Throughout Lil Wayne’s dynastic run, he proclaimed straight up that he “was not a human being.” While the tactic of proclaiming extreme, elevated difference is common - e.g., “I Am A God,” “The Ruler’s Back,” etc. Despite the multiple, important, and laborious discussions that such an analysis can lead to, and also considering the immense amount of excruciating baggage that comes packaged alongside Barter 6, the only discussion offered here will be an analysis of Young Thug as a voice that helps liquidate the autonomy of rap dynasties into a more total freedom. Although the listener, and perhaps most disastrously the critic, are experiencing this spectacle virtually and problematically, it’s an incredibly real thing for the artist. The point-click-and-access mentality (the male gaze) is regularly materialized into boastful music, a music that proclaims how the world can be owned, bought, and sold, but often one that can’t be held accountable - a world constantly slipping into fantastical, inherited dream-images of royalty, invincibility, or childhood superhero fetishes that are being lived by grown, adult men. The drama, as a creative force, seems to be perpetually ahead and behind the curve, as territories are discovered and/or squatted on amidst incessant bickering about cultural agency or material propriety.
The first few seconds of Barter 6 have Young Thug cooly whispering a cursive remark to the beat: “Pull that shit up fool, it’s ours.” It might not come as a surprise, especially since the central drama within mainstream hip-hop often involves the idea of ownership.
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