so, my obligatory carter III piece is coming tomorrow. title: "is lil' wayne rap's robert pollard?"

furthermore, that's what i like about wayne, he genuinely wants to be considered a great rapper. even though there are obvious concessions to the mainstream on this album, you get the feeling that he really wants to be great.

Good call of Weezy being Robert Pollard, whose recorded output is 10% utter genius, 30% above average, 20% average, and 40% should have stayed in the vault. Those numbers are definitely subject to dispute, though.

However, if we're talking Weezy here, I think those numbers would be more around 5/10/15/60. I definitely don't get the Lil Wayne love, because while I think he's definitely a good rapper, I don't think he deserves the amount of people he gets constantly freaking out over his every turd. I do love the aura he's built up around himself, and the idea of Lil Wayne, but in reality I'm not really buying it.

Oh, and can I just go on record saying "Lollipop" is a mediocre (at best) song. Had this been, say, the new Nas single, critics would have torn that shit apart, but somehow Lil Wayne is currently unflappable.

Look, I don't wanna hate on Weezy. His lyrics are clever. And as Rob said, he's currently Teflon to criticism.

But seriously...this dude is the most overrated rapper/artist of the Internet era so far. It's ridiculous.

i totally agree about wayne being overrated, but i think he's overrated because he's capable of greatness, and everyone wants our generation to have an iconic, timeless, rapper. thus, everyone's blowing their wad early, saying the carter III is wayne's entry into the "greatest rappers of all-time poll." and, truth be told, they're blowing their wad way too early.

"lollipop" is mediocre [but i don't think it was terrible-- "candy shop" was terrible], and if he ever wants to achieve greatness, he's gonna have to make a radio hit much better. he's gonna have to carve his own lane, or come completely out of left field, a la jay-z sampling annie.