As fans of Hip-Hop, we pretty much fall into two categories when it comes to Lil Wayne. There are those who have been keeping faith that the ‘Old Wayne’ from the mid to late 00s will magically reappear and take over the game once again and then there are those who believe that his time passed years ago and retirement is long overdue. Back in December, Wayne left most speechless (sans Pusha T) when he announced that he felt like his creativity was imprisoned by Cash Money Records and that he no longer wanted anything to do with the label or its people. Although even many fans had admitted a dip in the quality of his music over the years, no one expected the reason to be, well, his own family.
Since the tweets that shook up the culture, a new spark and flame have shown in Wayne releases – he sounds like he wants to dominate Rap again. On the second installment of his Sorry 4 The Wait series which we heard in January, Tune showed relentlessness towards doubters and friends turned foes, demanding to be given what he had earned in terms of both money and respect. Months later during a nightclub performance, he also officially cut off ties with Young Thug who, in many ways up until then, was viewed as Lil Wayne’s protégé (or clone, depending on how you look at it).
Although the focus has primarily been on Thugger, Wayne has no shortage of rappers who he’s clearly influenced; Future, Rich Homie Quan, A$AP Rocky and Nicki Minaj all fall into that category and although it seems trivial to some now, let’s not forget that in 2009 Kendrick Lamar dropped a mixtape called C4 where he rapped over beats from Tha Carter III. So for the most part, Wayne still has bragging rights to being a figure in Hip-Hop who can see himself in the company of legends like Eminem and Jay Z. Knowing this, you might have found it interesting when he recently announced that he had “signed a deal with (his) m*therfucking idol, Jay Z”.
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