You have to be a fool to deny this influence Lil Wayne has had on the game. For better or for worse, he's the reason why hip-hop is the way it is today. If there wasn't a Lil Wayne, we wouldn't have a Young Thug which means the rap game probably wouldn't be as saturated as it is. All jokes aside, Lil Wayne is where hip-hop begins for a lot of rappers in this generation.
"Wayne knows this, too. Even though he portrays himself as a recluse who's drifting off in his own planet, there is a part of him that's evidently taking note of what's currently happening in the field. During a recent interview with Brett Berish for Bumbu, Weezy F. elaborated on his influence on the rap game.
"Look into music and before I stepped into it, they had music and everyone looked a certain way, did a certain thing," Wayne said. "Look at me. And now look at music. They all look like me."
Berish asked Wayne if this is something that he appreciates. "I love it," Wayne continued. "If I didn't, I'd be on every song, saying, 'You look like me. You trying to be like me. You takin' my style.' No. I love it. Let's get it."
You'd be hard-pressed to find a rapper that's emerged in the past decade that hasn't been influenced by Weezy to an extent. However, Wayne differentiated copying and influencing. "We don't have a game for the Lil Waynes. That would be getting copied," he said. “None of them trying to be like me. They’re gonna get some tattoos in they face, a grill. They might put Lil on the front of their names or Baby after it, but they don’t sound nothing like me. They haven’t been through what I’ve been through or they’re not from where I’m from.”
There is, after all, only one Lil Wayne. Check out the clip below.