Is Lil Wayne Really the Best Rapper Alive?

Hip-hop fans as a whole give various rappers credit for being the best rapper. A lot of us just crown our own favorite rapper of all time as being the best. The majority of the hip-hop community agrees that Tupac, B.I.G., and Jay-Z are the 3 best rappers of all time, but with Tupac and B.I.G. having passed on, and Jay-Z well passed his prime, who is the best rapper alive today? A lot of readers will probably say Lil Wayne, but the question is, if Lil Wayne wasn't going around self-proclaiming himself to be the best rapper alive, would we really consider him that? The answer is, not likely!

We have to give Lil Wayne credit. During the Cash Money Hot Boy days, he was considered to be one of the least talented artists on the Cash Money label. Rap fans didn't care much for either of his first 3 album releases, though The Block Is Hot was pretty decent. His content and charisma were very average and nothing about him stood out much. It wasn't until 2003, that we really began to see some real improvement, on D.J. Whoo Kid's Rewind DVD Magazine when he spit a nice, long-winded flow off the top of his head. Not long after, he released Tha Carter, which was the first of a series of brilliant albums. He has showcased most of his new and improved swagger on mixtapes, and pretty much had the mixtape game sewed up for a few years. The Lil Wayne we all see today isn't the same Lil Wayne we saw before 2003. The truth of the matter is, If we compare his career to other rappers in the game right now who are considered to be kings in hip-hop, his credentials don't quite add up.

Ludacris, Kanye West, and T.I. just to name a few, have all had more solid careers than that of Lil Wayne. Each and every one of their album releases has been pretty solid from the beginning of their careers, and they continue to make hot music today. Why isn't the hip-hop community putting these guys on a throne? Is it because they write most of their songs and Lil Wayne, like Jay-Z, says he doesn't? Not that a person who doesn't write their songs shouldn't be lifted up for it, but we should more so appreciate the hard work of artists who write songs that have meaning when making their albums. On another note, people who really know hip-hop, know that any true artist can make a song without writing down lyrics, pretty much anytime they want to. So, just because a rapper can make hit songs, without actually writing their rhymes on a piece of paper, doesn't make them better than every rapper out there, because it's not what the rapper is saying in verse that initially catches the ears of listeners.

It is very interesting, that the only rapper who is considered to be one of the best ever, that didn't self-proclaim, himself to be so is Tupac. Both B.I.G. and Jay-Z, said that they were the best and the illest in rap, up to the point that everyone started believing it. Now, we're not taking anything away from Lil Wayne and his status in hip-hop or the impact he is making in the music world today, we just wanted to take a look at why so many people are saying that he is the best, when he hasn't quite proven himself to truly be that yet.