Lil Wayne vs. Asher Roth on the American Dream

Lil Wayne and Asher Roth have more in common than one would think with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: they both clearly illustrate the difference in opinions of the new wealthy and old wealthy on the American Dream. The American Dream is often defined with a rags to riches story. It is characterized as somebody coming from a financially unstable childhood and background lacking social that makes his or her way to the top (economically and socially)  through hard work. Both Lil Wayne and Gatsby, the main character in The Great Gatsby achieved this.  In order to make a statement about how they achieved the American Dream, something they so desperately desired, they live ostentatiously and over-the-top. However Daisy and Tom (two of the main characters that display old wealth in the book) and Asher Roth see this simply as an act and look down upon the way Gatsby (in Daisy and Tom’s Case) and Lil Wayne (in Roth’s case) live.  

"A Milli" by Lil Wayne

"I'm a millionaireI'm a young money millionaire, tougher than NIgerian hairMy criteria compared to your career just isn't fair"

In the Lil Wayne’s song “A milli” he boasts about having the bling and perks that come along with being a wealthy man, a millionaire to be exact. This effect of flaunting his money is something that Lil Wayne and Gatsby (as well as most other inhabitants of the west egg) in The Great Gatsby have in common. The first lines of the song are “a millionaire I’m a young money millionaire” which display Lil Wayne’s desire for everybody to know he is wealthy right off the bat. He repeatedly makes lines about his nice, high end cars such as his “Maserati,” “Lamborghini,” and his “coupe.” These cars are significant because they are a paramount symbol for wealth. The idea that he now owns these nice cars symbolizes how he has made it to the top, and achieved the American dream. Lil Wayne says, “ a million here, a million there” playing it off like a million dollars is not a big deal, he doesn’t even feel the need to keep track of the millions because he has so many.

"But asking why rappers always talk about their stuff is like 

asking why Milton is forever listing the attributes of heavenly armies. 

Because boasting is a formal condition of the epic form.

 And those taught that they deserve nothing rightly enjoy it when they succeed in 

terms the culture understands."

- Zadie Smith 

Lil Wayne had the odds stacked against him in his early life, so he boasts about having all of this said wealth because he had to work so hard for it, supporting Zadie Smith’s theory. He is proving to our society that people that come from predominately poor neighborhoods, like his of Hollygrove in New Orleans, Louisiana can make it. It is a political statement to show that through hard work and desire people can, indeed, go from rags to riches. This is illustrated by the line “Cuz my seconds, minutes, hours go to the all mighty dollar” because he spends all of his time working to become more financially successful and gain social mobility, which are two of the main elements of the American Dream. This line also illustrates how large his desire to become successful is.  When he says, “tougher than Nigerian hair” he is exclaiming how tough he had to be to obtain social and economic mobility, and he is displaying how much he went through because the hair of Africans are typically thought to be very tough and strong. In short, Lil Wayne is flaunting being wealthy because he had to work so hard and be strong in order to obtain it. 

"A Milli (Remix)" by Asher Roth

In Asher Roth’s “A Milli (Remix),” Asher Roth is not only remixing Lil Wayne’s song but he is criticizing it as well. Because of Asher’s difference in background (growing up in a suburban, middle class family), he does not necessarily know where Lil Wayne is coming from. He sees Lil Wayne’s lyrics as meaningless bragging rather than a statement about how far he has come from so little. He says “A million here, a million there ya you got a mil but for real dog nobody cares,” when in reality, people do care. People like to see a success story like Lil Wayne’s as proof that the American dream is still alive, and Asher does not see that since he did not have to cling to the idea of the obtaining American Dream in order to become wealthy and have social mobility, because he has had those advantages since childhood.  Asher Roth and Daisy Buchannan in The Great Gatsby have this in common; they both are critical of new wealthy people’s lavish show of wealth. He further mocks the original “A Milli” when he says, “I’m the best sword fighter in the land contest me I’ll be drinking wine while practicing my fencing.” This is a caricature of the new wealthy, being gaudy in their actions; doing things that are thought to be wealthy in order to appear wealthy. He is doing this in response to Lil Wayne’s excessive display of wealth, but what he sees as simply over-the-top exhibition of wealth is not just that; it is in reality a display of pride, not solely on how rich he is but how far he has come and how hard he has worked.

Gatsby as depicted by Leonardo Dicaprio 

 

"No wasting time at Shafters or [a name, indecipherable]

no more smoking or chewing

bath every day

read one improving book or magazine per week

save $5.00 [crossed out] $3.00 per week

be better to parents" (173).

- Gatsby

In these two songs Lil Wayne draws a parallel to Gatsby and Asher Roth has more in common with Daisy and Tom in The Great Gatsby. Gatsby’s gaudy lifestyle comes across as tacky and more of a pretentious act to Daisy and Tom. About Daisy’s feelings towards West Egg, the narrator says, “she was appalled by West Egg, this unprecedented ‘place’ that Broadway had begotten upon a long island fishing village”(107).  By saying that Daisy thinks Broadway had begotten West Egg, displays how she thinks of all of this lavishness as a performance; people are pretending they are old wealth by acting over-the-top and flaunting there money. However, in reality, Gatsby (who the character that mainly displays actions like this in the book) is simply trying to enjoy the fruits of his labors. He is trying to prove  [make a statement] that what he worked so hard for has paid off in social mobility and wealth.  In other words, he is trying to prove to himself and the rest of society that he has achieved the American Dream as shown in the quote above. Like Roth, Daisy just does not understand the need to try so hard and make this statement because she has always been wealthy and had these advantages and perks at her fingertips. Like Lil Wayne, the odds were stacked against Gatsby, and this is why he feels the need to boast: to show to old wealthy people and people in his same situation that he overcame his hardships and he is worthy of having social mobility.