Mixtape Weezy-- somewhat of a legendary title that continues to be cited as the rapper's hungriest and most engaging form. With the release of Dedication 5, the discussion about this particular brand of Wayne was rampant once again. Was Mixtape Weezy back? or was D5 just more of the same recycled punchlines we've been hearing from his last few releases? A consensus was not made, and seldom is with Wayne-- and most certainly will not be made with this list.
However, it's important to look back now and again to get a true perspective on how great Lil Wayne really was. Anyone who followed Wayne's mixtape streak from 2006-2008 knows it was an exciting moment in time, where unofficial mixtapes could yield as many exclusives as an official release. This era gave birth to more free material than we've seen from pretty much any other rapper... ever.
There were some grey areas with what to include on this list. Tracks like "Comfortable" and "A Milli" have been excluded, despite making their mixtape rounds well before appearing on studio projects. Some songs that later showed up on The Leak EP made the cut, as the tracks it collected were only released officially to save face for the excessive leaking of Wayne's material at the time.
While everyone has their own favorite Mixtape Weezy tracks, hopefully Wayne fans will at least be able to appreciate these 30 selections, and possibly discover a few new gems.