Lil Wayne

When Lil Wayne suddenly changed his image on the cover of Tha Carter (2004), the move amounted to more than a healthy set of dreadlocks. A solid seven years removed from his first Hot Boys verses, the self-proclaimed Young Carter — a mic-passing reference to Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter in the eyes of some — sounded poised for genuine greatness, and the eccentric MC hasn't stopped evolving in the years since. Ease into Wayne world with Tha Carter III's first single, "Lollipop". As our Next Steps prove, Lil Wayne has always aimed to change the game.

Here, we focus on Wayne's restless output, which runs the gamut of genre reference points — simply hit random and you'll hear what we mean, from the throwback R&B of "Hustler Musik", to the stuttering soul-man samples of "This Is the Carter", the rumblin' bass and split rhymes of "Make It Work for You" (alongside Juelz Santana and Young Jeezy), and the familiar fluid soul of "Way of Life", which borrows its bedrock vibe from Dennis Edwards' 1984 R&B classic "Don't Look Any Further".

According to Spin magazine, Lil Wayne dropped 864 guest verses and songs in 2007 alone. Considering he got his start as the youngest member (a scrappy 18 years old) of the Hot Boys way back in '97, he very well might be the toughest rapper to keep track of these days. That's why we skimmed the finest songs from his catalogue for you, drawing on the best of his many collaborations (with Jay-Z, T. Pain, Babyface, et al), the critically acclaimed Tha Carter trilogy (prepare to be stunned by his stream-of-consciousness storytelling and dense metaphors), and a few of his grandstanding guest verses, whether he's makin' it rain or poppin' bottles.