Defsounds

This is an editorial that is a long time coming, something that honestly I wanted for a long time to say, hopefully people will read this in its entirety and then leave their oh so educated opinions. If not then hey it comes with the territory of writing. Now after stating all of that let me begin with the statement that should rock this website to its foundations... Lil Wayne is over rated.

Lil Wayne is currently leading the new school when it comes to artist who have the image, the fan base, the record sales and the respect. He is the artist that everyone else seems to base their skill level at, his name on a track is considered gold, him as the headliner for a concert usually means that it will sell out, and fans of all corners can be heard all over quoting some of his most outrageous lines. If Jay Z can best be compared to Jordan (not saying that he is) fans have built Lil Wayne to be the LeBron/Kobe of the new era of hip hop. His last three albums have sold so many copies and received so much critical acclaim that some fans will go as far as to say that he is best to ever do it dead or alive.

To Wayne’s credit he has produced music at a pace that I or anyone in this world has never seen, in his time active as a mainstream force he has produced five albums and over ten mix tapes (Mixtapes that are fully developed and averaging 15 songs per mixtape). Along with these mixtapes he has been featured on countless tracks and remixed even more songs than anyone that I can think of. Wayne has literally lived in the studio and birth’s bar after bar and track after track.

So now that we have finished giving him his due justice lets take a look at why I think he's over rated. Most Wayne fans will tell you that lyrically he is a beast that his metaphors are amazing and his punch lines will leave you hanging in amazement. So I listened to a couple of Wayne albums in order to give a proper and fair synopsis those albums were Tha Carter, Tha Carter II, 500 Degreez and Lights out.

After listening to these four albums here are two things that I noticed right off the top on 500 Degreez and Lights out, Wayne's flow is choppy, his lyrics on many of the songs are elementary and although he does show plenty of promise it is clear that he has yet to harness that. From Tha Carter to the Carter III you can hear a drastic improvement in lyrical skills, song content and flow. But even with this vast improvement he still continues to be eons below what the cream of the crop offer.

Lyrically- Wayne offers a highly animated delivery that is built with one part drugs other part bravado he sounds convincing so even when he's talking about absolutely nothing in particular an UN attentive fan will be convinced that he has just said the hardest line of the year. As one Defsounds.com Exec said, Wayne’s flow is a collage of over exaggerated ER sounds, and a barrage of syllables. Break down some of his tracks and it’s obvious that what he's saying isn’t as impressive as it comes off to be in the beginning. Heavy on Similes, with a sprinkle of a metaphor here and there, Wayne can make your head spin at times with the amount of words that he can put together as well as the internal rhymes that he incorporates into almost every verse. But when looking at overall complexity, wordplay, consistency in punch lines, vocabulary, and then being able to put all of that together Wayne is good, actually he is above average but he is still a step or three away from the elite.

Songwriting/Making ability.

Every elite rapper, at least in my regards, has had the ability to consistently put out good songs. Wayne has the uncanny ability of murdering tracks that he is featured on taking the song from a 5 to a 7 with his simple sixteen. When it comes to his music, he definitely has his fair share of hits, but nothing timeless. Ten years from now no one will remember Lollipop, Dick Pleaser, or Go DJ. Its not that there bad songs, but do you honestly see yourself listening to lollipop when your 30 years old, if so then your one of the many few.

Wayne also seems to have a problem staying on topic with his tracks and is known to wander off straying away from the original thought; this also takes away from the consistency of his music. How can you ever put out a classic album if you can’t even stay on the same subject for more than two bars, and no matter what some fans may think Lil Wayne does not have a classic album, not even one that can be considered a near miss; If you want to talk about quality albums, Wayne did not have one until 500 Degreez. Tha Carter was his coming out party, Tha Carter II was his “This was not a fluke album” and Tha Carter III was a disappointment if you consider the amount of time he had to perfect the album, and the amount of hype that was behind it. All of the best rappers have at least one Classic album to stake claim for, Wayne has none. One of the things that both help him and hurt him is his song writing style. Yes it’s cool to have the ability to make songs without writing them down, but not everyone should do that. That’s like writing a thesis paper and not having it proof read. Wayne will hop into the studio spit a quick sixteen and that will be the end of it. Imagine if he wrote his rhymes down and took out the time to really dissect what he was saying, allowing himself time to go back and edit, then he really would be a beast, but instead he just goes in spits the rhymes does not seem to put much attention to it after wards, and flies high with all of the inflated critical acclaim.

What It All Boils Down To

Wayne is a one of the best in the game, this can not be denied but he is the Joe Johnson of Hip Hop, Immensely talented, but still having many holes in his game that have yet to be addressed. He at times slurs his words which can take away from his live performances, he is not as versatile on topics as many would like to lead you to think (but neither is Jay-Z, and nor was Biggie or Pac), and to be honest some times he just makes absolutely no sense, and will waste a good beat with horrible bars. When you put him up against other artist in the game old and new, there are just way too many who in a one on one battle could easily beat or even destroy him. He is in the top 25 alive easy but top ten or top five I beg to differ. Lil Wayne has plenty of time to change my opinion, but until he starts writing his lyrics, lays off the drugs, adds a couple of more things to his lyrical handbag of tricks, stays on topic, and broadens his subject matter he will always be that great player who you would love to have on your team, but would trade away for a Kobe, Lebron, Wade, or Chris Paul in a heartbeat. There are no Kobe’s or Lebron's in the rap game, we might have a Dwayne Wade but it’s definitely not Mr. Carter He’s still got a ways to go.