Lil' Wayne at the 52nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles - REUTERS/Mike Blake
In a nutshell: yes, he is.
Flavorwire, in vogue with the current lament that traditional literature has died, has put together a gallery of famous rappers who have usurped the role of literary wordsmiths in today’s society.
Titled “Famous Rappers and Their 20th-Century Literary Counterparts“, the hilarious list throws out some pretty abstract comparisons–but backs them up! Comparing everyone from Big Boi and Faulkener (“They’re both darkly eloquent and utilize the same fictionalized cast of characters repeatedly”), Biggie and Hemingway (both “inflated their tales of toughness and got into violent conflicts with their contemporaries”), and yes, Lil Wayne and Vladimir Nabokov (“Both have reputations for being abrasive and taunting other rappers/writers with less talent for impressive metaphors”), the list is definitely amusing, if not completely sensical.
Though NewsFeed does think that there is a bit of a gender blind-spot happening (M.I.A. as the new Gwendolyn Brooks, anyone?).