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Music

A Year of Lil Wayne: Some More Moments of Brilliance from Curren$y and Mack Maine

"At eight years old I sipped coffee on the couch and read the Wall Street Journal" – Curren$y.

Day 117: "New York" feat. Curren$y, Boo, and Mack Maine –  Young Money Vol. 1 , 2005

Continuing yesterday's discussion of the Young Money Vol. 1 tape, let's give some props to Curren$y, Boo, and Mack Maine. Wayne's "New York" verse appears separately on Dedication, over a different beat, as "Like Dat," so I won't cover it again, but listening to this tape how could I not comment on a song that opens with Curren$y rapping, "you know the boy a fast learner / at eight years old I sipped coffee on the couch and read the Wall Street Journal"?

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But I really want to give some props to Mack Maine, who comes through and just crushes his verse:

Who hotter than ya boy young Maine?
Still leave cum stains all on her tongue ring
Still pull up at the gun range in a plum Range
Still got a dumb aim to leave you with a numb frame
No car washer but I wax that ass
Uncle Sam in a drought, I tax that ass
I don't run with Juve or Skip, but I whack that ass
And I will fight a fan I'm rap's Ron Artest
I'm the wrong ar-test for you niggas to come test
There's no contest I bust straps, relieve stress
I send head shots, nigga fuck ya vest
And the hollow tips'll probably come and blues ya flesh
I been hot since Truth or Dare
Now I got more rides than the Super Fair
It's not a game, it's ya boy dark skin Jermaine
And I don't even know crackhead Lorraine

This song is a reminder of the vast and confusing realm that Lil Wayne's music occupies—several songs on this tape find another home in parts on The Dedication, for instance. Answers to what everything is in music are so laid out and easily catalogued now, but there was a time when music was a physical product and confusion reigned supreme, so music could proliferate in all its guises. I would guess that DJ Drama heard Wayne's verse here and rightly decided it deserved to stand on its own. But let's never forget the accomplishments of Mack Maine and Curren$y, who I'm appreciating more and more as I wade through this era of Wayne.

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