Lil' Wayne: Voice of our Generation
Love it or hate it, but Lil’ Wayne is the voice of our generation.This could be because he has topped the charts for years, or it could be his art. He’s a sort of Bob Dylan of hip-hop: both crossed cultural lines (Dylan led the hippie counter-culture during the civil rights, Wayne is releasing a rock album and references all pop-cult), both released over ten albums, both were controversial.
For some, this is not a voice they want to admit to; Lil’ Wayne is not preacher (he doesn’t keep forcing everyone to live some “good” lifestyle the way socially conscious rappers like Common, Talib Kweli, or Mos Def may), he’s an artist.
In history, art is a mirror of what life was like (we look at paintings to see how people lived); today, even Wayne’s distorted voice seems to reflect our digitized, computerized lives. This voice isn’t something we necessarily agree with. It’s the reality. And if someone can spit reality out into poetry, we can DANCE. We can make it through. And that’s life. Good art, good poetry is not preaching. It’s simply a clear picture. For some that’s a problem.
What they fail to realize is that, just because Wayne said it, doesn’t mean he agrees with it. Even though he raps from 1st-person (i did this…), Lil’ Wayne himself doesn’t identify with hip-hop culture:
“you just an earthling, you ain’t never been to Wayne’s world,”
Really, he doesn’t identify with his own culture, or even any culture. Simply said, he’s “a martian,” an outsider.
We see this in his lyrics. Lil Wayne doesn’t proclaim that hip-hop culture should stop being shallow, he simply comments with lines like:
“rap about money, and a *bleep* might sign you.”
In doing so he does not force anything, he just says it the way it is: love it or hate, the industry is controlled by money. Yes, he talks about doing what might be wrong, but its honest, its a picture. And in every picture there is the beautiful, as in the lines:
“and my daughter is my sky,
I swear I look in her eyes,
and I just want to break out and fly.”
Art is also about the new and breaking standards of hip-hop. For decades, the art and business of hip-hop has justly responded to police brutality by expressing the injustices. It has become a standard to refer to police as “pigs.” But Wayne, the artist, the “martian,” comes out with “Mrs. Officer.” All of us sudden the music that denounced law enforcement can laugh about it. He doesn’t hate cops, he loves them (or sleeps with them). This breaks barriers, this allows people to respond to the tension more lightly.
As we quote his word-play, metaphor, and voice, let Lil’ Wayne reflect us young people and give us something to dance, shimmy, and grind through life with. Let his poetry help us forget. But lets really show our Souls all shiny and clear, so that art may reflect a shinier day.
