...A circus on my neck.
I was watching some guy on Youtube last night and he has a bunch of vlogs giving his opinion on Hip Hop. However, after viewing his videos for about 5 minutes, it was pretty clear that he started it to hate on Weezy and, thus, promote himself.
It got me to thinking about what is wrong with classic Hip Hop critics and what is wrong with the Hip Hop 2.0 followers... Lil' Wayne gives me the best example of what I am trying to say.
A few of the "real" Hip Hop fans favorites are as follows: Biggie, Pac, Jay-Z, Big L, Big Pun, Nas, Rakim, LL, KRS-ONE, Eminem, etc. (Those were put down for argument's sake...)
So they are at the top of their class in terms of: where they were born (NY, Cali, etc), their ability (lyrics, flow, delivery, etc), their longevity, etc. E.g. "Biggie is the King of New York and always will be, his albums / music will never die and his flow was the best ever."
Now. Where in that list are the Southern rappers? There are none that should be on that list, I hear you say? Ok...
Lil' Wayne is the best in the South, in my opinion. He has the lyrical ability to out-smart most of the new, young rappers coming from the South. His flow is original and dynamic and he can rap over almost everything. He moves with the times and always manages to end up on top. He has artistic integrity, even though it doesn't show on some of his more graphic and swagtastic records. I think his imagery is the best so far this century. He has been around for AGES and is still selling millions of records.
So with all of his corny records aside, I think he has / will reach the title of being one of the greatest in my opinion. Maybe even if it is just due to default - he should be there.
I believe the problem lies with the fact that the Hip Hop 2.0 followers have negated Wayne's ability in the eyes and ears of the underground / "real" Hip Hop scene by constantly supporting the weaker, yet more commercially-viable side of his repertoire. But considering that: He is the President of a huge Hip Hop record label, Cash Money - just like Puffy at Bad Boy. Puffy made those commercially-viable records that everyone bumped in the club / behind closed doors and people didn't respect him as an artist but, instead, a businessman. Whereas, Biggie was the figurehead for real Hip Hop in Bad Boy. Well... Wayne is both Biggie and Puffy in this scenario. He has to run a successful company, make millions of dollars for it to keep afloat and maintain its reputation, which he does. So we can call him a great businessman. But he also has the artistic ability, within him, to compete with the likes of LL Cool J, Eminem, Jay-Z (...record sales, etc...) To me, this makes him incredibly astute and talented. For that, I put him in my list.
Sorry about that... I wrote that kind of fast and angrily and I don't quite know how it came across. I was just getting annoyed by the constant comparisons of people to Lil Wayne, in terms of how good someone is, but the same person will turn around and say Lil' Wayne has no skill. He obviously does. And TONNES of it. So start accepting that he isn't like Soulja Boy et al. and start appreciating.
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