Nowadays there isn’t a moment that goes by when I’m tuned into my local hip hop station and don’t hear a song by Lil Wayne or a song by another artist featuring him. It makes my listening experience horribly one-dimensional and I usually turn the dial off and return to my mp3 player.
The first impulse is to criticize Wayne personally as if somehow his over-exposure is the reason for my dislike, when of course, Wayne, or the people that work for him, is the one “working over” the industry. Sure the talent might not be there. Maybe at first, the talent flashed through a song or two and then miraculously the respect gained from those songs formed an impenetrable aura around the artist allowing him to continue to put out junk or mediocre songs on the strength of his reputation. It happens. But he is making the most of his time in the spotlight.
Second, there simply is no such thing as overexposure in a business in which an artist’s shelf life may not get him past his first song. Imagine being on the grind in your hometown for years, sweating for every penny, investing in studio time, promotions, equipment or gear, and when you finally get your big break, it’s here and gone in the space of one song and in a matter of months. What do you do then? Like football running backs whose average life span in the NFL is five to seven years, the idea of “taking the money and running” while leaving your talent and “self-respect” behind surely is not the only way to view this phenomenon. But if you deny Lil Wayne anything, don’t deny him his business sense. Yes he’s flooding the music airwaves right now at a staggering pace. And in my humble estimation, every song may as well have the same title because everything sounds the same.
But even so, it’s up to the general public to decide if it’s garbage. And for the most part the general public has spoken and they love Lil Wayne. And while we can hate on commercial hip hop all day, every artist wants to be there and transform the game. Every artist coming up from the underground wants his sound heard and wants to pioneer the next trend. What’s Lil Wayne’s formula for success? If you think for a moment it’s talent for any artist, you’re simply wrong. Like most artists, it’s probably a lot more luck than he gives himself credit for. Every artist wants to think it’s his grind that made him what he is today. You hear it rapped about all the time. But the reality is much less romantic because it’s also about being in the right place at the right time, and often not by your own design.
So the next time you hate on Lil Wayne, remember he’s there for a purpose just like you are where you are for a purpose. Does that mean you should throw in the towel and not aspire to anything bigger? Not at all. Go harder than you ever had. But don’t get down on yourself when you possess the sharpest tongue at your local open mic and can dominate anyone in four counties in a rap battle but you can’t for the life of you get that single in the hands of the right person.
