Op-Ed: “Deep or Delusional?” – An Interpretation of Lil’ Wayne’s PSA

Lil’ Wayne, showcasing one of his rare moments of introspection, released a Public Service Announcement this past Friday via the Vimeo account of Young Money’s videographer, Derick G. Reflecting on the death of Steve Jobs, Wayne was moved to share his sentiments on problems which he insists that members of hip-hop culture need to recognize and resolve –blindly following trends with true commitment and failing to acknowledge inspirational figures. While many are able to appreciate his sincerity, his message throughout the half-hour rant is lost at at times as he contradicts himself and complicates his argument with flawed logic.

When Lil’ Wayne does something, he fully commits to it. As a testament to this, he offers examples of how he sips lean, has completely tatted his body (including his palms!) and, most recently, picked up skateboarding (he’s even put a skate ramp in his mansion). He claims that, unlike him, many imitate others without some sort of just reasoning, fail to fully commit and thus cause trends to be short-lived. These individuals who are following trends blindly don’t take the initiative to educate themselves on the culture of the person whom they want to imitate and therefore don’t discover the reasons why that person does whatever it is that they do. This inane act causes individuals to view imitators negatively and categorize them as mere trend followers. Imitators are then afraid to acknowledge that they’re imitating the individual whom they admire. Consequently, there’s currently a lack of heroes (i.e. his Tupac example: he proudly states that he got his tattoo on his stomach because he wanted to be like Tupac and that people don’t do such things anymore –possibly alluding to the individuals who imitate him but don’t acknowledge their doing so).

Story continues after the jump.

To remedy this, he suggests that if someone is going to imitate another person, it should be a conscious decision in which they intend to follow through until it comes into fruition. They should also acknowledge the person whom inspired them to do whatever that thing is even if they don’t become as prolific as their inspiration. He stresses that what’s important is that they try. Wayne states that “sometimes it might work” and gives examples of his rock album going gold and the success of how to love. And, although he isn’t great at skateboarding now, he acknowledges Alex Midler for inspiring him to get into skateboarding and has the mindset that if Midler can perform such amazing tricks, that he will someday be able to at least do some of the tricks in Midler’s repertoire.

I admire Wayne’s message, but despite his noble intentions, he makes some faulty claims. He insists that we should applaud him for inspiring kids to get into skateboarding because it fights “underage obesity”(lol) and is a good alternative to gang-banging or drugs — although his music encourages otherwise. He also attempts to legitimize his drug use by speaking about being from the New Orleans culture which is influenced by Texas rappers who po’ up like UGK but fails to acknowledge that Pimp C died from a drug overdose. Wayne needs an addendum where he states that in the process of educating oneself on the culture of person whom they want to imitate, they should only imitate that person if his or her actions are positive. Fully dedicating oneself to be like someone else can be a dangerous thing if the imitator isn’t aware of what the consequences of their inspiration’s actions.

-B.Rob