Weezy Baby

(Left to right: Bird Man and his protege Lil' Wayne)

Lil' Wayne had an unreal 2008. I've been submersing myself into music since high school, from about 1997 on forward. In that time I have never seen an artist, in any genre, saturate the music scene with his material in one year like Mr. Dewayne Carter just did. He sold one million copies of his album, Tha Carter III, in one week, which only two other rappers have ever done(Eminem, 50 Cent). Rap music traditionally doesn't sell well, so couple that fact with his ability to sell that much in an era where everyone is downloading music more than ever before, and you have a really impressive feat on your hands. He was also on every conceivable remix or collaboration. I'm pretty sure he set a record for amount of time on the airwaves. 10 years ago it wouldn't have been possible to do as much music as he has. I read an interview of his where he said that if someone wants him on a song, they wire him some money and he emails them a few bars to insert in their song. So, its highly probable that a lot of the songs you've heard him on he has never met the people he's on the song with.

I consider him to be one of the great rappers today. His style is not as structured as Eminem's, my favorite, but effective in its own way. It almost seems as if he's free-styling all the time, and maybe he is. He's been rapping since before he could legally drive. Anything you've done well for that long has to be second nature at this point.

He's probable over-exposed at this point, if i were him I'd take it slow in 2009. But I doubt that's what he'll do. Most rappers tend to prefer to burn up as much oxygen as they can, while they can. Its as if they all secretly fear the rug being taken out from under them at any moment.

You can take the thug out of the hood...