he's all alone. What he doesn't realize, or maybe he does, is that it was by far the best thing that could've happened to him. When all them dudes left, there was no one for young Wayne to look up to or model his content or style after any longer. All he had left was Baby, and Baby is more of a business guy than rapper. As a result, Wayne was forced to come into his own. He had to develop his style, and he had to do it without the support of the Hot Boyz behind him. He grinded out, got on some features, and slowly through guest appearances, he made a name for himself. When he released The Carter, he got people's attention. Did Lil' Wayne just come out with a quality record? Did his raps actually contain real subject matter? Could you actually gather the content out of his songs? Yes. It was weird. It was like a shift in his persona. Much more serious. People were like, alright fine. It takes a lot more than one solid record for the hip-hop community to change their opinion on your entire skill-level and persona. Then...for me...it was Six Minutes of Death off of Cassidy's album. When I heard that verse, I must've rewound it at least 10 times. His voice, flow, rhythm, on that beat, there was something about it. I was intrigued. I began to seriously ask myself, what happened to Lil' Wayne?

Then...Tha Carter 2. I never bought Tha Carter. There was no way I was going to buy it. A Lil' Wayne record, are you kidding me? Then I heard a bunch of the tracks, and I was like woah. So when Tha Carter 2 came out, I decided to cop it to see if this is the new Lil' Wayne from Six Minutes, and possibly even an improvement upon Tha Carter. To be honest, I thought it was just gonna be EH. You know...like whatever. It's Lil' Wayne, how good could it be. I started to listen...and the rest is history. Lil' Wayne made a complete 180. Wordplay? Real beats? Creative hooks? WORDPLAY? I wasn't alone. The hip-hop community began to take notice. He had a song on Tha Carter 2 called "Best Rapper Alive" obviously talking about himself. When seeing the track list, people were like "puh-leaaaase." But after listening to the record, would somebody with this type of record, have the balls to make a song like that and name it "Best Rapper Alive" if there wasn't a possibility it could be true? Would Young Joc ever release a song called "Best Rapper Alive"? What about even someone great? Would Eminem? Would Nas? Eminem has repeatedly placed numerous rappers ahead of himself, and he admits this. Nas might be reluctant because of Jay-Z. I believe that Lil' Wayne actually believes that he is the best rapper alive. And let it be known that that song is one of the best on the CD.

And that's where the controversy ends up. Who is the "best rapper alive". In a recent interview with Complex Magazine, this is what Lil' Wayne said about Jay-Z:

"I'm better than him, I'm 24 years old. ... I'm 13 years deep with five albums and 10 million records sold."

"I don't like what he's saying about how he had to come back because hip-hop's dead and we need him," Wayne said. "What the f--- do you mean? If anything it's reborn, so he's probably having a problem with that. You left on a good note, and all of the artists were saying, 'Yo, this is Jay's house. He's the best.' Now he comes back and still thinks it's his house. ... It's not your house anymore, and I'm better than you."

What can you say? A lot of you will be thinking...holy shit...Lil' Wayne is wacko, he's totally lost it, what a nut job. To an extent, I see your point. He obviously has someone yappin' in his ear about how good he is and it might be getting to his head. HOWEVER, to use words like that against Jay-Z...it's unheard of. The Game repeatedly threw subliminals at Jay, hoping he wouldn't notice. As soon as Jay noticed, every time, The Game retracted his statements. He was obviously terrified. What kind of moron would want it with Jigga? Beefin' with Jigga, I don't think so. Unless someone really thought they could take him. Let me tell you something about Lil' Wayne, forget what you knew about him, and how horrible he was. Since then, he's specifically borrowed Jay-Z's style, added a souther flavor to it, and adjusted to his voice and flow. There is no doubt in my mind that Jay-Z had the ability to crush Lil' Wayne if he wanted to. If you listen to his freestyles from back in the day with Big L and Big Daddy Kane, dude was sick. It was a whole 'nother story. But now? He's vulnerable. He sounded sub-par on recent diss songs "Dig A Hole" and "Brooklyn High". While Lil' Wayne has skyrocketed his lyrical prowess, there is no doubt in my mind that because of Jay-Z's "dumbing it down" for so long, he has declined. Or maybe it's his old age. But call me crazy, I think Lil' Wayne is right. I think the impossible has happened. I think Lil' Wayne could lyrically out-maneuver Jay-Z. And if you don't think so...go listen to Tha Carter 2, and then right after, listen to Kingdom Come. If you don't think that Lil' Wayne's record is simply on another level, then you're just not listening.

Now by no means am I saying that Lil' Wayne is a lyrical genius. His talent has undoubtedly improved...but a Common or Chino XL he is not. But his confidence is incredibly admirable, and he has the classic record to back it up. My one gripe with his comments are that he went at Jay-Z about the whole "hip-hop is dead" thing when really it should be directed at Nas as well. I mean it's the name of his record after all. I dunno why he's singling Jay-Z out, but I have a feeling it's a personal vendetta of some sort. I'm sure Jay-Z will see this, and I anxiously await a reaction from the so called "king".

-Doc