Lil Wayne is a legend in hip hop and is known as the first rapper from the south to achieve mogul status. Born and raised in the deprived Hollygrove area of New Orleans, Weezy (real name Dwayne Carter) was discovered by Birdman when he was just a teenager and shaking up the underground, he became Cash Money’s face and, before long, its new star.
However, Lil Wayne’s run didn’t last forever, and although it is impossible to deny that Wayne had one of the most successful mixtape streaks in rap history, by 2014, after a decade in the game, his Young Money counterparts were more relevant than him.
This led to Carter having to lean on more prominent artists to maintain his relevancy. However, this fairly common tactic doesn’t work for everybody, especially if you’re prone to making huge blunders, and unfortunately for Lil Wayne, that he did when featuring on a song with Atlanta rapper Future.
At the height of his career, when Wayne released Tha Carter III, he was considered untouchable. He was the next big thing and was churning out number ones and platinum-certified records. However, as the hot new rapper, there is a lot more you can get away with compared to when you’re on your way out of the game.
Around 2014, as Nicki Minaj, Drake and Tyga were soaring in the charts, Lil Wayne was preoccupied and feuding with Birdman. However, he did find time to do one thing, and that was to collaborate on a track with Future. However, in the era of cancel culture, Wayne found himself receiving some serious backlash for what can only be described as a lapse in judgement when writing.
In the track entitled ‘Karate Chop’, Carter saw it fit to rap a lyric that mocked the murder of Emmett Till. Carter’s attempt to incorporate Till’s death into some kind of lyrical metaphor provoked an unfathomable amount of hate towards the rapper who didn’t anticipate it.
In the song, Wayne raps what can only be described as a meaningless drone which includes the rap, “Pop a lot of pain pills / ‘Bout to put rims on my skateboard wheels / Yeah Beat that pussy up like Emmett Till.” This line alone ended Lil Wayne’s career as far as commercial rap goes, and he was rarely called upon again.
You can listen to the track in the video below.
