OK, but what about ICE T? No one plays his music anymore and he was HUGE back in the day! Why does it seem like even the rap world dropped him from existence? He was very talented and i dont see him talked about at all anymore.

ice-t couldn't decide what he wanted to be and confused the crap out of everyone. he tried too hard to be too many things too quickly and in a sense was ahead of his time.

as far as the mainstream was concerned he was about as big as ll cool j back in the 80s his singles were a little too edgy to play on tv when you had bubblegum rap like dj jazzy jeff and the fresh prince or young mc releasing singles. by the time the 90s rolled around he was busy with bodycount and trying to lead the way for rap rock and playing the first lolapalooza. then he started into movies culminating in a role as a freaking mutant dog/kangaroo in 'tank girl' along with iggy pop. at least iggy had been off the mainstream radar for a good long while by that point ice-t on the other pretty much nuked himself with that one.

you really think people were inclined to look back on his early work after seeing him parade on a big screen with a kangaroo tail?

THATS FUNNY!! I have to say I never saw that movie and I think thats probably a good thing. His music was still very good and you would think just based on talent he would be played nowadays. His music is not too edgy now with all the crap they allow on the radio today.

Is he still playing a cop or detective on tv? I think alot of people consider him a sellout! Your either OG or not. But if you look at it like that, then Snoop dogg has sold out, because hes not gangsta rap anymore either. Hes now singing about sexual eruptions and whatever else. I guess once you start to grow up and mature, you loose all musical talent.

i wouldn't go that far. more like if you want to continue living large like you do when you first taste fame you have to be ready to start paying some large bills.

as for the sellout thing, at this point i see it more as a negative reflection on a fan than anything to do with a musician. people change, get old, what excited them in their youth probably doesn't excite them as much anymore. so their output will change as well. in my view, the majority of people who cry sellout are simply trying to hold onto the past so they don't have to deal with the fact that they're the ones who've started growing old.

1. most of the so called biggest names in gangsta rap were not gangstas....and probably couldn't fight there way out of a paper bag.


2. no matter the genre of music....its more because they have lost the desire and hunger. its a lot easier repeating yourself and most people are into cookiee cutter music, anyhow. labels, managers and all the rest make it close to impossible to break away from worked for a musician/band in the past. some will take longer than others and like anything in life....a very few will will not jump the shark.

Weezy the shit! you gotta go dwnld drought 3, some great rhymes on that one. I mean, more recently he's fell off, with that 'diving off a mountain into a sea of codeine' shit, i'll admit that, and lollipop is whack too. But I mean, check out some of these brilliant couplets:

No homo my flow is hard as an erection/So that's why it's fuck the world wit protection/Pay attention to the lecture/my words carry life like a stretcher

'carry life like a stretcher' is pretty good I think.

I'm the best rapper alive/homeboy got mind that a map couldn't find/homeboy got a nine got a cop couldn't find/I be getting to it, even if I was blind/scary movie, they scream when i rhyme/I'm a king,you can ask stephen if im lying/I'm a prince, too demanding like my mom/too bold too cold like west salon

The last couplet is an amazing bit of association, on par with Cam'ron's best, such as, "Observe, cock, and spray/ We hit you from a block away/ Drinking saki on a Suzuki in Osaka Bay". On this same track, "My Daddy", Weezy begins by, in the course of 4 couplets, referencing Nas, Busta Rhymes, namedrops Diplomats, and on and on. Around the end of the track, he abandons using pop-culture references like Prince to build his rhymes, breaking into invented sounds:

beef, yes, chest, feet/tagged, bagged, blood, sheets/yikes, yeeks, great scott storch/can I borrow your yacht?

If you still doubt his abilities, check him out on this Jay-Z remix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh5b0Yw_-kQ

I don't think you can dismiss Lil Wayne completely and call yourself a fan of contemporary rap. Even if his chart hits haven't proven themselves so far to be the ideal vehicle for his inventiveness, it's not like there are a lot of other rappers willing to do things like play a guitar on a video, or wear a biker jacket, or sing (even if its thru an autotuner!) And if you wanna sit in the olden days, and set the borders between today and the 'golden age', fine, but that's a very limited view to adopt. So the way I see it, when you have an artist with as much creativity and popular presence as Lil Wayne, you have to recognize.

Contemporary rap. Is that what there calling it now? The direction that Rap has taken is pretty weak. Its really all Hip hop now.

A guy I know kept telling me listen to Rick Ross. Hes apparently blowing up but I wasnt impressed. And Lil Wayne. Ive never heard an artists with such an annoying voice. really. The rap game has went all down hill with one hit wonders and the only reason anyone raps anymore is money!

Yes I know that was always a reason to rap but now its the only reason. And I can tell by the music you hear today.

Eminem is still good but he needs to stop having all these other rappers on his album. Cuz they suck. Why does he do that? MONEY! He gets an artist to blow up then hes as rich as DRE when he found Eminem.

Snoop is only still in the game and hanging on cuz of his OG status. His music is good, but its nothing like it was.

I don't know what you all think but the music nowadays does not have the punch or anger or heat that it had 10 years ago.

And don't even get me started on G unit and 50 cent.

Sorry, didn't mean to derail the thread. I just figured since we are discussing Lil Wayne's nomination for Great Rap Artist, that I might as well throw in something else that was incredibly funny.

The Wu-Tang Clan. They're the best.
The Beatnuts are pretty good too.
Present day rap isn't hiphop, it's R'nB, which only hardcore metrosexuals listen to.

I would have to agree with you on Wu-Tang being one of the best! Very original sound and style!