Young Weezy in the Heezy

First, to the remarkably few devotees of this important blog, let me apologize for neglecting my duties this past week. Work sidetracked me from my true calling: to shout from the tallest mountain the praises of those who predate. But enough of this self-indulgence; it is my honor to bestow the Predator of the Week award to a man who has gone unheralded for much too long: Lil Wayne. With a quiet grace and understated demeanor, Lil Wayne has wormed his way into the hearts of millions. His messages are those of the every-pred; his style, the humility of one who works only to serve.

Cutting his teeth as a student of mentor and CEO of Cash Money Records, Bryan “Birdman” Williams, Lil Wayne has turned his pensive brand of vocal artistry into the vox populi. Few souls have gone untouched by the masterful lyricism of Lil’s words. Who among us can forget where we were when we first heard the strains of “Act A Ass”? Few of the world’s poets could have better characterized the postmodern fragmentation of the subject.

“Act a ass wit it,” the bard begins. “Back ya ass wit it,” he continues. This entreaty expresses the desperate longing of a man splintered by the pressures of late capitalism and what scholar David Harvey terms ‘time-space compression.’ When he croons, “I ain't got no loves for broads / I ducks and dodge / I grab 'em, on they butts and all,” Wayne captures the lure of empty sexual gratification in a barren psychic landscape.

Wayne also critiques the primacy that money has taken in this bleak world. In an early collaboration with Fat Joe, Lil shows that he is no slave to commodity. He freely gives of his wealth to others: “Yeah: I’m in this bitch with the terror
/ Got a handful of stacks / Better grab an umbrella / I make it rain.” Later in his career, Wayne again reiterates these themes in “A Milli.” He spits,

A million here, a million there
Sicilian bitch with long hair, with coke in her derriere
Like smoke in the thinnest air
I open the Lamborghini
Hopin’ them crackers see me like, “Look at that bastard Weezy.”

Here, he flaunts the fact that even millions are of no importance to him. He’d just as easily spend such riches on wining and dining women of questionable integrity as do anything fun with it. Indeed, he flies in the face of the white aristocracy, driving expensive cars so as to indicate to them that their plan to turn the world into one global capitalist village shall not go unquestioned. “That bastard Weezy” is out there fighting for all of us.

ABOVE: Wayne's comment on fetishism: Man juxtaposed with commodity.

Perhaps Wayne’s goals are best summarized by his anthem, “I Cant Feel My Face.” In this offering, Wayne interrogates the role of facades, those masks we are forced to put on in order to feel socially acceptable. When commodity fetishism and hyperreality are all there is, who among us, if we are to be honest, can really feel his face? ABOVE: Lil Wayne makes sure his face is still there.

Few among us, I think, could so eloquently express what we all feel:

I aint gotta lie I'm just tryin to be with me
bitches up in heaven waitin on me to die to be with me
I'm crazy for being wayne, no is wayne just crazy,
I've been around, I'm still around like the geicko cavemen
hairpin trigga know I won't shave it
I spot hip hop in the ocean I'm gon save it

We are that hip hop, afloat on a sea of broken promises. DeWayne Carter has jumped bravely into the brink to rescue us from the foamy brine. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that “To be great is to be misunderstood.” This must be the only reason that Lil Wayne has not before now been sufficiently honored. Kudos, Lil. Would that we all could exhibit the powerful predatory skills of a seasoned hunter like yourself. Welcome to the House of Pred.