Ever since 2004, Lil' Wayne has called himself "the best rapper alive since the best rapper retired," obviously referencing Jay-Z. Then, he flat out called himself "the best rapper alive." Now, if you look at the tattoo written over his right eye, he is music. With his latest switch towards making a rock album called 'Rebirth,' it might be safe to say that being the best rapper alive is a thing in the past to him.
"Honestly? I don't want to be the best rapper in the world," Wayne told Rolling Stone. "If I have a rap album I'm dropping, then I want it to be the best rap album. But I want to be the best. Period. Now. My favorite rapper hasn't done what I'm doing."
Lil' Wayne is going to be the cover story subject in the latest edition of Rolling Stone that is coming out this Friday. His album, 'Tha Carter III' has officially been certified triple-platinum in the US less than a year after releasing the album this past June. Now, he is aiming to be the best artist in music by targeting the rock crowd by recording a rock album slated to hit stores this summer. The album has already produced a top 20 US single 'Prom Queen' and another single 'Hot Revolver' with 'Let it Rock' star and label mate Kevin Rudolf.
While Lil' Wayne isn't exactly Luther Vandross on the microphone or even like his label mate Jay Sean, he's been known lately with the help of autotune to sing from time to time, from his #1 hit 'Lollipop' to The Game's hit single 'My Life.' Lil' Wayne goes on to talk about the moment that convinced him to consider another path towards musical dominance since he feels he is not there already.
"The rock sh-- just comes from what my life is now. I've grown into this person," Wayne told the magazine. "I woke up one morning and had three or four women in my bed where I not only didn't know their last names, I didn't know the beginning letter of their first names. All I know is, they're the most beautiful women in the world, and I was in my own place, in whatever city I as in. And I could have thrown a dart at the map, and I'd probably have a place there too. I knew my driver was waiting downstairs for me. When my nose finally cleared from all the weed I had smoked, I smelled food in the kitchen and I knew it was my chef. Then I look on my phone and see a message and know it's from a popular woman everyone knows. And when I went in the studio that night, I couldn't just rap, 'Yeah, n---a ... .' "
Lil' Wayne has been nonstop recording for about four years now. The constant lyrical exercise has caused some to think that Lil' Wayne is burning himself out. To an extent, he concedes to that train of thought.
"I never said, 'Lil Wayne is going to rock, everybody.' I just got - I'm not going to say 'so good' at what I was doing, but it became such a regularity for me that I got tired of it," Wayne said. "And then I said, 'You know what? I'm not going to rap on this one.' I always knew I couldn't sing, but I also knew I had a voice that isn't heard by many and that I could learn how to stretch it and make songs sound good. Therefore, I practiced that."
While singing shouldn't be something he should make a habit of, so far the music has been better than expected. Lil' Wayne may be continuously working unimaginably long hours churning out hits, but he is reassuring us that this is just a part of who he is and perhaps, even an extreme version of what we all should aspire to be.
"You look at yourself and say, 'You ain't the best,' " he explained. " 'Show me you're the best. Show me you can play the f---ing guitar without lessons. Show me you can make a hit song and make everybody tell you, "I love what you're doing." Show me you can do that.' And then I come out that door and jump back in my body. I do that every night."
What do you guys think of the pace Lil' Wayne is on? Do you think he can become the biggest thing in music? Do you think he's even the biggest artist in rap right now? Drop us a comment and let us know what you're thinking about.
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