This story was run online for Mixologi.com
Since Lil Wayne burst onto the scene as a charismatic 15 year old with the New Orleans rap group Hot Boys he has been a staple in pop culture and one of the most popular rappers in the history of hip hop. While Dwayne Carter, Jr. burst onto the scene in 1997 he didn’t fully become recognized as a hip hop heavyweight until 2004 upon the release of Tha Carter. Since the release of Tha Carter, Wayne has often dazzled with his wordplay and left his peers floored by his work ethic and sheer willpower to constantly put out music and verses at the drop of a dime, never seeming to run out of material and constantly evolving, and there is a sense that he was definitively the best rapper alive and top dog from around 2004 until his jail sentencing in 2010. While Wayne was unquestionably one of the top dogs in hip hop during that time frame several of his peers have cases to be made that they were hip hop’s head honcho during that run as well. For the sake of figuring out who the top guy in hip hop was every year from 2004 through 2010 I’ll only be using solo artists albums to compare to Wayne’s mixtapes and albums. This will exclude Clipse great discography during this time frame even though their three album run of Lord Willin’, Hell Hath No Fury, and Til the Casket Drops positioned them as arguably the greatest hip hop tandem of their generation and also eliminates Outkast and their fantastic Speakerboxx/Love Below. So here it is, Lil Wayne vs the field, every year from 2004 until 2010 in hopes to find out how many years Wayne truly was hip hop’s numero uno.
2004
Lil Wayne
Tha Carter
Da Drought 2
The Prefix
The Field
Kanye West The College Dropout
Madvillain Madvillainy
Cam’ron Purple Haze
TI Urban Legend
Snoop Dogg Rhythm and Gangsta
This was a pretty strong year for hip hop as a whole producing standout albums from TI, Cam’ron, Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, and Madvillan (Mf Doom/Madlib) along with Wayne’s body of work in 2004. This was especially crucial considering hip hop was a year removed from Jay-Z’s retirement and “final” album The Black Album. This officially marked a transitional period in rap where there was no definitive top dog and opened the door for somebody to step in and take that spot. While Tha Carter and Da Drought 2 are two of Wayne’s landmark projects in his career neither one of them had the cultural impact of Kanye West’s debut album The College Dropout. The album breathed new life into a genre that seemed to have stagnated and needed a new sound and was officially a turning point in hip hop into a new era and the album received universal acclaim upon its release and introduced Kanye West as a new superstar in hip hop not just as a producer but as a rapper.
Verdict: Kanye West
2005
Lil Wayne
Tha Carter 2
The Suffix
The Dedication
The Field
Kanye West Late Registration
Game The Documentary
50 Cent The Massacre
Common Be
Young Jeezy Lets Get It: Thug Motivation 101
This was another strong year for hip hop with Game being introduced as the new face of west coast hip hop and 50 Cent and Kanye West following up with strong sophomore albums following classic debut albums. Be marked Common’s first solo album since 2002’s Electric Circus, and it was executively produced by West. But the true competition for Wayne this year was Young Jeezy and the strength of the Atlanta upstarts debut album TM101. The album spawned four major singles led by the lead single “And Then What,” and was a progression on the ever growing subgenre in hip hop that was trap music. But ultimately Wayne has to get the nod for 2005 releasing arguably his best solo album of his career with Tha Carter 2 and the first installment of his Dedication series.
Verdict: Lil Wayne
2006
Lil Wayne
Like Father Like son
Dedication 2
Tha Carter Files
The Field
TI King
Game The Doctor’s Advocate
Ghostface Killah Fishscale
Pharrell In My Mind
Busta Rhymes The Big Bang Theory
The best hip hop album released in 2006 was undeniably Ghostface Killah’s Fishscale. But the album more or less lived in a vacuum, the album didn’t have a huge impact on the overall hierarchy of hip hop though the album was great. Wayne had another monster year with the superb Like Father Like Son release with Birdman and the release of Dedication 2. But the undisputed top dog in hip hop in 2006 was TI. King was a monumental album for the proclaimed King of the South, debuting at no.1 on the Billboard charts with 522,000 albums sold worldwide. The album also produced megahit “What You Know” which peaked at no.3 on the Billboard Hot 100, all while TI starred as the main character in the coming of age film ATL based on his hometown of Atlanta. TI pretty clearly was the top dog in rap in 2006.
