Top 5 Lil Wayne Verses Of 2015

Lil Wayne has had a tougher year than anyone. Carter V has officially reached Detox status, and though he's promised the Free Weezy Album, we're not waiting up at night for that either. The sad part is, none of it seems to be his fault. Today, however, we got "Glory," a brand new Weezy single, premiered exclusively on TIDAL. 

Perhaps TIDAL has come to Wayne's rescue, but regardless, the new track shows that Wayne's skills are in tact while his best work remains barred from the public. We should have never doubted him in the first place. Though we haven't gotten an album this year (or last year, for that matter), he's given us a mixtape and landed features on some of the year's biggest projects. With all the shit going on around him, Weezy's output in 2015 shows he's still the workhorse he's always been. 

We hope Wayne can free himself of Cash Money soon enough (and pick up a nice paycheck for $51 million), but he's already had a solid year, releasing more music than any "incarcerated" artist other than Gucci Mane. 

Here are Wayne's hottest verses of 2015. 

Wayne's appearance (alongside Ricky Ross) on previously little-known Orlando rapper YT Triz' recent street hit is his most surprising verse on the list. Though Wayne could've got "Vamonos" buzzing with little more than a phone-in, he happens to bless YT Triz with one of his best verses of the year. The thriller movie production is the perfect backdrop for Wayne to get fierce. It turns out, Tune can do a lot with the three syllables included in the song's title: "My momma said the streets is wicked, I said ma I know / And only thing pops said was, 'How much I owe?' / And cops givin' niggas tickets just for drivin' slow / They tell me that it's the codeine, I say, 'How you know?'"

Damn, working in moms, pops, racial injustice, and a screwed "fuck the police" ad-lib, all while hitting maximum speed and fury at the same time. Only Weezy.  

When a project finally emerged in the midst of Wayne's incarceration, we wondered if he was gonna address Birdman & co. directly on his rhymes. Indeed, that, along with a truly sad amount of apologizing, was basically all he did on Sorry 4 the Wait 2. When he wasn't busy throwing a pity party, or changing his name from Birdman Jr. to "Ugly Duckling," we got a few glimpses of the old Wayne. His hottest lyrical assault came on "Selsun Blue," a dramatic improvement on Troy Ave's "All About the Money." 

Wayne's best material has always been natural, never forced. Though he dilly-dally's from time to time, he scrambles his thoughts back together for some remarkable (and hilarious) moments on "Selsun Blue": "Bad bitch with me got thunder thighs and her mother's eyes / Li-li-li-lick my lollipop like it got gum inside." Wayne's sex raps are a little trying on slow jams like "Me U & Hennessy," but when he's got free domain over a track, we'll gladly let him say whatever's on his mind. 

Dark Sky Paradise was, no doubt, Big Sean's "deepest" record yet. But on what aimed to be the deepest record on the album, Sean delivered a particularly shallow verse, devoid of any content save for a few clever puns. Luckily, Wayne laced "Deep" with a particularly inspired verse. Wayne's bars may have been recorded before the world caught wave of his Cash Money imprisonment (there's a "YMCMB" shout-out), but the song dropped when he had released few album features since putting Birdman on blast. 

Whatever was going on in his life at the time, he's ready for the worst: "Anything can happen cause a broke man is an optimist / Well, tell them I'm waiting in suspense." But he's still committed: "And it ain't about if they remember you, they remember rap / So just spit it back and hope somebody diggin' that." So far, he's made good on both promises.  

ASAP Rocky - "M'$" 

When we interviewed ASAP Rocky about A.L.L.A, he revealed that, after he heard Wayne's verse on "M'$," he wanted to re-do his own verse, though it was too late in the recording process. Indeed, on perhaps his biggest guest spot of the year, Wayne went off on a subject the Young Mula boss knows better than anyone. As many wondered if his fallout with his former family had blunted his inner-fire, Wayne had to lay down a mean one; for Yams' sake, if no one else. Wearing a fresh PETA shirt while he murders you and your dawgs, Weezy straight spazzed. 

"Glory" is the Wayne single we've been waiting on all year, and we should've known TIDAL would be involved. Luckily, this shit was hotter than any of the Nicki Minaj screenshots they've recently dangled before our eyes, and "Glory" found its way to our plebeian ears within minutes. 

Though Young Thug's Carter V will probably drop before the Free Weezy Album, Tunechi has said that FWA is his best work yet, and "Glory" is enough to keep us excited for a few more months. The beat isn't much, but it doesn't need to be. Though the track is five minutes of straight #BARS, if we had to pick, verse #2 takes the cake: 

"I'm aqua-cuckoo, I turn your Fruit Loops to chocolate Yoohoo / I'm hotter than Honolulu, my clothes and socks and shoes new / I been a boo-boo since ga-ga goo-goo and Dada, FUBU." 

Sillyness.