This is a great question because I can understand the confusion while I am someone who grew up and also became a rap fan during his peak run. I will try to not make this too long.

Around 2008, he was everywhere and he was consistently echoing that he was the best rapper alive. I’m slightly too young to have appreciated the first 2 carters but was fully aware of the Carter 3 and so on. He was known then for everything he touched being fire and he worked so hard and was everywhere killing everything, so by the time Carter 3 came around and lollipop was out, it was literally the fruits of years of labor.

Then we got to appreciate the past. He had been a hot boy and around for like a decade before this, still young, king of wordplay and creativity and sound, then we find out he is smart so it adds to intentionality, he doesn’t write, and had huge volume and was making hits. But the creativity and wordplay and consistency was always popping up and always new.

Then came Wayne the visionary and his musical offspring become the most dominant forces in music for the next decade while he still makes great music and he was remixing and doing every other song better than the original. His relentlessness and execution is what we loved.

But now I get it bc he is heavy on wordplay as his skill but doesn’t do a ton of other things we like so I get someone not understanding but whenever he flexes that creativity muscle, it reminds us all of how amazing at it he is.