Lil Wayne: creativity and achievements

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Lil Wayne is one of the key hip-hop artists of the 2000s and early 2010s. Nas called him his favorite MC, P. Diddy called him a genius, Drake called him a teacher. Lil Wayne has sold over 100 million records and won five Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album in 2009.

Music, lyrics

Lil Wayne is considered a bright representative of the southern style. At the beginning of his career, he combined Western aggressive reading style with more East Coast complex lyrics, including catchy punches, unpredictable rhymes, wordplay.

Carter experimented a lot with flow. In working with his voice, he became a trendsetter, ahead of his time and determined the vector of development of hip-hop.

The rapper used the possibilities of the speech apparatus as widely as possible, avoiding monotonous reading of the text. He changed the timbre of his voice, made unusual sounds (growling, high-pitched sounds, screaming). Lil Wayne used the autotune and cloud style that later became very fashionable. Wizzy switched to singing, adding techniques borrowed from rock and reggae musicians.

As for the lyrics, they contain a huge number of shock lines, sometimes absurd, but often very fresh. Eminem noted that Lila Wayne understands many lines only on the fourth or fifth listening to the track.

Many criticize Wayne's lyrics for inconsistency and lack of conceptuality. The rapper has never been known for his storytelling skills, both within the framework of one track and when compiling an album. If you compare the lines from different Lil Wayne songs, you can see their inconsistency. This is especially evident in early work.

On the other hand, according to some critics, the image of the "out of position rapper" created is a satire on modern hip-hop, in which form and presentation are valued more than content, or a mockery of an overly serious approach to music, when the performer strives to look almost like a messiah.

Image

A lot of what Wayne did in the late 90s and early 2000s became a trend. To see this, just look at how many American (and not only) rappers have taken a pseudonym containing the English word "lil".

Wayne was one of the first to show that a rapper is not necessarily wide t-shirts and even wider pants. Tattoos on the face and dreadlocks repeatedly borrowed by performers of the 10s became an indispensable external attribute of Carter.

In public, the rapper likes to appear bare-chested, wearing expensive jewelry and dark glasses.

In Lil Wayne's clips he plays the role of a spoiledbeautiful life of a smiling millionaire, then he appears as a tough and aggressive guy from the outskirts, as the musician was at the beginning of his career.

Collaboration with artists

Lil Wayne is known for a huge number of tracks created in duets with various artists.

He recorded his main hit Lollipop with talented rapper and producer Static. Another popular composition Got money was born in collaboration with T-Pain, who was experiencing the peak of fame at that time.

Hip-hop artists Lil Wayne has worked with include DJ Khaled, T. I., Akon, Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman. Wizzy has also worked with rap titans Eminem and Kanye West, with the much less famous Corey Gunz, with producers Detail and Swizz Beatz.

The most notable representatives of the next generation of hip-hop marked out with Carter: Drake and Future, and even younger Wiz Khalifa.

In addition to rappers, Lil Wayne does not refuse duets with established pop singers, such as Bruno Mars and Imagine Dragons.

The performer admits that he himself cannot remember and list all the musicians with whom he recorded tracks.

Awards

Lil Wayne is the winner of numerous music and hip-hop awards. He was nominated 26 times for the most prestigious Grammy Award. In 2009, the performer received four Grammy awards at once: for the best Carter III album, the best Lollipop song, the best solo performance and the best performance in a group - along with Kanye West, Jay-Zee and T. I.

In 2012, the rapper announced his retirement after the release of Carter V, citing his desire to spend more time with his children.

Lil Wayne's fifth album in the Carter series indeed remains the artist's last release, but Wayne continues to periodically delight the audience with live performances and participation in duets with various artists.

Thus, he received his first American Music Award in 2017 for the song I'm the one, recorded with DJ Khaled, Quavo and Chance the Rapper.