Lil Wayne is the tattooed, drugged-out New Orleans rapper who, for some reason, causes spasms of hero worship among white internet rap critics. The extent of the enthusiasm for him has always been a total mystery to me, but it's almost comical watching rap nerds try to outdo each other with their verbose online praise for Wayne, who would certainly rather be drinking vast quantities of Robitussin and liquor than reading their bullshit. Anyways, he got booed off the stage at his recent concert in London, and then showered with bottles on his way out, for good measure. Guess the crowd didn't read all the right blogs before they went to the show. After the jump, two recent examples of internerd Wayne worship, and the video of his ill-fated exit in London. I must admit I find this highly enjoyable.
Prototypical white internet rap guy Tom Breihan of the Village Voice, analyzing a crappy new Lil Wayne video just yesterday:
The song's video is a typically glossy and show-offy affair, but I like how its garden-variety surreal plotline meshes with its airy track. As it opens, we see Wayne and Static getting ready to go out; both of them, for whatever reason, decide to wear disheveled, tore-up tuxes. A stretch Hummer pulls up outside, and they're happily surprised that it's full of video chicks. But as the song's chorus kicks in, Wayne doesn't waste much time partying with the video chicks. Instead, he opts to change into a completely different outfit and then climb onto the Hummer's roof, where he plays a fiery butt-rock guitar solo as the truck rolls in slo-mo down the Vegas strip. As gratuitous music-video melodrama goes, this reminds me of Slash walking out of Axl's desert-church wedding to play a fiery butt-rock guitar solo, a scene that may have even been Wayne's inspiration here. And I love the way that blinking whirlwind of lights creeps past him; he looks like he's being suspended in space while the world explodes around him.
Mmm hmm. Here's former Voice white internet rap guy/ fabricator Nick Sylvester, flirting with jumping off the "Wayne train":
Julianne wrote a great piece on Lil Wayne today, worth reading because it is most likely about you, the hyperfingered blogskimming danceremixing motherfucker who hasn't listened to any one song the last six months more than six times, except maybe "Young Folks." The general buzz is that Wayne is all-pleasure anymore, one moneyshot after the next, something like a rapping Girl Talk. He writes lyrics with their repurposing in mind, ready to be quoted out of context, which they happen to be from the outset. He chases tangents because he knows we're not listening; maybe he isn't either?Am I jumping off the Wayne train? No but I feel like Drought 3 is a dare and I don't expect many people to take Wayne up. Here's a guy who can say whatever the fuck he wants on a track, free-associative, ADHD, "lyrical" or whatever, and most times it will hit really really hard, every two-bars something to take back home, a fount of one-liners that coincides with our embarrassingly short attention spans. Maybe you write these lines down in a moleskine, in a section called "@lyrics" using GTD, or maybe you have a sweet blog that needs a headline to go with an mp3 once in a while—maybe the line ends up there, cleverness by association, etc.
And here's the London crowd that apparently forgot to bring their moleskine to record Wayne's wisdom; bottle flies about 1:30 in.







Comments
He certainly knows how to work a crowd. But I am pretty sure those reviews were written by Virus With Shoes.
But they have a better healthcare system, so Lil Wayne should be okay.
I don't care if he sounded like Julia Allison falling down a flight of stairs. Tossing bottles is the province of drunken yobs.
Pull your f*cking pants up!!
Wow. Did someone forget to pick up his Charlie?
I like his lacy underpants.
Stay classy, Brixton Academy.
This would have never happened in Lil Weezyana.
Was he even performing? Who knew Lil Wayne in London had so much in common with Ashlee Simpson on SNL?
@belltolls: Not guilty. Sadly.
mmmm, Robitussin and liquor. The breakfast of champions.
Is he the one who got arrested in Arizona with about a million guns and two million drugs? If so, I'm scared of him and would like him to know that we were all just kidding in the above comments and we love your musical stylings. Also, fuck tha police or some such thing.
Are you kidding? Lil Wayne has been the unofficial King of Mixtapes for like three years now. Actually, it's British hip-hop that's the darling of bloggy white nerds, far more so than Lil Wayne.
@VirusWithShoes: I know. Yours would have been entertaining.
@BalknChain: Or push them down so we can see if you really have anything to be so arrogant about.
@Botswana Meat Commission FC: He is simultaneously the king of mixtapes (quantity-wise) AND the king of blog props. Not mutually exclusive.
Damn, I saw this same thing happen to Lil' Wayne Newton once in Las Vegas ...
@Mike_Jahn: um, nooooooooo, you go ahead
@BalknChain: I wasn't addressing you.
@BalknChain: let me see, how do the kids do the tongue stick out face :p
considering how weak that performance looked he should consider himself lucky it was a plastic bottle and not something a little more hefty.
@DonLaFontaine: haha!
@Hamilton Nolan:
Yeah. I'll give you that.
Why don't we just all agree to hate Talib Kweli.
In the effort to make this a redeemable post -- since the best Hamilton could do was a mehworthy LOLBLAUGHZ -- here's a nice first person account.
Double underwearman.
Anyone sleeping on Detroit right now is just silly.
+ Watch video
I was saying booo-Wayne.
@drugman: Oh, yeah, no one's thrown a bottle at Phat Kat...he's totally un-signed and carries a 'heater'. Hehe, this whitey likey.
proof that anyone can write music reviews.
I am disappointed by the insinuation that the the diminutive Wayne indulges in Robitussin, when he is strictly a codeine-based rapper. He loves his "lean."
Pitchfork rated "Upgrade U" #59 in the top 100 Tracks of 2007; so I guess your opinion is confirmed. But in all fairness, it's actually a pretty good track.
he is like this in person as well. I sat beside this guy for like half an hour one time and he just sat there all stoic. this is NOT an act people, sadly.
Being tattooed and drugged out and from New Orleans is like "Three strikes and you're a star." Just ask Geraldine Ferraro. So, so lucky!
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