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2. Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3 (2007) ? The 50 Best Rapper Mixtapes | Complex
2. Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3 (2007)
Da Drought 3 recalls a time when calling Lil Wayne the "Best Rapper Alive" was perfectly justifiable. The mixtape is a one-of-a-kind behemoth with Wayne demolishing the most popular instrumentals of the time beyond recognition. Seriously. No one remembers "King Kong" by Jibbs or "Mr. Jones" by Mike Jones, but their beats have been immortalized by Wayne's otherworldly flows, non sequiturs, and braggadocio.
Wayne even marks his territory on instrumentals whose original versions matter in the context outside of Da Drought 3. "Upgrade" disregards all the pop sheen on Beyoncé and Jay-Z's hit in favor of over four minutes of spastic delivery from Lil Wayne, where everything from Apollo Creed to the Toronto Maple Leafs get their due shine in one of the track's many punchlines. DJ Khaled posse cut "We Takin' Over" gets re-appropriated for a solo remix in which Wayne asserts, "Damn right, I kiss my daddy," in response to the leaked photo of him kissing Birdman, effectively ending much of the discussion surrounding the image, in the slickest way possible.
Six years later, Da Drought 3 stands as a project that blessed and haunted Lil Wayne's career with equal weight. It's so prolific a mixtape that it confirmed all of the hyperbolic claims being tossed around by the press, and the rapper himself, but it also set the bar so unbelievably high for his subsequent efforts. Never again will we get to hear someone rap, "It's going down like there's a whale in the boat," and actually make it work. For better or for worse. —Ernest Baker
10. Lil Wayne, Dedication 2 (2006)
Dedication 2 is the moment that Lil Wayne stepped into the light and became the Best Rapper Alive. It's a collective representation of that time when hip-hop fans were in awe of Weezy.
Granted, Wayne had firmly established himself as a fully formed talent with the release of Tha Carter II and the original Dedication, but Dedication 2 offered so much more. For one, Weezy's personality began to shine through; his love of SportsCenter was now more apparent than ever.
His lyrics became a mix of abrupt violence ("Kidnap a nigga make him feel like a kid again"), pure wit ("I've been ready since '81 and I was born in '82"), and pop culture references ("She said it's not Dominos, it's DiGiornos"). Most importantly, his flow became unmatched as he experimented with a variety of styles, most notably paying homage to Juvenile's "Bounce for the Juvenile" on "Walk It Off."—Insanul Ahmed
24. Lil Wayne, No Ceilings (2009)
It was the Lil Wayne mixtape all your friends who didn't make time for the Drought and Dedication series were telling you to download. Why? Was it the David Guetta sample, the Black Eyed Peas flip, or the "Poke Her Face" and "D.O.A." rips? Was it the way Wayne seemingly lit more blunts track-to-track than on any other recording he's ever released?
Coming at a time when Wayne needed to prove—maybe, at that point, more than ever—that he wasn't about to fall off, Wayne was dropping classic bars effortlessly. Take, for example, that time on "Watch My Feet" when he strung these bars together:
"My goons is so with me/
Haters gotta go on iTunes to go get me/
Gators, matadors, baboons, and those grizzlies/
All come out of me when I'm on the micropho-N-E"
Notice how many words in each bar, besides the last ones, rhyme with each other? Once again, at least at that moment, Weezy's status as one of rap's greats seemed to be inarguable. —Foster Kamer
2. Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3 (2007)
Da Drought 3 recalls a time when calling Lil Wayne the "Best Rapper Alive" was perfectly justifiable. The mixtape is a one-of-a-kind behemoth with Wayne demolishing the most popular instrumentals of the time beyond recognition. Seriously. No one remembers "King Kong" by Jibbs or "Mr. Jones" by Mike Jones, but their beats have been immortalized by Wayne's otherworldly flows, non sequiturs, and braggadocio.
Wayne even marks his territory on instrumentals whose original versions matter in the context outside of Da Drought 3. "Upgrade" disregards all the pop sheen on Beyoncé and Jay-Z's hit in favor of over four minutes of spastic delivery from Lil Wayne, where everything from Apollo Creed to the Toronto Maple Leafs get their due shine in one of the track's many punchlines. DJ Khaled posse cut "We Takin' Over" gets re-appropriated for a solo remix in which Wayne asserts, "Damn right, I kiss my daddy," in response to the leaked photo of him kissing Birdman, effectively ending much of the discussion surrounding the image, in the slickest way possible.
Six years later, Da Drought 3 stands as a project that blessed and haunted Lil Wayne's career with equal weight. It's so prolific a mixtape that it confirmed all of the hyperbolic claims being tossed around by the press, and the rapper himself, but it also set the bar so unbelievably high for his subsequent efforts. Never again will we get to hear someone rap, "It's going down like there's a whale in the boat," and actually make it work. For better or for worse. —Ernest Baker
10. Lil Wayne, Dedication 2 (2006)
Dedication 2 is the moment that Lil Wayne stepped into the light and became the Best Rapper Alive. It's a collective representation of that time when hip-hop fans were in awe of Weezy.
Granted, Wayne had firmly established himself as a fully formed talent with the release of Tha Carter II and the original Dedication, but Dedication 2 offered so much more. For one, Weezy's personality began to shine through; his love of SportsCenter was now more apparent than ever.
His lyrics became a mix of abrupt violence ("Kidnap a nigga make him feel like a kid again"), pure wit ("I've been ready since '81 and I was born in '82"), and pop culture references ("She said it's not Dominos, it's DiGiornos"). Most importantly, his flow became unmatched as he experimented with a variety of styles, most notably paying homage to Juvenile's "Bounce for the Juvenile" on "Walk It Off."—Insanul Ahmed
24. Lil Wayne, No Ceilings (2009)
It was the Lil Wayne mixtape all your friends who didn't make time for the Drought and Dedication series were telling you to download. Why? Was it the David Guetta sample, the Black Eyed Peas flip, or the "Poke Her Face" and "D.O.A." rips? Was it the way Wayne seemingly lit more blunts track-to-track than on any other recording he's ever released?
Coming at a time when Wayne needed to prove—maybe, at that point, more than ever—that he wasn't about to fall off, Wayne was dropping classic bars effortlessly. Take, for example, that time on "Watch My Feet" when he strung these bars together:
"My goons is so with me/
Haters gotta go on iTunes to go get me/
Gators, matadors, baboons, and those grizzlies/
All come out of me when I'm on the micropho-N-E"
Notice how many words in each bar, besides the last ones, rhyme with each other? Once again, at least at that moment, Weezy's status as one of rap's greats seemed to be inarguable. —Foster Kamer
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