I'm not talking about Dance with the Devil in particular, just ALL of his songs, like 3rd world, Cause of Death, You never know. Same goes with K-Rino, like Grand Deception, Valley of Decision and the list goes on and on.
And while Dance with the Devil isn't his personal story, it is a metaphor of the things that are daily happening in the world.
A somewhat dedicated rap fan would know all of this.
Ofcourse great artists are going to compliment Lil Wayne and not disrespect him, because those artists are always very humble and respectful. Like that's just not right for their status as a real rapper.
Lil Wayne got hooked up with Kanye West early, because he was the first generation of rappers in this repetitive ''hard beat, wack lyrics and flow'' mainstream game.
But if you know that much more than me, name me just ONE Lil Wayne song, that has intricate lyrics, or flow for that matter.
It won't matter what I pick because you're going to start moving the bar of "intricate" to ahead of whatever I say and completely ignore the fact that intricacy does not itself mean quality. Just because something is intricate doesn't make it good. I could point out his Dedication 2 era stuff for being the landmarks they were but all you'd have to do is point out someone else being more esoteric and opaque in lyricism as if the raw complexity of something makes it "good".
A famous exchange between Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner went like this:
Faulkner: Hemingway has never once written a word that would send a reader to the dictionary.
Hemingway: Poor Faulkner, does he think emotions come from big words?
Not to mention, your understanding of Wayne's history is just idiotic because Wayne was Cash Money in the 90s, Kanye was Roc-A-Fella and didn't have a solo album until 2004. Kanye West wasn't a name until a damn decade into Wayne's career.
MORE THAN THAT, this BS that hip hop has to go one way and everyone's gotta be Aesop Rock and MF Doom is ridiculous because hip hop is an expression of the self. It's like if people talking about movies ONLY accepted artistic endeavours and indie arthouse films and acted like fun popcorn movies were just "wrong" somehow. The sheer intricacy of something doesn't, in and of itself, convey any emotion or impact.
This is what drives me crazy. In my mind, they're all good. I'll fire up some old Cannibal Ox or Busdriver, Scroobius Pip or Sage Francis when I feel like getting my poetry-house going, or I'll turn up the volume and blast Future and Migos. This gatekeeping crap happens and it's maddening because it essentially walls off entire swaths of potential exploration and discussion. Saying "nope, around here we only accept this narrow band of hip hop."
Frankly, it makes people look like they're just competing, trying to show off and say "oh look how smart I am, the only hip hop I listen to is the underground thesaurus-wielding branch, look at your stupid head with your silly Drakes and Rick Rosses."
It's probably the worst part about audio-centric forums. When people aren't trying to one-up each other with their hardware they're trying to one-up each other with their musical tastes. Like no one's just willing to let go of the snobbery and have FUN with music any more, damn.
EDIT: Just as an addendum, this is what kills me. Wherever I go with my musical preferences, because I'm not ALL on one side or the other, and every group is so ******* tribal any more, I end up having to defend myself. On mainstream hip hop forums I'm a hipster and a backpacker for putting
Impossible Kid on my top 5 and saying Drake is bland, on boards like this one I'm apparently some drooling frat boy because I also put
Still Brazy on the AOTY list. There's apparently no way for people to like all of it, no, you gotta declare your sides, pick your teams, and tell everyone how much better your choices are than theirs and any deviations from the tiny little circle are considered grievous sins.
JFC all I'd like is to be able to have a place where musical tastes are inclusive and welcoming, where we can see the merits of EVERYTHING out there rather than driving these hard wedges in between and casting off everyone who dares bring up something different. But hey, apparently that makes me the problem, so... sure. Whatever.
