So this is the start of my journey throughout Lil Wayne’s
entire career. In light of his “retirement” announcement, I felt that whether
or not he actually retires, it seemed appropriate to chart his journey and see
where he started and how he got to where he is now, ultra famous and pretty
much fucked over by the company he helped obtain notoriety in the first place.
This idea also comes from me not feeling like I’ve ever really dug deep enough
into his catalog. I think I’m going to collect my instant thoughts first and
then wrap them up and provide them context and polish. I’ll probably publish
these a bit at a time and infrequently. We’ll see how this goes.
Hot Boys-Get It How You Live (1997)
(Intro) Yeah I really have no real interest in hearing
Birdman rap, except to dog on him. Same with Mannie Fresh. Beat isn’t that
great either. Extremely dated. Outro is also weird as fuck.
(We on Fire) We
On Fire is a crazy introduction to Hot Boys. The set up of the song leads to a
showcase of all 3 rappers one after the other, which is kind of ingenious for
the first song. Lil Wayne already sounds crazy good. Not as complicated as his
flows would get later though.
(50 Shots Set it Off) Ha ha ha! Weezy lowkey sounds like
Hurricane Chris on this song. You guys remember Hurricane Chris? He’s not
really on this track a whole lot but they all use a sort of rise-fall-rise flow.
He and a whole bunch of the Southern rap scene use this around this but I don’t
know where that comes from, if not from here.
(On Tha Porch Part 1) I fucking love mixtape skits.
(Block Burner) Oh
shit I guess this is pretty much Wayne’s first solo track. Still sounds like
Hurricane Chris. Noticing that he’s doing some pretty crazy rhyme schemes for a
fucking 15 year old. Using a lot of rhymes taking advantage of the Southern drawl,
as well as some rhythmic quick internal rhymes within the same bar. Not super
complex but definitely leagues about your average lunch table middle
school/early high school raps. Also this beat is fucking fire.
(Neighborhood Superstar) Perhaps unfairly, I’ve been
ignoring the other guys in Hot Boys, but I’m noticing that Juvenile isn’t
slacking. Makes me wonder where these listening projects could go. Should I
tackle a whole bunch of Southern hip-hop, or will that be too much? Not really
digging Birdman and Mannie Fresh on this track but Mannie Fresh’s production
has been on point this whole time.
(Take It Off Your Shoulder) Wow Juvenile snapped. On some
Southern 2Pac shit. I’m just thinking of all the people I’m going to be exposed
to with this. You could make a “6 degrees of Lil Wayne” thing and reach a
fuckton of people.
(Dirty World) Interesting
fact: Lil Wayne tried to limit his profanity on his early work as much as
possible because his mom asked. Of course, he couldn’t really do much about the
other guys he works with. I’ve also noticed Weezy is often relegated to hook
duties on each song. It works, of course, but it’s curious nonetheless.
(I’m a Hot Boy) I’m learning that B.G. got sentenced to 14
years in prison in 2012. Gun possession
apparently. At the time of writing this, Bobby Shmurda just got sentenced to 7
years. There’s no parallel there. I’m just making associations. I fuck with
B.G. I don’t think I’m that into Turk. They all have solo tracks on the mixtape
so I’ll revisit that in a couple songs.
(Get it How U
Live!!!) This is probably the most modern sounding song on here so far.
Mannie does his thing. I feel like a slightly updated version of this beat with
more high quality production could have easily landed on a Tha Carter album. It
shares a lot of the same sonic ideas that are definitely explored later on in
the 2000’s. Also, Wayne sounds the most like his older self here.
(On Tha Porch Part 2) Still love mixtape skits. Pffft, this
is lowkey racist though.
(I’m Comin) Bun B bodied this track. I really need to listen
to more Southern Hip-Hop.
(Infrared Dot) Of course Young Turk gets practically the
best beat to rhyme over. I don’t know, something isn’t clicking with Turk. I
feel like that they have the younger guy thing covered with Wayne. Very
interested to see how this group grows over their other two tapes though.
(Blood Thicker) Ok I just find it really funny that Birdman
says, “Guess what Cash
Money Records stick together like blood and furl” on this track.
(Spittin Game) I really want to point out
that this quatrain and a half of bars (Am I counting those right?)
“Slugs hummin' chopper gunning
catch the vapor from the laser
Infrared fled big bread money
maker
Pop a slug barrell shaker for big
paper
Big ballin' life taker for big
caker
Ben Franklin, bank televancin'
big bankin
Buster gankin', left stankin'
ship sankin'”
is
really quite impressive for a 15 year old, but it is also Wayne we’re talking
about.
Alright
it’s 4 AM and I’ve really been digging this mixtape. I’m going to let it
marinate in my head and relisten to it before I write closing thoughts.
Closing Thoughts: Yeah I mess with this. Of course it sounds
dated but even still, Mannie Fresh brings it with these beats. They’re deceiving
because they initially sound really simple but there’s actually lots of depth.
Nearly every beat has a wavy bassline that ebbs and flows in different ways. Of
course, you can tell a lot of the presets used were old, so that’s where the
dated sound comes from. Regarding the Hot Boys besides Wayne, Juvenile really
brings it, enough to where I’m tempted to check out his solo material. His
voice is very deep and powerful. It wasn’t surprising to find out he was the
oldest, leading all the other members by 5-6 years. B. G. is good too, but I’m
still not all that into Turk. We’ll see if my perspective changes on future Hot
Boys releases.
As for Wayne, I cannot believe he was 15 when this dropped.
Nothing next level here, but as the tape goes along you can hear Wayne mold his
style, so much that the final track, Spittin Game, really sounds like the first
“Lil Wayne” verse, with a semi-complex internal rhyme scheme and some
alliteration. It’s going to be great seeing where he goes from here, because
I’ve never really went in to the material before Tha Carter 2. I’d bump this
tape again. I can see it entering an infrequent rotation.
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