Dec 10, 2017 I used to be a Stan who hated Wayne because I only liked fast syllabic and political rap, but over the years, I've heard Wayne's material and I've come to appreciate his humor and word play. Here are my arguments for his inclusion in the GOAT tier. 1) Both highly influential and good. Someone like Dr. Dre is immensely influential and someone like Busta Rhymes is great at rapping but very few rappers have been both. 2) Changed the landscape. Helped southern rap, stamped Drake/Nicki, precursor to trap/autotune and made it practically standard for rappers to work on their metaphors. Some will argue these are bad influences (subjective), but no doubt that he completely dominated. 3) Dominated the mixtape game. Yes, his peak may have only been 2-3 years long, but that 2-3 years is like 10 years of most rappers material. Releasing an album or tape every few months was unprecedented amongst an A tier rapper. Doing something like this isn't even common now, but promo material was not common back then. This kind of work ethic was unheard of at the time. 4) Large catalogue. No, I'm not equating quantity with quality. People are free to choose which songs they like and which they don't. Even if he has 1000 songs, 400 are bad, 400 are okay and 200 are good, that's still more good tracks than most rappers. Even if (humor me), 900 of them are about weed/p----/guns, and 100 are about different subjects, that's still more diversity than most rappers. 5) The Carter trilogy (and an underrated 4th album) that ranks among the best and most acclaimed album series'. 6) Dominated his lane. Other rappers typically found in top 10 lists each completely dominate in a certain type of rap (i.e. Tupac's storytelling, 3000's poetic style, Biggie's flow) and Wayne is at the top of the metaphor/wordplay/punchline lane. Counterarguments: "Wayne raps about drugs/guns/hedonism. Eminem and Tupac rap about life" No. Stop. Just stop. Does music need to always talk about real-world issues? Are other rappers in the GOAT tier who mostly made mafioso songs disqualified as well? "Wayne doesn't make lyrical or serious songs" God Bless Amerika, 6 Foot 7 Foot, Mirror, Misunderstood, Tie My Hands, Dr. Carter and plenty of others to begin with. "Wayne is one of those swag yolo artists. This generation's music is awful" No, people just mostly hated him because he was on top and he was the competition to beat for their favorite rappers. It's always been a trend to go against whatever's popular just to be contrarian and alternative, looking back at the nostalgia of over eras. "He fell off. His recent albums are mediocre" Even if we assume this to be fully true. Why do we only hold newer artists to this standard? Are we going to also criticize Rakim, KRS One, Ice Cube, and some Wu Tang for falling off and releasing forgettable modern material?
