Lil Wayne Thinks Hip-Hop Is Lacking ‘Authenticity’


Lil Wayne believes hip-hop needs a serious jolt of “authenticity.”

Before you boldly declare to no one in particular that Lil Wayne isn’t authentic, the rapper would like everyone to know that he doesn’t fall into this category. Since Weezy believes he’s “35 million years in the game,” this allows him to pass judgment on other rappers without including himself in the mix. See how that works?

According to the Music Times, Lil Wayne believes the genre is fresh out of authenticity. As a result, everyone who releases a rap album these days essentially looks and sounds like the dozens of others who are attempting the same thing. Not surprisingly, Wayne seems a little depressed that rap has become so homogenized.

Weezy told XXL magazine:

“I came out when everybody was super different. You had an ODB. You had a Busta Rhymes and then you had a 2Pac. You had a Biggie. And everybody was different. Biggie was talking about Mob and Mafia s**t. 2Pac was wylin’, talking about West Coast this and that. You had n***as like Meth and Red talking about how high they got and making people laugh. And then now, you got them, them. You got the categories and then everyone falls under it.”

While Lil Wayne believes hip-hop is running low on original artists and fresh ideas, that didn’t stop him from digging through the pile in search of talent. During his quest to find people worthy of appearing on his label, Wayne stumbled across Drake and Nicki Minaj. In Wayne’s opinion, these rappers are some of the best artists in the business.

Wayne said about signing Drake:

“I didn’t know nobody who knew how to [sing and rap]. You had those old school singing n****s, where people would do a little eight-bar verse on their songs. But [Drake] was spitting and singing and killing that too. It took a while though. It wasn’t until I heard him spitting on one of my beats when I was like, ‘This fool’s retarded.’ When I hear something that I know I can’t do better? That’s when I’m like, ‘They need to be on the team.'”

Lil Wayne also discussed Nicki Minaj:

“I wanted a female. Every team needs a female to rep your gang. She was annihilating n****s. I mean males. I was like, ‘I have to beef my shit up on that muthaf***a.’ She just knocked it out the park from day one. She’s just Nicki. I don’t know whose idea it was, but it was a good idea.”

Be sure to catch the entire Lil Wayne interview in the upcoming installment of XXL magazine. The issues hits newsstands on August 12.

[Lead image via Bing]

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