How was Lil Wayne “biting” Jay Z viewed in real time?

[Street Knowledge]

Lil Wayne

1.)Has Jay Z’s lyrics tattooed onto his body

2.)Copied his album covers(V1/V2)

3.)Stated He stopped writing his lyrics down because he found out Jay Z wasn’t doing it. So basically his entire strategy of recording music was inspired by Jay

Lil Wayne Stopped Writing Down Lyrics Because of Jay-Z

For more than two decades now, Lil Wayne has not been writing down any of the lyrics he raps. He says it's because of Jay-Z.

americansongwriter.com

4.)Jay would release studio albums and then Wayne right after would rap over all the instruments . Not just the hits, like random album cuts like December 4th



He would also use his lyrics numerous times. It got to the point where birdman was like bro stop trying to be Jay Z, be your own man

The question I have though is from what you remember how big was this criticism in real time from actual rap fans. Either in person or online forums etc.

 

[ReasonableMatic]

I thought Wayne was average and borderline WACK until he started emulating Hov from his Sqad Up series into Prefix, Suffix, D1, D2, + and seemed to have leveled up A LOT out of the blue.

Jay-Z is Wayne’s favorite rapper tho, it makes sense.

 

[904]

Most Wayne fans don't know how big a fan of Jay he is so they don't really see it..

 

[Love Sosa]

Jay got more flack for biting back in the day than Wayne did

 

[Jaguar93]

You old ass rappers better stay on tour
You’re like 44, I got a 44, I’m 24
I could murk you and come home when I’m 44

 

[Metal Face]

but I thought the south didn't listen to Jay-Z

 

[2ATMsYouSteppinOrWhat]

also the format for C1 & C2 copied Vol. 3 with the whole Hova Song Intro/Interlude/Outro

 

[Awesome Wells]

Most Wayne fans don't know how big a fan of Jay he is so they don't really see it..

This here.

Back then, a lot of MC's were biting Jay's whole style. But for Wayne, it made his music better, so I was with it. When Wayne started spending more time in NYC and was recording in the city, his music and style changed crazily. He was always dope, but there was a big jump in quality during that run.

 

[Scottie Drippin]

CutMost Wayne fans don't know how big a fan of Jay he is so they don't really see it..

Complete lie and absolutely untrue.

It was seen as a positive. Wayne as the "Best Rapper Alive" in the Hov semi-retiremenr era was a huge deal as he was the first southern rapper to claim and get that title, but a major part of it was him getting co-signs from NY rappers (Dipset) and his huge Jay-Z (and Nas) love.

A big part of the reason why he didn't have hell during his best rapper Alive era from other fambases was that he was almost specifically made sure to say he wasn't trying to say he's better than them, but that he's them in their prime.

Wayne basically explained to Jay-Z fans in real time "Hey, if you want that peak era Jay-Z shyt, I fukked with it as much as you did and that's what I'm on right now".

 

[Long Live The Kane]

In real time, he was far from the only person doing it …you had outright Jay-Z clones gaining decent traction back then on the mixtape market…so it was more like Wayne was more of one in an entire generation of rappers influenced by Jay than a “ohhh why is way biting/exalting Hov so much”

 

[Tasha And]

They just called him Jay-Z of the south

 

[Mac Ten]

It was a good thing…

Wayne thought outside the box and started studying his idol.

I think Birdman said that Wayne used to bump Jay when he wasn’t around

 

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Meh

 

[jensyao]

They just called him Jay-Z of the south

i thought they called T.I. that especially after exposing lil flip on the summer jam screen at birthday bash 2004

 

[-DMP-]

it was viewed as a positive. We was quoting dedication 1 like the Bible on the back of the bus to and from football games