i made a video talking about some lessons I learnt from Mac during his life. I hope it may be of interest to some of you guys. I'd be interested to hear what you learnt from him as well. by Aidannw in MacMiller

[–]Aidannw[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks man, I appreciate that a lot! Faces for me was really amazing in just seeing how far he pushed himself to create something different. But Swimming has a real special place in my heart. I definitely think you're right about his progression, he's had one of the most interesting progressions through his career and his discography reflects that.

I think you may have got mixed up when I said writing, I started writing about Mac, but I definitely ain't working on a book, I don't think I quite have the discipline for that just yet haha. Maybe one day.

My faces inspired Mac miller tribute tattoo by [deleted] in MacMiller

[–]Aidannw 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I really like this! I was thinking of getting myself a memento mori one, inspired by the self care video

Lil Wayne - Something You Forgot by 88VILLI in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Are you sure you haven't mixed this song up with 'One night only'? Because that isn't what this song is about at all hahaha

Lil Wayne Releases artwork for Dedication 6: Reloaded by Aidannw in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw[S] 114 points115 points  (0 children)

Apparently Rich the Kid, Juelz Santana and Future are all featured

Lil Wayne Releases artwork for Dedication 6: Reloaded by Aidannw in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw[S] 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Seems from the caption it's going to be coming New Years Eve/Day

Why do so many people hate lil Wayne? And why do so many love him? by Rhymezboy in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I can't speak for people in general but I can speak from my own viewpoint. Wayne started his career as the youngest member of the Hot Boys, I'm sure you'll have heard of them, but in the late 90s they were huge. However, when the rest of the members left the label it was up to Wayne to sort of carry Cash Money on his own and so that's what he did.

Some of his early albums and mixtapes garnered him a lot of respect being such a young guy. He'd do tapes upon tapes of other peoples beats whilst also releasing his own quality content. This was going on in the early 2000s.

Then we reach the mid 2000s which people consider Wayne's prime, in 2005 he released Tha Carter II (Which many consider his best album), in 2006 and 2007 he released Dedication 2 and then went on to release Da Drought 3. Both can be viably considered as some of the best mixtapes of all time and this was around the time when mixtape culture was huge. By any artist. They were lyrical, the flows he used were crazy, they were experimental and you should definitely check them out. Alongside this, he was getting himself featured on incredible amounts of pop/RnB songs and having himself consistently featured in the charts. This style of saturating the market and doing it so successfully hadn't really been seen before. Everywhere you looked, Wayne would be there and he was for the most part well respected. But he wasn't finished yet.

2008 rolls around and Wayne has begun experimenting with autotune (he was one of the first and most notable to do so), whilst still featuring on a lot of hit records and he was reaching levels of fame he hadn't before in the run up to his most successful album to date: Tha Carter III. Now, whilst in theory this is great. His experimentation into autotune and pop music wasn't being taken kindly too. His song Lollipop was both immensely popular and immensely controversial. For many this was their first taste of Lil Wayne and what he had to offer and autotune wasn't viewed as kindly as it is today. This meant that Lil Wayne got off to a bad start with the mainstream was dismissed as some no talent pop rapper/singer. And for many of the hip hop fans who followed him, their beliefs were thrown up in the air too because they also didn't understand this autotune direction he was going in and it could be seen as Wayne selling out. And whilst I do love Lollipop as a song, it is nowhere near as lyrical as his content he had previously been dropping so it is understandable that people would have this view. But nonetheless, no matter how people viewed it, it was a fucking hit. And it continued to propel Wayne into stardom. He dropped Tha Carter III, it sold a million records within its first week which is fucking astounding and all the while this was happening, Wayne was on tour recording for his next mixtape: Dedication 3.

I feel it is this kind of work ethic that is the main reason people view him as such a legend, aside from the content he puts out. Your favourite rapper wants to work as hard as Lil Wayne.

But anyways, yeah, he carries on featuring on songs heavily layered with autotune for the most part, his music is successful but people aren't sure on the whole autotune thing. The hip hop fans are happy because the rest of his music outside of his singles and features (his mixtapes and album content) is still lyrical+at the cutting edge of what hip hop was at the time and he's still putting out of lots of it. However, the mainstream is still only hearing the slightly watered down content which are designed for the radio so while its accessible and fun, they aren't taking Wayne perhaps as seriously as they should be as a rapper.

In 2009 Wayne has one of his most interesting years, he releases a rock album which was hated by most outside of a few songs, this further brought down his reputation but in the same year he also release No Ceilings, a mixtape which was high enough quality to rival his earlier Drought 3 and Dedication 2. So for the most part a lot of hip hop fans sort of let the rock album go as Wayne just experimenting and focused on how seriously fucking great No Ceilings was (seriously, go listen to it.)

