How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Lil Wayne

(Are you guys still rocking with me? Last week I touched on the Haiti subject and I thought I’d lose some of you. Regardless, feel free to email me at jacquesmorel08@gmail.com. I curse frequently so get ready for it.)

Today for the first time in my Facebook history I made an addition to my “Music” section. Normally I do not list who I listen too for the sheer fact that it is better than what YOU listen too, but I added one name.

Lil Wayne.

Rewind two years. Remember when Wayne was about to drop "Carter III" and everyone was in the process of stuffing their faces with as much Wayne as they could? Well I didn’t. I disliked Wayne. No it wasn’t hate - I understood very well why I didn't like him. (Hate is a disliking something without understanding it.)

I disliked everything about Wayne. I downloaded the mixtapes but I could not make my way through them. I listened to the songs that everyone else liked too (“Something You Forgot", "I’m Me", "Hardbody”, etc.) but that was the extent of my Lil Wayne listening. I even passed up on downloading his music when it was emailed to me.

That all changed.

Now I sit here and I am Pro-Lil Wayne. In the December 2009 issue of Maxim, there is an article based on a former narcotics officer (once the best in the nation) turning into a pro-marijuana advocate and a huge pothead. Hilarious how things transpire, right?

Well I feel that is important to grow within a genre of music to like something you once hated and dislike something you once liked. Staying stagnant in your music listening is a sure way to lose touch with what is going on around you. I feel we must challenge what everyone else tells us to respect. Must I hold B.I.G as the greatest of all time? Do I need to listen Jay Z?

Of course not.

But I feel that we as listeners should GROW and listen to music that fits our situation in life at the time. I hate the people who argue that Lupe is the greatest but refuse to listen Jay Elec. It is almost maddening.

So why did I turn to Lil Wayne? I watched the "Carter Documentary".

But why? Why did I do this? I do not understand myself. However, after watching VH1’s “Behind the Music” on Wayne, I decided to watch the Documentary. At the beginning of the documentary I still disliked Wayne. By the end of it, I became a fan.

Keep in mind this was only 2 months ago.

Now two months removed, I am a HUGE fan. Why though? Well…

I always knew that Lil Wayne did not write down his rhymes. I knew that. Jay Z does it and B.I.G did it too. However, the thing that finally turned me into a true Lil Wayne fan was watching Wayne do it himself. In the beginning of the documentary, he records “Swagger Like Us” in a hotel in Amsterdam. I remember staring at the screen baffled.

“This motherfucker really recorded a #1 hit verse in a hotel room in Amsterdam in a set up that took less than 5 minutes? Not only this, because that has definitely been done before, but this dude has recorded HUNDREDS if not THOUSANDS of songs JUST LIKE THIS?”

Then I really began to delve into it. I continued to actually pay attention to the man that we call “Weezy”.

I was almost confused at how this took place. My brain kept fighting the engrained impulse to dislike yet it slowly grew quieter as I continued to watch the documentary. Lil Wayne is our modern day Tupac. He has so many songs and I do not think one person on this EARTH besides WAYNE himself has his entire discography. (Trust me, I downloaded the torrent…and I’m missing A LOT of songs.)

Another thing which took me a while to realize, but I quickly accepted, is that he sounds hungrier than 99% of the rappers in the game. Shit, he sounds hungrier than Drake does most of the time.
Why would a rapper that walks around with 100G’s in his briefcase (just in case right?) continue to sound hungry?

After all this transpired I decided to go on a hunt to find all of his music. I still am hunting. I have all the popular ones, but now I am looking for least popular hits. Music that everyone else around me was listening to heavily in ’07, that I am trying to reclaim in ’10.

So do I now agree with Wayne saying he is the “Best Rapper Alive”? I do not know yet, but I can damn well understand why he says he is.