Lil Wayne has influenced the style of multiple generations of rappers from the likes of Kendrick Lamar to Ken The Man.
Few artists have inspired Weezy, though, and in the latest clip from Jim Jones recent exclusive interview for HipHopDX’s #Hack3d video series the El Capo rapper affirms Juelz Santana was one of them. Jimmy actually recalled the time he spent with the Funeral rapper while discussing the stylistic influence Dipset had in early 2000s era Hip Hop with Tuma Basa, director of Black music and culture at YouTube, and elaborated on how Wayne picked up their trends and created his own swag.
“Well Wayne spent the whole summer with us,” Jim begins. “We spent the whole summer with Juelz pretty much. He just adapted all the styles. He pretty much knew what he was doing. He knew what he needed and shit like that to persevere in this game. And that was to be able to get an identity shift and shit like that. That’s what he did and shit like that. You dig.”
While also discussing his image and influence, Jim Jones also commented on how compatible The Diplomats style was with the then Cash Money rapper’s aesthetic and narrated the fluid transition in which they inspired each other and other artists.
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“They had a different way of moving and dressing coming from the South,” he says. “Him being blood to correlation affiliation. Us being very drippy and shit like that. It was natural. It happens like that. Most people that hang around us end up moving in one accord and shit like that, which is not a bad thing. If I was around some niggas like us, I would try to move like that too. These niggas looking kind of smooth, they fly, they gangsters. So shouts out to Wayne, shouts out to the whole Cash Money and shit like that.”
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Much of the fashionable synergy Juelz and Wayne share is illustrated in the countless videos the duo released during their collaborative heyday in the late 2000s and early 2010s era. Visuals like “Homerun” and “Black Republicans” reveal the influence that Lil Wayne believes flooded his likeness into the rap game, to which he reflected on during an interview for Bumbu last year.
“Look at me, now look at music,” Wayne says.”They all look like me. I love it.”
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“Nine times out of 10, I hope that I’m the reason they’re doing music. That alone right there is a blessing and that alone right there lets you know that they’re not trying to be like me, but actually paying homage and saying you are the reason I am someone,” he continues.
Watch the clip above and dive into the full clip above and dive into the full episode of DX’s #Hack3d series hosted by Marisa Mendez.
