Lil Wayne Calls Out Hip-Hop Authenticity: ‘Today Everyone Sounds Alike’

 

In a sprawling new cover story with XXL, Lil Wayne questions authenticity in hip-hop, raising some interesting points about how things have changed since he began.
“I know I’m authentic because I’m 35 million years in the game,” Wayne says in the interview. “I don’t know where the authenticity is in the game anymore. Today everyone sounds alike, they looking alike, they acting alike, they dressing alike.”
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He added: “I came out when everybody was super different. You had an ODB. You had a Busta Rhymes and then you had a 2Pac. You had a Biggie. And everybody was different. Biggie was talking about Mob and Mafia shit. 2Pac was wylin’, talking about West Coast this and that. You had n—as like Meth and Red talking about how high they got and making people laugh.
“And then now, you got them, them. You got the categories and then everyone falls under it.”
Wayne’s point is easy to spot, particularly since hip-hop has become more of a guarantee to riches and fame, thus making is understandable why rapper would sacrifice some of their individuality to fall into an umbrella of guarantees.
On the other hand, there is Kanye West, Drake, Kendrick Lamar and plenty of other examples of rappers acting as singular entities for which there isn’t really a roadmap in today’s rap world.
But Lil Wayne’s opinion certainly isn’t exclusive to him. Last month, “Bigger Than Me,” The Game’s new song and accompanying music video, called out the new class of rappers, also comparing them to the old guard and claiming they didn’t come close to adding up.