As millennial hip-hop goes, Lil Wayne has set the standard for what it means to sell fun. After a decade in the music business, the prolific rapper's efforts paid off with the release of Tha Carter III in 2008; the album's hits, such as "Lollipop" and "A Milli," launched the artist directly into the collaborate-with-everyone-ever sphere. As his proficiency at producing hits has grown, the former Hot Boy has reached the point where it's easier for listeners to enjoy his talent in spite of his music's inherent misogyny. Smiling through self-aware club jams, Lil Wayne plucks the high-five-worthy bits from both rock star and rapper archetypes to embody good, dirty fun. Whether Weezy captures hearts and minds via his charisma as a pop-culture icon or genuinely warms loins with his modulated gravelly croon, Kansas City will again know his multiplatinum power.
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People don't enjoy Lil Wayne despite his misogyny. If he were writing for Martha Stewart Living or O Magazine, perhaps. Lil Wayne is a hip-hop artist, and therefore speaks through--and sometimes against--the conventions of his genre. The people who care most ardently about the ethics behind rap music are, generally speaking, unfamiliar with the music's history and context.
And, as the most prodigious mixtape rapper in recent memory, Wayne was in a collaborate-with-everyone mode way before his most recent album. For most hip-hop fans, the radio-friendly songs like "Lollipop" and "A Milli" were departures from, not confirmations of, his reputation as one of hip-hop's biggest talents.
People don't enjoy Lil Wayne despite his misogyny. If he were writing for Martha Stewart Living or O Magazine, perhaps. Lil Wayne is a hip-hop artist, and therefore speaks through--and sometimes against--the conventions of his genre. The people who care most ardently about the ethics behind rap music are, generally speaking, unfamiliar with the music's history and context. And, as the most prodigious mixtape rapper in recent memory, Wayne was in a collaborate-with-everyone mode way before his most recent album. For most hip-hop fans, the radio-friendly songs like "Lollipop" and "A Milli" were departures from, not confirmations of, his reputation as one of hip-hop's biggest talents.
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