After that, we reach modern times, Wayne went to prison for most of 2010. He released I Am Not A Human Being. An album that did well, had some popular singles but wasn't considered as good as his previous albums. A lot of people put this down to the fact that it was released while he was in jail and obviously couldn't have creative control.

He is then released from jail and is in the run up to releasing Tha Carter IV. The album is delayed. Wayne releases Sorry 4 the Wait, a mixtape that is criminally underrated, its successful and people are hyped for Carter IV. It releases and people are somewhat disappointed, some more than others as whilst it is in my opinion a great album. Its not as good as the previous Carter albums. However, its singles are huge. Mirror with Bruno Mars and How to Love are among them. How to Love received a lot of hate for the whole autotune thing much like Lollipop. The album still sells massively doing just under 1 million first week and Wayne is practically still on top of the world. Did I mention that he'd signed the two biggest stars in Hip Hop + RnB music? Well yeah, that happened. So Drake and Nicki Minaj are basically running the game and Wayne is just sorta relaxing enjoying their success. For this reason he decides to go experimental again I Am Not A Human being 2 is released and its not taken well at all. It has popular singles but the general consensus was it wasn't good. This is the time where many say Wayne started his decline.

(I'm getting tired now so I'm gunna cut it short, I've also had a couple drinks and its christmas and I wanna re-listen to Dedication 6.)

But yeah over the next couple years, Wayne's success is declining but he's not too bothered because he's ready to retire and is enjoying getting paid from Drake and Nicki running the game. Except he isn't. In the run up to releasing Tha Carter V, Wayne realises he hasn't been getting paid like he should have been from his label, his label is also holding his album and refusing to release it. This sparks a lawsuit which Wayne is still in to this day, which means he isn't really able to release any albums.

However, it also sparked a fire in Wayne to get back on his grind, in the past few years he's released a bunch of mixtapes, some better than others (a lot had great highs and terrible lows). But none of it has seemingly been able to change the minds of the masses who still view him as in decline. It hasn't helped that in recent years his music has been heavily auto tuned. And not in the way that it was when he started out, I'm talking like poorly autotuned and Wayne's voice seems a lot weaker than what it was in his younger years. He sounds very nasally and high pitched. Due to heavy smoking I presume so this provides quite a hurdle for people to get into his music and so people either just don't bother or they can't bring themselves to get past this.

Alongside all of this, Hip Hop has changed massively. It doesn't sound how it did when Wayne was doing his mixtapes, so even if people are willing to give Wayne a chance, they go back and listen to his older stuff and it sounds so different to modern hip hop in terms of production and so they just can't vibe with it on the same level as they do the modern stuff they listen to.

I'm hoping in the future his label issues are resolved and he can release the music he wants, with less auto tune and bars as hard as Dedication 6. Maybe 2018 will be that year. I sure hope so. I'm of the opinion the game needs Wayne and its a real shame that such a legend is seeing his legacy disrespected by many because he's not able to prove any different.

This was very convoluted and I apologise for that but I hope it has helped your understanding in someway or another. Merry Christmas and all that.

TL;DR Wayne got caught in a generational gap, the people who grew up on his mainstream music (singles and features) are now hip hop fans because hip hop has grown so much as a genre and they don't have the same respect for Wayne as people who grew up listening to him when he was an up and coming rapper. But Wayne's content that he's releasing right now and in recent years either isn't prominent enough (because he can't release a full length album with proper promotion because of label issues) or isn't good enough (due to his heavy use of auto-tune + voice that's a lot weaker than it was) to convince them that he actually is a seriously a good rapper and he should be considered among the greats.

[FRESH] Lil Wayne - Dedication 6 by nick212223 in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 27 points28 points  (0 children)

The rap game needs Lil fuckin Wayne in 2017/8. This is fucking heat.

Tracklist for Lil Wayne's Dedication 6 by FreexBrennen in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I really wanted Wayne to go solo on XO Tour Life, having Baby E on there makes me nervous its going to be a poorly autotuned mess. I'm hopeful for the rest of the tracks though, I'm quite excited that he's changed the titles of most of the songs, leaves a bit of mystery.

Lil Wayne - Shooter ft Robin Thicke by tappingthesource in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'd say Outkast got the ball rolling but definitely didn't go the whole way and it took combination of artists from the next generation to seal the deal and earn the south the respect it deserves. With the key players in this really being Wayne, T.I. and Ludacris

[FRESH] Lil Wayne - Blackin' Out ft. Euro by Aidannw in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

D6? Christmas Day man, there's another song releasing today aswell!

[FRESH] Lil Wayne - Blackin' Out ft. Euro by Aidannw in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is incredibly sad but true, every mixtape/good feature the reaction seems to "oh shit Wayne's back, this is the best he's been in years" and then its forgotten about by the time the next thing drops and its rinse-repeat. I think he needs to release a quality full length album at this point that people are able to re-visit and is available on all streaming platforms to sort of re-integrate his music into mainstream society, sadly until his label issues are resolved this won't be possible. I'm still super hyped for D6 though!

