The Lil' Wayne cover of next month's issue of XXL stops short of actually calling him the best rapper alive or better than Jay-Z (a la Wayne's Complex cover) or whatever, but I notice they did have the sheer balls to put him on the cover instead of Biggie, who died 10 years ago (damn) this March. That's gotta mean something, right?

I mean, had they put, say, Fabolous or Lil' Jon, both of whom supposedly have albums coming out soon, on the cover, with a little blurb in the corner that says "We'll always love Big Poppa," that would've just been wrong. But at least Weezy F. Hornbeck is a pretty good rapper.

Is he really the best rapper alive, as he likes to claim? I'm sure plenty would beg to differ, but it's not like there isn't a case to be made in his favor. Below, I've put together both cases for and against Weezy F. Hornbeck being the best best rapper alive.

The Case for Weezy F. Hornbeck

The guy's got skills. He rarely raps about anything of any consequence, but damn it if Weezy F. Hornbeck can't string words together with the best of them. At the risk of invoking the language of the oppressor, he's truly a credit to his region.

The guy's got balls. He called out Jay-Z in that issue of Complex, and then his version of "Show Me What You Got" pretty much pwned Jay's version. So far Jay has yet to really respond. At least Pusha T from the Clipse called him teh ghey on the radio.

The guy's prolific. As Woody Allen likes to put it, 80% of success is just showing up. You can be as talented as you want, but if you never do anything, what difference does it make anyway? Where as some of his peers seem to disappear for years between albums, Weezy F. Hornbeck always seems to have some sort of new album or mixtape in the works.

The Case against Weezy F. Hornbeck

He raps about bullshit. How much of a feat is it, really, to rap effortlessly about things that don't really require any effort in the first place? I realize rapping about being hot and riding around in your car and what have you is what they do in the South, but still.

His albums. The guy's got some good albums under his belt, but so does Noreaga, and I don't see anybody other than a few random reggaeton fans calling him the best rapper alive. Where is Weezy F. Hornbeck's Reasonable Doubt, or even his Doctor's Advocate, for that matter?

He's suspect. There should be some sort of rule that you can't kiss another man on the lips and still call yourself the best rapper alive. That's just sending out the wrong message to today's youth.

What do you d-bags think? Is Lil' Wayne really the best rapper alive? If not, who is?

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