Are Lil Wayne and Jay-Z Issues?

Rap battles in hip-hop have always been a topic of differing opinions and perspectives. Dating back to the beginning of of hip-hop's creation, rap artists have always battled it out, whether on wax, in interviews, or head-to-head on the stage. Whatever the case may be, rap artists are always getting into it somehow. In the case of Lil Wayne and Jay-Z, it hasn't so much been a battle, but more of a big brother little brother relationship.

Back in 2006 when Jay-Z came out of retirement and released in his album Kingdom Come, Hova basically came in saying, that he was coming back to save hip-hop. Lil Wayne, who sometime during Jay-Z's retirement start calling himself "the best rap or alive," took offense to this, and lashed out saying that the game doesn't need Jay-Z, and that Lil Wayne himself is better than Jay-Z. Regardless of the way either of them felt, no true battle brewed between the two. In an interview with XXL Magazine, Lil Wayne said that Jay-Z was the best rapper to him, so that is why he started calling himself the best rapper alive, because he wants to be better than Jay-Z. Then the Jigga man actually kind of past the torch to Lil Wayne, saying that he would be the next greatest rapper in hip-hop. However, Jay-Z never really gave Wayne full credit.

In an interview with XXL magazine, Jay-Z talked about how Lil Wayne's delivery was superior, yet he didn't care for what Lil Wayne had to say in verse. However, these two men put their petty differences aside and Jay-Z ended up featuring on Lil Wayne's Carter III album, on the song "Mr. Carter." In the song, Jay-Z verbally passed the torch to Lil Wayne in a sense, stating at the end of his verse, "I took so much change/ from this rap game/ it's your go!" It seems as though big brother, Jay-Z, was letting the hip-hop world know that it was little brother, Lil Wayne's turn. This seemed to have the erased any thoughts of differences between the two, but just as the passing of the torch seemed to have gone smoothly big brother and little brother seem to be on different pages once again.

In October in Boston, MA Lil Wayne failed to show up for a Jay-Z set where the two were supposed to perform "Mr. Carter" together. Because of Lil Wayne's absence, Jigga had to extend his show. The next night in New Jersey, they were supposed to perform "Mr. Carter" together at the powerhouse concert. Big brother seeming to be returning the cold shoulder to little brother, and Jay-Z didn't come out to perform as promised. Furthermore, in an interview with MTV, Lil Wayne claims to have not known that Jay-Z was working on a new album which will be titled The Blueprint 3. He also told MTV that he had not been contacted by Jay-Z for a collaboration and blamed it on him being too busy. My prediction of the situation is that big brother and little brother will kiss and make up eventually. Hopefully the petty drama between these two Hip-Hop Titans won't go any further than this.