“Tiffany Blews” (Fall Out Boy featuring Lil Wayne) (2008)
Kanye enlists Weezy for another go at electropop, suggesting his experimentation with “Lollipop” wasn’t going to be a one-off affair.
“See You in My Nightmares” (Kanye West featuring Lil Wayne) (2008) And for Wayne, “Lollipop” was even more of a departure from his usual sound than 808s was for Yeezy. Though Kanye West is usually credited with popularizing autotune innovation, “Lollipop” predates the seminal 808s & Heartbreak by over six months. “Lollipop” (featuring Static Major) (2008) Wayne cranks the reggae-influence to 1000 and doubles down with what he did on “Mo Fire.” “The Only Reason” (Lil Wayne, Sizzler, & T. But unlike Drizzy, whose dancehall-inspired songs can sometimes come across as corny or forced, Wayne sounds just as comfortable here as he would rapping over anything else in the mid-2000s. Long before Drake co-opted and applied a Caribbean twinge to his music, his mentor was experimenting with reggae-infused production and rapping in patois. But the deeper you delve into Wayne’s catalogue, the more you start to see that, for better or for worse, he has a storied history of genre crossovers and was making attempts and sounds and styles that wouldn’t be picked up and popularized until over a decade later.īelow, you’ll find a selected history of Wayne’s most diverse crossover efforts.ĭo you have a favorite from the list below, or one that we didn't list? Let us know in the comments. Though Wayne is often celebrated for his influence when it comes to more freeform lyricism, something that isn’t talked about enough is his willingness to innovate in terms of genre and sound (it’s likely that Rebirth tainted people’s perception of him as an innovator in that regard).
Regardless of what you think of him, Lil Wayne is undeniably one of the most influential rappers of all time- from Young Thug to Kendrick Lamar, you can hear pieces of his DNA in almost any rapper who came up in the past decade.