[oats]

that's an illogical leap, though, to go from "rap originated in NY" to "all rappers sound like NY rappers." There are distinct style and sound differences in different regions, and when I hear Lil Wayne, he does not sound like basically anyone else who has a southern sound. To be fair, I basically only listened to him during his peak years, and I haven't heard anything from the one you mentioned earlier. I could very well be wrong, but I'm still not really convinced. What would you say are his most "southern" tracks?

The conflation of complex lyricism and intelligence is a straw man; a lot of intelligent shit can (and has been) said simply. I'm just calling a spade a spade to say that the east coast is responsible for introducing complex lyricism, but that's only one aspect of what defines the style. Biggie didn't have terribly complicated rhyme schemes, but his production and lyrical content make him an unmistakably east coast MC. Just like Snoop is unmistakably west coast, and Finny is unmistakably a textcee with a mic in need of another hobby.

Wayne is his own thing altogether, which is a compliment to his creativity more than anything. I don't think it's unreasonable to say he's a southern MC, but having made this thread, I don't think I'm being as unreasonable as I suspected I was to think otherwise.