Wayne, got his props because he was rapping 'gangsta' shyt and not cursing. To be so young and rapping with that amount of substance about the streets without cursing was impressive at his age "in real" time. That also was one of BG's gifts too, but he was much raw and direct with it, nobody at their age "in real" time was doing such down here in fact around the world. Wayne would make sounds, have word play, good metaphors to go along with what he was trying to convey in his rhymes, that's what made him catch people's attention down here at an early age.
Wayne rhymes pre-carter and squad up were clever, witty, catchy and painted a picture that his peers could relate and understand, that was another reason why he was considered good.
Folks tend to leave out the climate of that 96-2000 era, how many dope rappers that were in the game, especially down here. Wayne wasn't on anybody's Top 50 list in those times. As folks stated, he wasn't even the best one in his own group. Again, not taking away from his talent, but in the same breath folks would tell you down here that his verse on ANYTHING that he was on that came out at the time was never skipped.
Most if not all of his verse were memorized and quoted at school or around the way.
As a breh said, Squad up Wayne was when folks, especially his diehard fans started to look at Wayne in a different light. He started to turn that corner. I remember folks were like, Wayne is about to be a problem,, folks were saying "Wayne got Juvie" but again in the same breath folks were like can he put it all together and make a good album,, this was in the midst of that 500 degrees 600 degree era, with a dash of squad up Wayne.
The Carter 1 leaked, and the songs I heard were night and day from how he was rapping on them Squad tapes, Baby scrapped the album and made him do it all over again and had him keep that style he was on. Even Baby knew Wayne was turning the corner
I remember when Carter 1 dropped and Rap City had the basketball player Keyon Martin on there as a guest and Tigger asked him to name his top 2 or 3 albums, I can't remember what he all named, but I do remember him telling Tigger, Carter 1, and he gave a stank look, like, you need to be on it. He even said that was what he was bumping day and night. He looked in the camera and told the world, go get that Carter 1 lol
I remember that, because I too couldn't take that CD outta my CD deck. That was the only thing I was bumping at the time.