Best rapper alive? I dont know about that....

[Merrittorious]

Those of us who have been keeping up to date on the whole hip-hop world lately, in fact, anyone who has listened to modern music lately, knows that Lil Wayne recently released The Carter 3 to rave reviews and huge sales, while Mr. Carter himself proclaims over and over, since the release of his last album, creatively titled The Carter 2, that he is in fact the best rapper alive. A statement like this is bold, to say the least, but its not like he is being too forward about what he thinks; he is great, a wordsmith without a doubt, able to link anything to anything else through the use of simile, metaphor, and all other types of literary devices. He is fun to listen to, no doubt about that, but recently, while listening to his newest album, then switching over to another recently released CD, Nas's Untitled (Nigger) Album, I came to realize something. Lil Wayne says nothing at all in any of his tracks. He literally says things, yes, but there is no substance to be had anywhere on that album. Hes got tracks like Got Money, featuring T-Pain, then you've got Lollipop, Phone Home, and even Misunderstood, a track that uses the same sample that Common used on his last album, and Common made much better use of it than Wayne. You would think that a man in Lil Waynes position, being at the top of an industry going through all kinds of different troubles, from mp3s to censorship, as well as being at the peak of pop culture relevance, a man here would take his opportunity to make a difference, say something, try to be a force for shifting the status quo, stagnant as it is. I mean, he lost his home town to an administration that fumbled the ball big time, and when he could have come out and done something, he instead went to Miami and set up shop there. The words he should have said instead came out of the mouth of Kanye West of Chicago, who said it like it was, that George Bush doesn't care about black people. As an aside, if you haven't seen that video, go check it out now.
Anyway, as the charts go, Lil Wayne is no doubt the king of the rap game, selling 1 million+ records in the first week, the first album to do that since 50 Cent released The Massacre in '05. The way I see it though, the best rapper out there, that mantle lies in Queensbridge with Mr. Nasir Jones. In addition to releasing an album whose very title challenged the culture of the world by questioning our use of such a derogatory term, he brought back into the light the blatant injustices that lie between the races in America. By going out there and saying it, then having to remove the title from his album, he showed the squeamishness that white America has whenever race is brought into the picture. More than that, though, Nas took the chance he had, after sort of taking the stance of the fire starter when he released Hip Hop is Dead a little over a year ago, to go further. Nas, in his new album, questions first the country as a whole, how we deal with race, then actually goes and questions black people, putting them to the test and asking why the ghetto is the way it is, and why blacks blame others for their problems. From there, he uses his fame to bring to the light a group called Color of Change, who are petitioning Fox News to stop their blatant propaganda machine, and be what they claim to be. I personally find it wonderful that at the same time that we have a black man running for president, another powerful black man is using his voice and position to point out inequalities in America. And what he said about Jesse Jackson being irrelevant, that was priceless.
So I think where i am going with this is, Lil Wayne is fun to listen to, sure, but at the same time, he is kind of what is wrong with hip-hop as a whole, he is a shallow puddle to Nas's Lake Baikal (deepest lake in the world). It is a little bit sad that Wayne is the one who is considered the rap icon, while Nas is just the old veteran who says some deep shit from time to time. There needs to be a paradigm shift here, people's focus is in the wrong place, and Wayne, in both his own actions and his success, is evidence of that. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but either way, listen to Wayne, then give Nas a listen. Maybe you'll see what I mean. Who knows, maybe hip-hop is growing up.
Nas: Untitled- Best Tracks, as I see it, Black President(samples Obama), N.I.G.G.E.R., and Sly Fox.