Top 3 reasons why a dead Biggie Smalls is better than a living Lil Wayne
March 5th, 2009 by Infinite Skillz in Commentary, Making N.O.I.S.E.In the hip-hop community, no one really wants to be labeled a hater. While I don’t hate Lil Wayne, I am far from a fan. I respect the fact that he has put out more music than any other major hip-hop artist in the last five years and probably has the best work ethic of any rapper not named Tupac Shakur. But is doing your job really worth the iconic status he seems to have achieved? I’m going to have to say no. So at the risk of earning the not-so-superlative hater label, I present to you my Top 3 reasons why a dead Biggie Smalls is better than a living Lil Wayne.
Lil Wayne has been successful but is he really a worthy successor?
Coattails
Sean Combs might be the owner, but Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace, better known as the Notorious B.I.G., is responsible for the Bad Boy Entertainment empire. The considerable wealth Combs amassed thanks to Mr. Wallace’s efforts funded his Sean John clothing line and propelled Puff Daddy to stardom. Diddy got a Grammy for his No Way Out album that featured Biggie on five songs. He also gave Lil Kim, the most popular female rapper of her time, her start.
Lil Wayne started as the youngest member of the Hot Boys on Cash Money Records. He started his own label, Young Money Entertainment, but to my knowledge, his most notable artist is Jae Millz. There are reports that he has been collaborating with and may have signed Drake, a talented young Canadian rapper.
Neither Cash Money Records, nor Jae Millz has matched the success of Bad Boy or Lil Kim respectively.
Diction: Ashy to Classy VS Bling Bling
“Ashy to classy” is the hip-hop version of the phrase “rags to riches” that Notorious B.I.G. popularized on the intro to “Sky’s The Limit,” one of his collaborations with the R&B group 112. “Bling Bling” is Ebonics for diamonds or other shiny jewelry. Ashy to classy is still cool to say after almost 12 years in rotation. Bling bling immediately makes you sound like those elderly baby boomers on the Boost Mobile commercials.
Music
The final and most important factor is the music. Despite recording just two albums (Ready To Die and Life After Death) before being murdered on March 9, 1997, Notorious B.I.G. solidified himself as the King of NY and by extension, hip-hop culture as a whole. Tupac Shakur, also now deceased, was the only comparable hip-hop artist at the time.
Conversely, Lil Wayne has made six studio albums and achieved considerable commercial success, yet still fails to hold any crowns other than Louisiana’s best. Many consider T.I. to be the King of the South and while that is highly debatable considering the fact that Ludacris is more accomplished and more popular in their shared hometown of Atlanta, it is definitely up for discussion as to whether little Wayne deserves to even be mentioned with Jay-Z, Biggie’s successor to the title of best alive.
These were only my Top 3 reasons why I think B.I.G. still reigns supreme. Trust me when I say there are many more (like voice and Wayne’s Auto Tune usage). You can say I’m holding onto the past or I have an East Coast bias. You can even call me hater but I’ll still take a dead Biggie over a living Lil Wayne any day.
March 5th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
lmao ashy to classy is better than bling bling okay uncle tom
why do people comment so much about wayne??? if the guy is so crap????????
March 6th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Ashy to Classy is WAY better then “bling bling”
It’s called taste.
Some people have it…
And some people like picking up the “Lil’ Wayne pellets” that the horses pulling the bandwagon leave.
PS people talk about Lil’ Wayne for all the same reasons they talk about a fart. It stinks, it lingers, you can’t ignore it and somewhere, somehow there is a person avoiding trying to take credit for making it.
March 6th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
yea i agree with this, however jay z takes biggies crown only as he is from ney york. the best rapper alive would have to be eminem, in his lyrical ability alone. and proof of this is the song renegade, which eminem kills jay z on. if you watch the youtube videos jay z rocks it but is stale compared to eminem who is drowned out by the fans screams emphasising his popularity over jay z.
March 6th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
this is not a good arguement at all! #1 u said biggie made bad boy, well wayne made cash money. u cant say jae millz was supppose to make cash money or young money big becuz they were both big bcuz of wayne. #2 u said that biggie made ashy to classy big, well i have never heard that phrase but it sounds dumb to me. plus when ppl are wearing expensive jewelry i still hear ppl say, nice bling and they dont sound old. and finally #3 lil wayne has the title of best rapper alive, if u ask whose the “best rapper alive” to anyone they know who ur talking about. and he sold a million in a week in a bad economy goin triple platinum. ur arguement isnt very true or valid.
March 6th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
all three of your reasons are invalid because they are either wrong or your not making the right comparison. #1 you compared lil wayne to p. diddy not biggie, lil wayne made cash money and nicki minaj a good female rapper on young money. #2 the reason people who say bling bling remind you of old people is because even old people say it which means it was adopted by everyone in black and white cultures, while ashy to classy is only black (ashy). #3 biggie was named one of the greats because he was great but lil wayne is also great, he’s just not dead so he isnt a legend.
March 7th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
So true. Especially the part about Ashy to Classy. Bling bling makes you sound like a fucking idiot.
March 7th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Lil’ Wayne can’t even hold BIG’s jock. While I am the first to get in line to dis LW, that you even put the two names on the same page is a crime. Lil’ Wayne is the Britney Spears of hip-hop. They definitely have the same EQ machine for their vocals. But even more importantly, BIG’s lyrics were timely, and will be timeless. We will not be listening to LW in the nursing home 50 years from now.
March 8th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
if biggie was the best rapper of his time and jay-z was his successor, then lil wayne is the best rapper of this time. just like the previous two, he earned the title based on marketing rather than music, as none of the three has ever truly been anywhere close to the best at any point in their careers.
i also have to take issue with the responses to this who are claiming lil wayne made cash money – did you guys forget about juvenile? he was popular long before lil wayne was.
