Lil Wayne is not the G.O.A.T.

Not by a long shot, people.

Did people debate over who was the greatest rapper of all-time before the era of Tupac and Biggie? I'm not sure, that's somewhat before my time. What I do know is that immediately following the death of these two rap giants people in massive numbers began what will inevitably become an endless quarrel about who the "greatest emcee of all-time" is. East Coast heads said BIG, West Coast heads said Pac, and here in the south, we said "Scarface shits on both of them". Not long after, old-school heads joined the debate hoping to remind the youngun's of their roots. They noted that if there was no Rakim or KRS-ONE, there would be no Pac, nor Biggie.

Everyone has their own criteria as to what makes a rapper great. For some, its their influence on the audience or their contributions to the evolution of the musical form. For others it may be the mastery with which their lyrics are written or delivered, or simply the charisma and appeal of the rapper. Any of the above-mentioned artists could fit the bill in at least of one these categories.

Now, however, we have this new breed of narrow-scoped hiphop fans that are throwing the word G.O.A.T. around more than the dollar bills the rappers they pick do in their videos. I've heard the label put on everyone from Cassidy, to 50 Cent, to Lil Wayne.

To begin with, you should be immediately disqualified from the runnings for Greatest of All Time if it's clear that you care more about making money than making good records. That takes care of 50 Cent. Secondly, you should be removed from the list if your entire collection of records covers less topics than fingers on one hand; Cassidy, you're out of here. This also conveniently eliminates the overwhelming majority of current mainstream rappers.

Lil Wayne fans keep a firm grip on the G.O.A.T. label though. After all it's not clear whether Wayne is in it solely for the money (although it's at least part of the deal for him), and he even occasionally raps about something. So what makes him the greatest, or even worthy to be mentioned in the same sentence as the word?

Is it his lyrical structure? It's easy to think Lil Wayne is a lyrical mastermind when you compare him to his mainstream contemporaries, but looking at him objectively, you notice that his greatest lyrical achievements consist of witty one-liner puns and three-syllable rhyme schemes. Compared to rat/that rhyme schemes some rappers use, Wayne's verses may seem spectacular. But, when there are rappers who regularly spit rhymes like...

Sure to strike, pouring like water might, I Smoke like a sack of that northern lights hype Swerving off a nitro ice-cold quarter pint Saw the bright light, rappers caught a night-night Bona fide nice ice, Dolemite type Sorta like Border Heights, what a sight, yipes Showing motherfuckers how to hold a mic right

...Wayne's Lincolns and Reagans/Sleepin With Meghan rhyme begins to look a little bit elementary.

Okay, so maybe its not his rhyme schemes, its the actual content. Scarface didn't have complex schemes, but he was still great. It's what he says, right? He really makes use of those similes, doesn't he?

I've been through it all, the fails, the falls.
I'm like Niagara
but I got right back up like Viagra.

I mean, that's clever, sure; but anyone can be clever. Middle school children regularly come up with jokes that are just as clever as most of the wordplay Lil Wayne gets so much credit for. Being a good writer is not being able to find puns and double-entendres. There are rappers who write lyrics that people can (and do) teach college-level courses about. I'd be willing to bet that no one is going to ever be assigned a paper about the cultural implications of being "licked like a lollipop".

When people run out of options, they general resort to saying, "Well, he's got swagger". As far as I know, swagger has never been officially defined, and I assume different people are thinking different things when they hear the word. Ultimately saying that a rapper has swagger is the same as saying, "I like him", which is virtually useless. The closest actual-English equivalent to "swagger" that I can think of is "charisma", which is a trait that is in no way unique to hiphop, thus disqualifying it as being, in and of itself, a reason that someone is a great hiphop artist.

Finally, I think its clear that Lil Wayne doesn't try very hard in his songs. A year after stealing Jay-Z's flow he proclaimed himself the best rapper alive, as if he'd reach some sort of peak and hadn't just gotten tolerable as an emcee. He virtually admits it at times: the flow is spazmatic, what they call insane/but that ain't even my muhfuckin aim

Hiphop is probably the only artform where you can half-ass and be considered a legend.