The Hit Man

Lil Wayne is the man. I know he's been on the charts with his past couple of albums, but honestly, did anyone see this coming? I remember when he first came out with The Hot Boys when Juvenile was the man at Cash Money Records. Juvenile's not even with Cash money anymore. Wayne was pretty clever with his voice affects in his rhymes, but I never thought that teenager would turn into the star he is today. The guy has topped the charts for a while now and his record sales for The Carter III are ridiculous. I mean he's selling records at a pace that hasn't been seen since The Slim Shady LP. And considering how easy it is to download music for free now that's pretty impressive.

I actually think it's pretty sad though. There are so many artists out there struggling to make it that probably have more talent than this guy. I'm no music genius, but it seems pretty absurd that someone who can fluctuate their voice in some cool ways while they're rapping can sell more records then someone with amazing vocals that actually plays instruments. Now Lil Wayne probably has great talent when it comes to producing and mixing sound affects with base lines and what not, but could he get on a guitar or piano? My guess is no.

Don't get me wrong, I like Lil Wayne and his songs are cool, but I just don't see how he can have one of the top selling albums in recent American history. Is this a reflection of music appreciation in our country? The only music class I ever had to take was once a week for a year or two in elementary school. Now I know not everyone can be a musician. I can attest to this first hand, but shouldn't everyone be taught how to appreciate music and recognize when an artist has just done something incredible with an instrument? I think so. I'm not trying to say that rapping isn't music because it is. It takes a lot of talent to come up with a rhyme and match it to a beat as well as make it relevant to the audience. But society's dominant appreciation for Lil Wayne (or rap in general for that matter) over all other types of music reflects a laziness. It is a lot easier to bob your head to a catchy beat and laugh at some clever lyrics than it is to appreciate a difficult guitar riff. One must have a knowledge of the difficulty it takes to be a talented guitarist to appreciate something like that.

What's the point of all this? I don't even know. All I know is that I was in shock when I heard Lil Wayne's album was selling at a pace not seen since the Slim Shady LP dropped. I didn't see that one coming at all.