Transition from 500 Degreez to Tha Carter (Weezy)

[WhoShotCha]

Lot of revisionism and false narratives get thrown around when talking about Wayne back then...but this idea that he was some proto-mumble rapper that popped up out the blue nice as fukk all of a sudden is fake news...

For people who weren’t Wayne fans back then and actually want to know what it was like to witness his progress and evolution back then, instead of just lazily attributing it to a middling generic east coast struggle rapper that Stunna signed around the time....I’d recommend starting with sq4 ...the sqad up tapes dropped before, during and after the release of 500 Degreez...and he was eviscerating shyt left and right on them, it’s then that I started recognize he was gonna be a special emcee...500 Degreez dropped in the midst of that, and stood out as kinda lazy and sloppily put together by the standards of his then current output...to put it in context, 500 Degreez was the aberration compared to the stuff he was doing on mixtapes before and after it and directly leading to Carter 1..I basically expected 500 Degreez to be what C1 ended up being as far as his unleashing on the game...didnt even really trip though because he kept on putting out sqad tapes right after it....

the Prefix was his last mixtape right before Carter 1...it’s mostly him spazzing over Black Album beats, and the style that people who weren’t listening to him for real were shocked to hear on Carter 1 was already fully realized and fine tuned...






C1 dropped a couple months after that and was basically mixtape Weezy rhyming over (a reinvigorated) Mannie Fresh production...lost in a lot of this discussion is that Mannie’s sound evolved during that time as well...on 500 Degreez they were trying to have spit over those more upbeat happy sounding latter day Big Tymer type beats, that didn’t fit what Wayne was trying to do stylistically at the time...they were on the brink of making the same mistake on C1... Shake Something was an early scrapped single that continued that same sound...Wayne and baby beefed a lil bit over the direction of his music and the Sqad ended up beefing with him too, recorded a bulk of what ended up the official version of C1 (along with a ton of shyt that’s leaked as the Carter 1 Sessions) on his own without input from Baby with outside production...they added some newer, darker fresher sounding Mannie beats...and the rest is history

Immediately following C1 he drops the Suffix, the first Dedication after that, C2 after that, dedication 2 after that...then he took over the game...but listen to Prefix->Carter 1->Suffix->Dedication 1->Carter 2->Dedication 2 and you’ll seldom witness a continuity as far seeing a rapper evolve and grow organically as you see there...it’s like having footage of Kobe practicing his game in the summer before exploding on the league the year he dropped 81

Thank you bro. These nikkas dont know shyt about Lil Wayne. I hate seeing nikkas just repeat shyt they heard on the internet

 

[GUCCI C0ND0MS]

Many people don't realize just how incredible wayne's mixtape run leading up to carter 1 was....all the sqad up tapes need to be heard

 

[alpo]

 

[Striving For Greatness]

I only recently came around to liking Tha Carter, Gillie for coming up with such an interesting project.

 

[Long Live The Kane]

Many people don't realize just how incredible wayne's mixtape run leading up to carter 1 was....all the sqad up tapes need to be heard

I know there’s cats on here that remember that compilation somebody made and posted on SOHH that had Wayne only versions of the best Sq tape tracks...lost a laptop and a gang of music, trying to find again

 

[Long Live The Kane]

 

[fantabolous]

He disrespected Juve's classic 400 degrees by calling it that smh

I guess I'm in the weird minority. I hated lights out; I really liked 500 degreez as an album, but overall I liked 400 better. As far as the title tracks though, Wayne floated all over that beat. Juve can't out rap Wayne period. Between 500 and the sqad mixtapes, I wasn't surprised by the Carter at all.

The real disrespect was Juvenile keeping it goin and putting out that 600 degreez trash

 

[Playaz Eyez]

Probably the most overrated artist in history, but yikes at 500 Degreez. That album was ass, and these were probably Mannie Fresh’s worst beats

 

[pointproven214]

I crack up when people say "I been a fan of Wayne since Tha Block is Hot". Like Wayne wasnt literally on at least 8 albums before that.

wayne been rapping since 1996 lmao those wayne fans are so obvious.

 

[Phillyrider807]

Wasnt Wayne soakin up game up in NY with Dipset during that period?

U can tell Dipset n Philly cats (eastcoast) had a big influence on wayne changin' his style up n becomin a better version of himself (basically stopped bein a bama lol) n that set up his run

Yes this is what happened. He was around Gillie and Cam/Juelz/J.R Writer for much of carter 1/carter 2. Now im not saying you should believe the gillie ghostwriting rumors. No one actually ever wrote for wayne. But yes 100% gillie and dipset influenced waynes style around that time. (And it was for the best)


Also if anyone watched wayne's drink champs interview. Wayne always wanted to rap with a east coast like style but was scared to dissapoint baby manny and slim. This explains his sound up until 500 degrez. The mixtapes is where wayne could be "let free" and do what he want. Obviously people were liking mixtape wayne over his southern accent and the rest is history.

Anytime anyone tries to bring up the gillie ghostwirting shyt i point them to the prefix/sqad 4. All pre carter 1 but post 500 degreez. Gillie was no where near cash money at this time.






Wayne was already transitioning to that east coast sound. He just soaked up game from the nikkas he was around.

 

[GUCCI C0ND0MS]

I know there’s cats on here that remember that compilation somebody made and posted on SOHH that had Wayne only versions of the best Sq tape tracks...lost a laptop and a gang of music, trying to find again

Wouldn't mind hearing that...Although, I liked the other Sqad members.

Speaking of....below is a link to a Wayne only version of Like Father Like Son...Check it out....

MEGA