Why Aren’t More People Going Crazy Over Lil Wayne’s Return to Lyrical Glory?

July 4th 2015, was a real Independence Day for Lil Wayne. It’s the day the Free Weezy Album, Wayne’s first official release since asking for his walking papers from longtime home, Cash Money Records, hit outlets.

The project’s first single, “Glory” hit the net several weeks ago and falls in line with many of the songs we’ve recently heard Wayne on. Simply put: he’s rapping his ass off and gives listeners verses that are full of slick metaphors and that ooze swagger. Honestly, it feels like the “A Milli” rapper has spent the majority of the past twelve or so months demolishing just about every beat that has ended up in one of his recording sessions. On “Glory,” as well as on other tracks like A$AP Rocky’s “Ms,” which finds Wayne unleashing what feels to be a never-ending amount of bars of fury over the Da Honorable C.N.O.T.E. and Mike Dean-produced banger, the living legend has given MVP-type performances and has sounded hungry, re-energized and like a man with a point to prove. For a die-hard Wayne fan such as myself, this has been super exciting, especially since I once questioned whether he could reclaim his spot as one of hip hop’s elite rappers. He’s spitting harder than he’s spit in recent memory, but does it really even matter in this era?

In the immediate years leading up to his triumphant return to eating rappers and beats, there weren’t many stellar performances coming from Lil Wayne. However, though he regularly took verses off during what I’d like to call The Lil Wayne Dark Ages, he didn’t skip a beat, career-wise. He managed to drop multiple platinum albums, top ten hits and introduced the world to the likes of Drake, Nicki Minaj and Tyga.

But since having had stepped his lyrical game way, way up and being in the best lyrical shape he’s been in in years, Weezy’s career is seemingly at a standstill. As he faces label limbo, the biggest story attached to his long-delayed Tha Carter 5 album hasn’t been the music released in anticipation of the project. Most of the talk surrounding C5 has instead involved Wayne’s legal issues and falling out with Baby, his one-time mentor, Baby blatantly refocusing his attention and resources on the less talented and very-influenced-by-Wayne, Young Thug and the supposed beef that’s been brewing between he and Thug. His “Glory” single did garner some attention, but mostly because it was released as a Tidal exclusive and the announcement that Wayne himself had joined his idol JAY Z, frequent collaborator, Kanye West and others as a Tidal owner.

So why aren’t more people going crazy over Wayne’s return to lyrical glory? Could it be because no one really cares about lyricism anymore? I think so. Being an ill lyricist is no longer a requirement for being a top-tier rapper. In all actuality, today’s rapper doesn’t actually have to be a “rapper” by traditional standards. This is evident seeing as how many of the young rappers currently racing up the various Billboard singles charts don’t seem to care much about proving their skills on the mic and have instead chosen to build their careers off of cool flows, catchy melodies, hypnotic production and antics outside of making music like being leaned up, turn up trap gods. Many of the fans of this generation of rap stars don’t necessarily care what their favorite rappers are saying or how they say it. They actually seem to be more interested in following the lifestyles of their favorite trappers, than they are into deciphering the lyrics of the rap acts on their iPods.

Wayne is seemingly aware of this reality. On “Deep,” a song by Big Sean, which features a fire verse from Wayne, the former Hot Boy raps, “I feel like Sean don’t get enough shine / Is it because he ain’t got the tattoos? He ain’t throwing up signs?” This is worth noting, because Sean is an artist who consistently out-raps many of his collaborators and competitors, and yet and still he manages to continuously get looked over when compared to many of those rappers he out-shines. Wayne then goes on to continue to kick some knowledge towards the end of his “Deep” verse, when he spits:

Fuck the finish line, just finish your lines / And if getting your point across crosses the line / Some of the time then cross it with pride / That’s real, my nigga, remember that / And it ain’t about if they remember you, they remember rap / So just spit it back and hope somebody diggin’ that / Cause this shit is deep, deep.”

Lil Wayne let it be known a few years back that he ain’t got no worries, so charting hits in 2015 or competing with the rappers of the moment (especially the ones building their careers off of a formula he helped create) aren’t concerns for him. Lately, he’s been sounding more inspired than he has sounded in years, which is certainly something real fans of not only Wayne, but Hip Hop at large can dig. Hopefully, those fans will remember these raps and also the time that the self-proclaimed Best Rapper Alive prove that he was indeed still one of the best rappers alive.