Excellent article on Lil Wayne

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There's the matter of his voice: At some point, the croak whittled down toward something whiny. Jay-Z's voice has been dulled with age, too; compare the all-possessing baritone of "Where I'm From" to the brighter hue Jay trots out these days. Jay's skill set deteriorated, as well, but, in his case, we don't have to consider the impact of a drug dependency. And Jay found a new lane. It's a measured, less-exciting lane, one far more dependent on personality than flow. But at least with Jay, we're not constantly reminded of what was. Then, there's the cough syrup. For years after Rikers, the terms of Wayne's probation mandated that he stay sober. When Tha Carter IV failed to live up to the expectations established by the spazzy mania of lead single "6 Foot 7 Foot," I remember a hypothesis kicking around: Might "6 Foot 7 Foot" — the only track on the album on which his wordplay didn't seem blunted — have been the last track recorded before he had to put down the codeine? Since, we've been working under the assumption that this new Wayne is a sober Wayne. (That assumption was disrupted by the seizures: TMZ reported Wayne suffered the attacks after going on a syrup binge). Even without court-mandated sobriety, though, I wonder how long he could've maintained his elite level. For years, it seemed, all he had to do was open his mouth. And for years, he did, constantly. Isn't it possible that eventually, after long enough of that kind of thing, you run out of words?

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