Bro, I vividly remember the summers of '07 and '08 getting into full blown arguments with nikkas about how mid Wayne was. Idk if nikkas realize how much of a minority you were back then if you felt that way, and I got called a hater so many times because I just didn't see the hype. Mind you, I was a MAJOR Carter 2 fan and spent A LOT of mornings walking to school listening to that album. I loved Wayne around that time, so it had nothing to with me not being a fan.
Something about those Dedication mixtapes really fried nikkas brains and made them believe he was better than he was, when he wasn't even spitting as hard as he was on the Carter albums. He was just saying shyt lol. I was breaking them shyts down in real time, pointing out how ass they were and nikkas couldn't take it.
The Wayne phenomenon was peak group thinking in Hip Hop lol