Art And Poetry Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne: The Urban Poet

Recently I attended a Lil Wayne concert and his music and performance captured my attention and gave me a greater appreciation for poetry.

At the concert I noticed an overwhelming amount of marks on his body that did not seem to be cuts or bruises. Once I took a closer look I noticed his body was like a canvas with tons of artistic tattoos that expressed his emotions and struggles almost as well as his lyrics. The first tattoo I noticed was the newest addition to his collection, it reads, “I AM MUSIC” right above his eyebrow. The words are written to look like he carved it with a razor blade; they are in a shade of red. The words look like he is literally bleeding “I AM MUSIC” which shows how passionate he is about what he does and that music is in his blood. Additionally, he has two teardrops under his eye. The teardrops represent the people he has lost. They also represent the struggle he has endured through out his life. On the side of Lil Wayne’s face there is a fleur-de-lis. Lil Wayne is from New Orleans, Louisiana. His neighbor hood was one of the most affected areas during Hurricane Katrina. After the hurricane the city of New Orleans adopted the fleur-de-lis as a symbol to remember the storm. The fleur-de-lis represents his past. On Lil Wayne’s eyelids he has a tattoo that says “ FEAR GOD”. This tattoo shows that despite his gangster image he is still religious.

Lil Wayne’s tattoos represent a lot of what he has been through and what he believes in but his lyrics remind me of a more modern version of poetry. With each song it creates a story of an event that took place that made him who he is today. In the song “ I Miss My Dawgs” he speaks about memories he has with his friends that he grew up with and that he will always he there for them no matter what. He expresses this when he states, “If ya ever died I swear to God I got yo kids homie, Whats mine is their I gotta give homie”. The lyrics express how caring, giving and guinne he is. While at this concert the last thing I expected to hear from this man, that is sagging his jean shorts with no shirt on and covered in tattoos from the tip on his forehead as far as I can see on his legs, was lyrics about how much he cares about people and that even though they are writing hate songs to him he still has respect for them and misses them.

When Lil Wayne was rapping most of his lyrics came off as if there was not a meaning behind his lyrics but after listening more closely I could hear his pain, anger, struggle, as well as his determination to make it to the top. His determination is clear in his lyrics from “Only Way” when he says “It ain't coming to me so I gotta go get it”. He also shows his willpower in his song “The Sky is The Limit” he says how he will do anything to become successful, “And if you look high, you see that im gonna be in it, The sky is the limit”. Lil Wayne’s lyrics