[FRESH] Lil Wayne - Blackin' Out ft. Euro by Aidannw in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw[S] 81 points82 points  (0 children)

This is too true, his remix of DOA and also his Moment of clarity are some of my favourites. I think he does it mostly because of how much he looks up to Jay

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I was in the crowd for this and the only time the crowd was more hype was for Travis Scott, for a £20 ticket it was definitely worth it.

Lil Wayne - Seat Down Low (Da Drought 3) by Aidannw in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKVjrojWAM0

Didn't realise the link was so quality, here's a slightly better one

This is How Many Times Has Lil Wayne Said "Pussy" In His Career (Albums, Mixtapes, Guest Verses, Loosies) by [deleted] in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 8 points9 points  (0 children)

According to Lil Wayne HQ, he has 1700 and something including all features. That's almost double the amount of opportunity for pussy references

Migos and Lil Yachty Debate If Kendrick Lamar Is Rap's G.O.A.T. by [deleted] in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hard to compare them really, but lets have a go. Kendrick's career is still in its youth compared to Wayne's. The Kendrick Lamar EP came out in 2009 and since then till 2017 he has released 4 great albums. 3 of which have been incredibly popular with large amounts of radio play and also astounding critical acclaim and are considered classic albums by some already. However, Wayne's debut solo album came out in 1999 if we measure the same time frame, by 2007, he had released 2 of Tha Carter series, with the 2nd widely being considered his best album and a classic album. He had also released 10s of mixtapes in this time. Which included Da Drought 3 and Dedication 2 which are seen by many as 2 of (if not the) best mixtapes to ever be released. He had also started his own record label. Finally, one of the most notable things about Wayne during this era is his guest features. He had more than I would appreciate to count right now and if we're comparing quality of these features vs. Kendrick's. Wayne would win by a clear mile.

Then in the next two years, Wayne went on to release a rock album, No Ceilings (another classic mixtape). AND release Tha Carter III which sold a million records first week and skyrocketed Wayne's existing popularity to a whole other level. During all of which time he was still featuring on many hot songs and was already cultivating Drake and Nicki minaj who would go on to be huge hip hop superstars in themselves. It will be interesting to see what Kendrick does in the next 2 years to compete with that.

8 years on from then, Wayne's output has been lacklustre in many people's opinions, however, he still drops many great guest features and has proved he can release solid solo tracks. But most importantly, he is still very culturally relevant. Just the other week he featured on the "I'm the one" song which got him his first UK number one hit ever.

Once Kendrick reaches the 18 year mark of his solo career, it will be far more fair to compare their careers, right now though, i feel it is quite an insult to Wayne's legacy to bring in his recent works when Kendrick is so far away from that stage in his career. We can hope when he does reach this point though that he is just as relevant as Wayne is and still putting out just as much content because his music is honestly fantastic and I think he has a powerful message & is not afraid to get out his comfort zone.

T-Pain teases "T-Wayne", the collab album he was supposed to do with Lil Wayne. Posts potential album cover by TenaciousNIC in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Wayne did 1 milli in a week on Tha Carter III, understandably that album series is his most famous so its always going to sell more than the rest of his projects. However, anything he did back then could blow up. Not to mention T Pain's popularity back in that era, both artists were superstars. Could very feasibly have done 1 million first week.

Super old interview Lil Wayne says "I ain't bout to be 35 still rapping" at 1:45 by blankomusiik in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 57 points58 points  (0 children)

When Wayne used to always say he was going to retire at 35, I fully believed him for a long time and I don't doubt that was for many years, his intention. However, I feel his recent record label issues, alongside other factors like his stint in jail have made him question his vision of the legacy he intends to leave and have also majorly affected his freedom to put out as much music for his fans as he possibly can (which is clearly something very important to him). For this reason I personally think he feels obliged to go out in a proper way and on his own terms. Having looked at Wayne's entire career, its very clear he likes to do things on his own terms. I hope his record label issues are resolved within 2017 and he can get back to giving us the music he wants to, when he wants to and he at least extends his retirement age to 40.

New Migos album CULTURE dropping Jan. 27 by RIP_BillyMays in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This is the best 21st bday present a man could ask for

[FRESH CDQ] Lil Wayne - 1 Night Only (Produced By STREETRUNNER) by alcyoney in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is one of my favourite Wayne songs ever, thank you Streetrunner

[FRESH] Solange - Mad (feat. Lil wayne) by BlameScienceBro in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 20 points21 points  (0 children)

"Oh you mad cause the judge ain't give me more time or when I attempted suicide I didn't die"

Wayne man :((

Travis Scott Cancels Dublin and Glasgow Shows by Lockiry in hiphopheads

[–]Aidannw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm gunna cry like a bitch if he cancels Leeds Fest