Lil Wayne has distanced himself from his peer group simply by embracing his love for rap with open arms much like the way the lovably rotund Mabel Thomas used to lovingly squeeze her son Roger on “What’s Happening!!” Last year MTV News unofficially stamped Weezy F. Baby as the hottest MC on the planet, but now we’ve pulled out all the bells and whistles! We had to: When the MTV News hip-hop brain trust started coming up with this competition, Wayne was #1 on just about everyone’s list. He’s undeniable to us, the fans and the rest of the rappers out there.
Why He’s Hot
Lil Wayne has distanced himself from his peer group simply by embracing his love for rap with open arms — much like the way the lovably rotund Mabel Thomas used to lovingly squeeze her son Roger on “What’s Happening!!” Last year MTV News unofficially stamped Weezy F. Baby as the hottest MC on the planet, but now we’ve pulled out all the bells and whistles! We had to: When the MTV News hip-hop brain trust started coming up with this competition, Wayne was #1 on just about everyone’s list. He’s undeniable to us, the fans and the rest of the rappers out there.
His volume of recent work has kept us on our toes. You never know if he’s going to drop an official record or just throw some heat out to the streets for free, just because.

Although he hasn’t dropped a solo LP in two years, he put out the duet LP with his dad, Baby a.k.a Birdman, Like Father, Like Son, in October and still records practically every day, whether for his own projects or the many dozens of guest-appearance requests he tries to fulfill.

But we’re not applauding the 24-year-old MC just for having created the largest body of work of any of his peers in the past year it’s the overwhelming quality of that quantity.

The New Orleans native rarely turns down requests for cameos, so in the last year alone we’ve heard him with a mind-boggling array of performers, from Robin Thicke, Mya, Enrique Iglesias and Gym Class Heroes all the way to the heart of ‘hood with Rick Ross, Ja Rule, Young Jeezy and even the Shop Boyz.

With all the verse-hustling he does, you’d think Wayne would be in danger of burning out, but as he told us himself, you don’t have to worry about that if everything you put out is hot and sounds totally different. Weezy’s microphone assaults have been as diverse in attack formation as they have been lyrically striking.

His flows have come in the form of everything from spoken-word street poetry (“Dying”), a reggae chat mixed with French patois (Swizz Beatz‘s “It’s Me B—-es” remix) or even halfway singing (his “Sky’s the Limit” freestyle).

Meanwhile, Wayne has been at his lyrical zenith with superlative wordplay that hearkens back to the days when fly MCs like Redman and  were in abundance and metaphors used to fly on wax with regularity (“sticking to the script like java”).

His lyrics include keep-you-on-your-toes subject matter that ranges from the effects of intoxication to sexually unabashed groupies; from kissing Baby to President Bush being America’s #1 villain.