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On September 7, 2008, Lil Wayne stepped onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards and then stepped decisively away from the words on the lyric sheet circulating in the audience with the following lines…

I’m on my Disney thang, goofy flow/ I’m Captain Hook on the beat and my new car is Rufio/ Damn where my roof just go/ I’m somebody that you should know/ Get to shakin’ somethin’ cause that’s what [deleted] produced it fo’/ I make mistakes that I don’t ever make excuses fo’/ Leavin’ girls that love me and constantly seducing hoes/ I’m losing my mind like, Damn where my roof just go/ Top slipped off like Janet at the Super Bowl

Then, as Leona Lewis launched into the hook of Nina Simone’s “Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” he croaked, “Drizzy Drake: I love you, bwoy!” That namecheck was the only clue to most attendees that Wayne had just blatantly violated the unwritten rules of his own freestyle game by spitting another artist’s words. Though almost lost in host Russell Brand’s commentary on promise rings and presidential politics, it was a coronation moment rarely seen in the arena of rap, and with one verse, Wayne introduced the name of his protégé to the mainstream in dramatic fashion. Amongst those already familiar with the various Wayne-affiliated rookies collectively known as Young Money, the lines sparked a fierce debate over whether Drake was in fact ghostwriting for the master (he and Wayne both still claim he never has), but by the time the rap blog drama blew over, one thing seemed clear: Drake was the next big thing, heir apparent to Wayne’s multi-platinum throne and Young Money’s most likely flagship artist.

The buzz was confirmed by the radio phenomenon of “Best I Ever Had,” a soft rock-sampling mixtape track that hit #1 on numerous charts without major label support or even a record deal in place. But a second look made this passing of the torch seem like an unlikely proposition. Drake shares with Wayne a certain manchild vocal tone, but their styles are almost antonyms. Where Wayne rides his stream-of-consciousness through drug and gunplay into Freudian—almost hallucinatory—nursery rhymes, Drake hews rigorously close to the guidelines of rap formalism, pumping an incredible volume of two- and three-syllable schemes out of the same subjects: girls, multi-colored whips and his skill in the booth. He seems to depart from this formula only to talk about his emotional state, an introspection that usually happens when he shifts from rap mode into catchy and sometimes haunting R&B. On his own records, he abandons Southern double-time to push genre boundaries more like Kanye, rapping over chopped-and-filtered snatches of Coldplay, Lykke Li and Peter Bjorn & John.

The differences only get starker if you compare Drake’s bio to his project-raised, tattooed and codeine-addicted mentor. Though born in Memphis, Aubrey Drake Graham was raised in Forest Hills, an affluent enclave of Toronto that is about as far in mood and geography from New Orleans as you could get without a land bridge. Before he ever considered being a rapper, Drake was a child actor, portraying athlete Jimmy Brooks on the Canadian teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. His father, Dennis Graham, was a drummer for Jerry Lee Lewis, and he is nephew to both legendary bassist Larry Graham and Teenie Hodges—a guitarist best known for co-writing some of Al Green’s ’70s classics who’s played with everyone from Talking Heads to Cat Power.

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[Chorus - Usher]
It was all a dream
Yeah homie I'm on my job
And you can't take that away from me
Yeah I got my team
And I got all of my niggas behind me
And they give me the love I need
Yeah I got my foot in the door
Still hustling for more
Checking the game
Yeah I'm back in the life
Yeah I'm fed up
Hey I'm fed up
Hey I'm fed up
I'm so sick and tired of being sick and tired

[Verse 1 - Young Jeezy]
I am absolutely positively on my grizzy
Even though I'm sick of them tired, I gets busy
Started 62, what ended up a frisbee
And me, I like to stand at the stove until I'm dizzy
Ball so hard it's like I brought the game with me
Left my glove, so why you thought I brought your man with me?
'Bout to paint a purple picture like I brought the frame with me
I give it all up before I let the fame get me
I got niggas tryin' to sue me, bitches tryin' to do me

[Verse 1:]
I'm performin tonight you know that shit gon be packed
Pay me in advance and make sure that it's exact
My ex girl I'll probably show up for the simple fact
That tomorrow she can tell all of her friends it was whack
But Fuck dat tho this about me
They say my whole fan base is missin id
What the young trend settin musician I be
Got critics givin up the recognition I de-serve
Never bring yo mrs. By me
I'm it I'm it call me mr. I-T
If I get one wish Imma a wish to die free
They say gon head, ball like mrs. Ivory
And I do
The realest in my age group, no shit
Soho, cosmo, bob mar blow fish
Let's make a toast, tell yo friends come closer
Drinks on me like a coaster

[Chorus:]
We doin it big
Look at what I done
Look at where I'm is
It's only just begun
Cause I was stayin home
When they was havin fun
So please don't be surprised when they announce that I won
And this is how my speech goes
I deserve this shit, I deserve this shit, I deserve this shit
That's all I got to say, at the top is where I stay
And tell my haters never go away, the winner

[Verse 2:]
Long awaited, hated
Fans see me out and they holla happy belated
It's about time that you made it
I was bumpin yo songs when nobody else played it
When I was up in hot beat in atlanta steady givin daps
Fetchin niggas drinks but I never got to rap?
If anybody asked though I prolly woulda snapped
But I can't sign nothin til my lawyer get the fax and
No one decides who the definition of talent is
And mrs. murray look at what my talent did
And what yo business is
It's been a couple years
Guess it's not about who you know, it's just how you balance it
It's always awkward to dummy a nigga artist
And get on someone song when you know you comin the hardest
It's how you start actin when nobody can reach ya
My plan just hatched, happy easter

[Chorus:]
I'm doin it big
Look at what I done
Look at where I'm is
It's only just begun
Cause I was stayin home
When they was havin fun
So please don't be surprised when they announce that I won
And this is how my speech goes
I deserve this shit, I deserve this shit, I deserve this shit
That's all I got to say
At the top is where I stay
And tell my haters never go away, the winner

[Verse 3:]
Uhh, ok I do it for the love
Bunk bed flow, always one level above
If I'm in ya startin five you will never need a sub
And I'm neva lookin down so I always know wassup.
A lot of people sayin fuck me
Problem is they be tellin everybody but me
But I always got a starbucks verse bein brewed
Too hot please please double cup me
They never gave me support like chuck t's
And I never trust a nigga sayin trust me
Nick cannon and will neva did it this I'll
So you tell the house band don't you dare interrupt me
Thanks to my mother for never givin up
You deserve the world, now gon live it up
Thanks to uncle steve my hero who always saved us
I could never give back everything you gave us
And to my dad even though we was apart
I couldn't leave you out, you foreva in my heart
Yeah, and in the name of evelyn cher
I'll forever forgive anybody that neva was there
For me, no other woman could ever compare
My angel I hope heaven's prepared for wheneva you there...
[pause]
Uhh, I got a revolutionary flow in every scenario comin through ya stereo
Got a new chick, booty round like the merry go
Bitches like where he at, they be like there he go
And this verse deserve a burial
Don't cry for me this ain't motha fuckin mario
Yeah, and polo isn't at my session
It's the anticipation keepin everybody guessin like

[Chorus:]
Look at what I done
Look at where I'm is
It's only just begun
Cause I was stayin home
When they was havin fun
So please don't be surprised when they announce that I won
And this is how my speech goes
I deserve this shit, I deserve this shit, I deserve this shit
That's all I got to say
At the top is where I stay
And tell my haters never go away, the winner!