He was nice way back in the Hot Boys days...but never got his due, because of bias against southern rap and other issues...songs like Block is Hot and Get Off The Corner, were technically and lyrically proficient and well written songs...For instance, if Meek Mill were to release Get Off the Corner tomorrow, word for word...it'd be considered dopeness
But people will just dismiss that entire era as "wobbly wobbly" nonsense because in rap it's not about reality as much as perception..and wayne wasn't perceived as an act to take serious or cool to like back then...by the time he started making the Sqad tapes he was an absolute beast, and that's when it went from being "the hot boy with the most potential" to "yo...this lil niqqa is a problem" and started building what became his core mixtape fanbase
Lil Wayne - what happen to that boy freestyle - YouTube
The post sqad era started with the Prefix and the was beginning of the run that ultimately catapulted him to the top of the game, and literally has more dope shyt than can prolly even be accurately listed...but from '03 to like '07 dude was in a ridiculous zone...he had mastered the stream of consciousness style and had the perfect match of straight spitting, stylistic flair, flow and charisma
Late '07 his style became more drugged influenced and eccentric which lead into the drought 3 era...and sometime in there the Carter 3 sessions (which had some of his best material)...most of wayne's new era fans caught on around here... by the time he re-recorded Carter 3 his peak was already passed, still put out a lot of dope stuff from that point on, but wasn't in the zone he was during his prime...it was also the height of his career, he became a popstar and biggest name in hip hop, received the obligatory backlash, became the most hated rapper on the internet and the personification of all that is evil and unjust in the world (see: the comments section of every semi-rap related
video on youtube)...essentially what John Cena is to the IWC, Wayne became to the IRC...got burned out from the insane output that shot him to the top of the rap game, and now largely raps like he's bored and completely uninspired...and lot of his stuff now sounds like it's made in some kind of formulaic template...the great shame of it all, is that he's so hated now it'll cloud how genuinely dope he was when he was in his prime...he doesn't get the rose colored nostalgia that's afforded his peers from the late 90's (juvi, bg, and even Turk
will get fondly talked about online now like they were young southern nas's) because people are too invested into hating him now