March 8th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I agree almost 100%. I think bling bling as a saying/phrase has had far greater success than ashy to classy. My mom doesn’t say or know what ashy to classy is, but she is well aware of bling bling. I’m pretty sure most of our grandparents are aware of bling bling lol.
Other than that I Co-Sign. Lil Wayne will never be as respected and loved as Biggie was/is. He’s just not on the same level. I do respect Waynes work ethic, he is a beast. But in all fairness I’ll take quality over quantity any day. Others may have a different opinion though.
Very good blog. Buy his album.
March 8th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
I agree, a dead Biggie is much more suffice than a living Li’l Wayne. I can appreciate that Wayne’s doing his thing and the simple fact that he is one of the most talked about rappers of our time – even if it is because the majority of us think he’s wack.
Biggie was dope then because of the way he flipped it. And he is timeless because of his whole style. He’s one of those rappers that can be compared to but doesn’t need to be.
Li’l Wayne on the other hand will just be one of those southern rappers that nobody in the Hip-Hop community respects because he IS NOT Hip-Hop. Come on, what happened to classic boom bap Hip-Hop, or old piano samples strung together with hard snares and deep basslines? Jazz samples and shit.
I’ve been known to use Auto-tune before, let’s face it, who hasn’t? BUT even I’ll stand up and say Auto-tune isn’t an element within Hip-Hop.
Li’l Wayne is a branch off of the tree of Hip-Hop. He’s apart of a different kind of music and that’s why you can’t really say he’s in the same league as Big.
March 8th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
It’s much easier to make stupid catch phrases catch on because the average IQ being 100..well, most people are stupid. So it stands to reason that most people are Lil Wayne fans.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Biggie never had his catch phrase used by a token black guy in “Not Another Teen Movie”. Who can argue with that logic about success?
March 9th, 2009 at 11:52 am
@Davonte – I think you might want to look up the word invalid. I correctly compared Biggie and Lil Wayne. They were/are the main artists on labels owned by someone else. Re-read my post and you’ll see that I say bling bling is not really cool to say anymore. Just a general rule, if granny knows the lingo, LET IT GO.
We will have to agree to disagree on Wayne’s greatness.
By the way, today is the 12 year anniversary of Biggie’s death. R.I.P.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:49 am
well ima chuck mi five cents upp in da mix biggie is and always bee da king of east coast and ny and i still think dat bout em and i recon your three points weretru and well exsplained so to all youz hate onn dis guy leave em alone cos hez just saying how lil wayne should not b compared to dis rapper
well poice
May 6th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
fuck lil wayne, biggie would roll over in his grave if he new tht he was even being compared to a fake ass nigga like lil wayne
May 8th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
To Jordan, first off if you haven’t heard ashy to classy then you automatically have no valid opinion on this subject. second Lil Wayne is not the greatest rapper alive, Jay-Z is, when you look at the numbers its HOVA all the way. third “Ready to Die” was four times platinum and by far better then anything Lil Wayne could ever produce.
Lil Wayne can put out some good stuff but none of it means anything. Its all about money and Hoes, its not true hip-hop. Its like commercialized hip-hop and in no way will ever match Biggie. Did Biggie ever use Auto-Tone? i dont think so.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
damn,niggas tryin ta stick me for my paper
May 19th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
where brooklyn at?
July 1st, 2009 at 11:11 pm
Lil wayne is very successful if you guys heard the news he a got 100,000 bucks grillz on his teeth. And i think his a successor.
July 7th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
OK. I get where this comparison has come from. Its better than receiving the flak he would get if BIG was compared to Tupac. But Lil Wayne? “The Brittany Spears of Rap” And I say rap, not hip-hop – cuz now we have every run and gunner using that shitty T-Pain/LW auto-tone voice that Daft Punk made famous in the mid 90s and the fact that the lyrics don’t even come close to what has been put on paper when I was in 8th grade! (circa 98)
I would have compared BIGGIE to someone more comparable: ODB, J-Dilla, M.O.P., Public Enemy, Outkast, even Dre or Talib Kweli are better than whatstheshitontheradio now. Sounds like Sesame Street x Telletubbies. Rinse/wash/repeat should not be the norm, nor the exception when it comes to any music [ESPECIALLY HIP-HOP]
Cuz its still bigger than…
July 12th, 2009 at 2:34 am
Let me start by saying i am a huge biggie fan, but am also a huge wayne fan. But i think there is an error in your logic when arguing the music category, i would agree on the other two, but i think music really is the most important of the three. First of all, when you are arguing the music of both artists you have to take them at their bests. I wouldnt say wayne is at his best on his studio albums necessarily, some parts of them are but songs like lollipop, get money, and fire man are not his shining moments. You cant argue the popularity of a song when judging how good the music is, the masses corrupt good music not justify it. Wayne shines through the most on his mixtapes like drought 3, dedication 1, and random other songs on his huge body of work. The carters do have their fair share but dont make the mistake of likening how much these albums sold to how good they are. I believe life after death far outsold ready to die, yet ready to die was the better album for its raw quality that allowed biggie to really flow, and not some of the more commercial elements of his second album with cheap hooks. Also biggie died early in his career so we never got to see what could have been, so in the end its really not a fair comparison, at their best, they are both extremely good rappers.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
to jason and everyone who think that southside isnt hip hop then look at this is west coast doin anything …. no is east coast doin anything…. no all it is is Texas Lousisana Atlanta 3rd coast southside dirty 3rd so we are winning east coast has no one west coast just have new boyz jerkin