Best Rapper Alive

Given all the terrible tragedies in the news in 2010, I was surprised how touched I was on a human level by this little tidbit about Lil Wayne's time in Riker's Island. No music allowed? Where's the Eighth Amendment when you need it? The thought of poor Wayne having his iPod torn away from him by some Percy Wetmore wannabe tugged at my heartstrings as I counted down the days until Weezy's enigmatic middle initial "F" would finally stand for freedom. Wrongly incarcerated for merely exercising his Constitutionally guaranteed right to bear arms, the Best Rapper Alive walking out of prison like a modern Mandela was cause for celebration for music fans and Second Amendment enthusiasts alike.

The title "Best Rapper Alive" shouldn't be handed out lightly, and it is with some trepidation that I rank Lil Wayne above Nas, a true icon and the man responsible for arguably the greatest rap album ever (Illmatic). For the record, my top five rappers of all time is as follows:

1. Big L 

2. Notorious B.I.G.

3. Lil Wayne

4. Nas

5. Jay-Z 

Nas gets bumped below Lil Wayne for, in my mind, releasing a slew of sub-par albums after Illmatic (see: Nastradamus, I Am..., Street's Disciple), notwithstanding a recent flurry of strong singles. 

In any case, the man of the hour is Lil Wayne. Not since Big L has a rapper kept you hanging on his every word and wondering where he'll go next, whether through the deftest of wordplay or outlandish statements like his repeated proclamations that he is in fact an alien. In a genre like hip-hop, where a lot of stuff can sound the same, Weezy scores major points for his unbelievable creativity and the sheer range of sounds that he's tried out. Not everything works - his rock album, Rebirth, was a disaster - but he gets points for effort, and even that flameout featured must-listen single "Drop the World." 

Now with Wayne a free man and Tha Carter IV tentatively scheduled for an April release, Weezy has unleashed a new single to show the world he's still the boss. I doubt I'm the first person to observe that "Six Foot Seven Foot," with its sample of "Day-Oh" and lack of a hook, bears a striking resemblance to "A Milli." But then again, "A Milli" was awesome, and "Six Foot Seven Foot" shows that Wayne didn't lose a step in prison, and maybe even regained some of the passion for rhyming that made 2008's Tha Carter III such fire.

Lil Wayne - Six Foot Seven Foot

The track from start to finish is quintessential Lil Wayne - braggadocio, turns of phrase, and puns that take a second or two to compute before you crack up laughing. The line "real g's move in silence like lasagna" alone puts the lie to anybody who would dare suggest that Wayne had fallen off. The track's only real weakness is the inclusion of Corey Gunz, son of one-hit '90s rapper Peter Gunz. Corey Gunz riding his father's dubious coattails to a record deal is a bit like Ben Quayle leveraging his father's Vice Presidential legacy to get into Congress.

Lil Wayne has more or less singlehandedly saved hip-hop from a pretty weak time, and laid the groundwork for other ultra-weird rhymers like Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler the Creator of the Odd Future family to get some of their stuff out there. Rap would be in a sorry place right now if it wasn't for Lil Wayne; instead, if "Six Foot Seven Foot" is anything to judge by, we could be in line for another classic when Tha Carter IV leaks in its entirety (why even bother talking about its actual release date?) and gives us another piece of Wayne's extraterrestrial mind.