Lil Wayne didn't get the nickname "Mixtape Weezy" for nothing. Over the course of hip-hop history, very few artists have used the art of the mixtape to their advantage as well as Weezy F. It's helped to blow up the likes of Wiz Khalifa, A$AP Rocky and even Drake over the past decade, but Wayne's 13 mixtapes came when he was already a star. He didn't need the tapes to become a star, but they certainly propelled him in to GOAT territory by simply crushing the output of his competitors.
No one could match his prolific era. If he wasn't releasing a #1 album, he was putting out a mixtape that trumped the popularity of anything else released that month. Since he did it so often, he was always on the tip of everybody's tongue. Over the last 10 years, Wayne released 9 albums and 11 mixtapes, simply dwarfing anyone else's output. If you can't find something special in any of Tha Carters, Dedications, Droughts, Sorry 4 the Waits, or the others, well, maybe you should just hit up the next article then.
For those who do find something they love in Wayne's music, this is for you. There's no doubt that you'll have discrepancies, maybe even outrage, at some of these selections, so feel free to call us out in the comments. Ultimately, this is a celebration of a prolific man.
Da Drought (2003)
Lil Wayne's 2003 mixtape was his first solo tape. He did a bunch with The Squad before this one, but Da Drought really kickstarted the mixtape Weezy a lot of us came to love.
Stylistically, he hadn't really come into his own just yet. Da Drought was the transition period between 500 Degreez and Tha Carter, so the growing pains were obviously for the best. However the short length and material itself proved that Wayne had better days to come.
Sorry 4 The Wait 2 (2015)
Sorry 4 The Wait 2 (2015)
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Lil Wayne's latest mixtape proved that his best days may be behind him. The mixtape, which was meant to hold us over until the highly anticipated Tha Carter V drops, saw Weezy rhyming over "U Guessed It," "Tuesday" and "Drunk In Love." It seemed to be more so an attempt at capturing what's popping with the youth (or hopping on a bandwagon, if you will), rather than the ill bars we've seen on mixtapes past. There was a lot less of those rewindable moments, and ultimately the mixtape was just okay.
Dedication 5 (2013)
D5 was a pretty solid mixtape, but we cannot consider it one of the elite outputs from Wayne. The rhymes over "Columbia" and "UOENO" were instant classics, but the entire thing lacked the lyricism of some of Weezy's best efforts.
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Prefix (2004)
Just a few months before Tha Carter came out, Wayne dropped Prefix. As far as style goes, it's pretty similar to the now-classic, formative LP. However, it was pretty short. At just over a half-hour, it can't be put in the same company as his best works. At any rate, the quality here is what matters, and it is a great tape.
Da Drought 2 (2004)
In 2004, Wayne was a few years away from becoming the biggest name in the country. At one point, he rivaled the likes of Jay Z and Kanye West, repeatedly calling himself "the best rapper alive" with a ton of people in his corner. Da Drought 2 was kind of the beginning of that climax he had in his career. The tracks on DD2 were good, but the best is yet to come.
Dedication 3 (2008)
Now we're starting to get in to the essentials. Dedication 3 was released in full-on Weezy Season. As the New Orleans MC used his auto-tune chuckle to rhyme over "Whatever You Like," it's clear he could do no wrong. Everything he stamped his name on was hot as shit in 2008, and the DJ Drama-hosted tape was a testament to that.
Dedication 4 (2012)
Lil Wayne had entered his skateboarding phase by 2012, and his Pharrell-inspired mixtape art proved that. D4 might have been the "last great" Lil Wayne mixtape. Inviting Nicki Minaj to go in on "Mercy," and even using a little old-school flavor from OutKast, proved the tape to be a success.
Sorry 4 the Wait (2011)
As the world awaited Tha Carter IV, Wayne let us know he was "sorry for the wait." He did that by going in hard-as-nails over some really hyphy beats. This one is short, but it is a blistering ball of energy the entire time.
The Suffix (2005)
The Suffix (2005)
And now we get in to the cream of the crop. The 2005 Lil Wayne was certainly something special, and it's crazy to think that these tracks were released 10 years ago. He was coming in to his own, lethal style, and he knew it too. His swagger was untouchable and his bars were as good as they ever were. As he said on "93 94 Baby," "I'm really so honest that hot boy shit it's really so behind us/We on some new shit you niggas can't find us."
They really were on some new-new, about to take the whole game by storm.
Dedication (2005)
The same year Wayne put out The Suffix, and the same week he put out Tha Carter 2, he released Dedication, the first of now-five instalments in the series. It's safe to say that in '05 Wayne really entered a period of extraordinary output. These official mixtapes only scratch the surface of what he was able to do in that period of time through official tracks, unofficial tracks, leaks, demos, features, etc.
Legend has it that he would just enter the studio and freestyle in this era. Whatever he was doing, it worked.
No Ceilings (2009)
At the other end of his prolific period we received No Ceilings. The 2009 mixtape saw Wayne go in on instrumentals like "Swag Surf," "Ice Cream," "DOA (Death of Auto-Tune)," "Throw it in the Bag" and many more, putting his Southern twist on rap tracks from around the country. He made most of them even better too-- a trademark of a Lil Wayne freestyle. No Ceilings was the hottest thing in college campuses around the nation for worthy reasons.
Dedication 2 (2006)
It's 2006 and Lil Wayne was officially the hottest dude in the game. This was the year of Like Father, Like Son, which arguably slowed Wayne down with Birdman's mediocre flow, a saga that we see unfolding to present day.
Dedication 2 had raw bars and funny banter from Wayne, without any care for mainstream appeal. It was bars on bars on bars, resulting in Lil Wayne's second best mixtape.
Da Drought 3 (2007)
Not only is DD3 the dopest Wayne mixtape, but it probably gives any other tape a run for its money. Yes, any mixtape, ever. We went there.
Da Drought 3 was epic. Two discs worth of straight fire-breathing bars where Wayne made a run for the throne. Hopping over the hottest beats of the time, along with classics, Wayne switched up flows, voices and styles to display his versatility to anyone who doubted him. And with such longevity, the tape never got old. It took two hours to listen to it, and everyone had a different favorite from the effort.
Da Drought came in a year that Lil Wayne didn't release an official album, but as the world awaited for his arguably-best album Tha Carter III, we got a mixtape that was good enough to fill the void of two albums. Give it a spin below, and enjoy the fruits of a genius' labor.