Verdict: TI
2007
Lil Wayne
Da Drought 3
The Field
Kanye West Graduation
Jay-Z American Gangster
50 Cent Curtis
TI TI vs TIP
Lupe Fiasco The Cool
In 2007 Wayne released Da Drought 3 which is widely regarded as one of the best mixtapes in hip hop history. He would also release The Leak EP, which were songs that were recorded during sessions for Tha Carter 3 but leaked online. The combination of both releases and Wayne dominating radio in 2007 marked the beginning of his run towards definitively taking over hip hops thrown, even announcing his presence on DJ Khaled’s “We Takin Over.” But another major story of 2007 was Kanye West and 50 Cent. With Curtis and Graduation both set to be released on September 11, 50 declared that if Kanye West outsold him he would retire from hip hop. Graduation debuted no.1 on the Billboard Charts selling 957,000 copies and spawned the hit Glow in the Dark Tour. Kanye not only was the biggest commercial star in hip hop in 2007 but an international superstar.
Verdict: Kanye West and Wayne tie
2008
Lil Wayne
Tha Carter 3
Dedication 3
The Field
Kanye West 808’s and Heartbreak
TI Paper Trail
Nas Untitled
Rick Ross Trilla
With all due respect to everybody else who released an album or project or even thought of 2008 being their year in hip hop or music in general, there is no debate. Tunechi had one of the best years any artist has ever had in hip hop in 2008 on the back of his groundbreaking album Tha Carter 3. The first two singles “Lollipop” and “A Milli” were staples in pop culture for the year and were as much infectious as they were clever and witty. Tha Carter 3 debuted at no.1 on the Billboard charts with over a million albums sold first week, putting Wayne shoulder to shoulder with Eminem as the only rappers to have ever accomplished that feat. There is no question who the top spot belonged to in 2008.
Verdict: Lil Wayne
2009
Lil Wayne
No Ceilings
The Field
Jay-Z The Blueprint 3
Eminem Relapse
Rick Ross Deeper Than Rap
Drake So Far Gone
By 2009 Wayne was a freight train in hip hop and there really was no stopping him. Jay-Z and Eminem both released BP3 and Relapse respectively which were commercial monsters and each carrying no.1 singles but the power of No Ceilings is enough to lock up the top spot for Wayne. The mixtape was all over the place, with Wayne’s remixed versions of other people’s songs appearing on the radio as much as the original versions. From “Swag Surfin’” to “Oh Let’s Do It,” the Carter was making people rethink how we looked at some of the hottest songs of the year and whether or not he made those songs better. That alone lets it be known the type of power and influence Wayne had over the game in 2009.
Verdict: Lil Wayne
2010
Lil Wayne
Rebirth
The Field
Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Big Boi Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
Rick Ross Teflon Don
Drake Thank Me Later
Eminem Recovery
Nicki Minaj Pink Friday
This was pretty easily the worst year of this run for Wayne with him releasing the failed rock experiment album Rebirth. Drake released his highly anticipated debut album Thank Me Later and Rick Ross released his best body of work Teflon Don in 2010 as well staking their claims to be hip hop’s premier artist. But 2010 belonged to Kanye West with the release of his universally acclaimed album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy which served as his reintroduction into our social consciousness and pop culture. Leading up to the album West also started his weekly installment of new music called Good Friday’s, where he released a new song every Friday up until the release of his album. While Wayne was still a very popular artist and establishing his label Young Money with superstars such as Drake and Nicki Minaj, Kanye retook the top spot for 2010.
Verdict: Kanye West
The final conclusion reached was that Wayne was the undisputed top dog in hip hop for three years (05, 08, 09) from 2004-2010. Kanye West also held the top spot for two years in that span as well (04, 2010) and tied with Wayne for the top spot in 2007, with TI holding the top spot once in 2006. And while Wayne wasn’t undisputedly number one every year in that time frame he clearly was one of the top two or three guys every year in this time span which enhances his credibility in discussions amongst the greatest rappers of all time and of his era.
Kameron Hay 