Lil Wayne

Along with fellow Cash Money Click labelmate Juvenile, Lil Wayne is one of the most important MCs in the unfairly overlooked early 21st-century New Orleans rap scene. Blunt ghetto narratives about the hustler's life and woozy nearly psychedelic free associations fill Wayne's albums, but it's his allegiance to his home town that makes him a unique and forceful presence in hip-hop, and an important reminder that there is more to the Big Easy than Fats Domino and Dr. John.

• r&b/soul
• hip hop/rap