The Lil Wayne Death Watch That Was - Chris "Preach" Smith

“It’s better to burn out than fade away.” Kurt Cobain

Last Friday night, social media got rocked with the news from celebrity crazed news
outlet TMZ that Lil Wayne was allegedly close to death while hospitalized in Cedar-Sinai
Hospital in Los Angeles, California for seizures. Folks were buzzing about. I was wary
about the news because social media, mainly Twitter, has a tendency to declare 
celebrities dead just for fun. For a couple of hours, there was a massive degree of
confusion. It was made worse because other news outlets took what TMZ said and
ran with it instead of fully vetting it. That got compounded by Mack Maine, his Young
Money cohort sending out tweets saying that Weezy was good, they were watching
college basketball and that there’s going to be some people embarassed. Not even 
that stopped the chatter. Finally, Weezy sent out a tweet. And that seemed to stifle
the death watch, and in the process leave TMZ scrambling to wipe egg off of its face.

But as Lil Wayne is somewhere recuperating after being released from the hospital
yesterday, there’s still a lot of issues surrounding the whole situation that can’t - and
shouldn’t - be waved off as nothing. First, let’s all be real and basically admit that we
know what has led to Lil Wayne having seizures. We have known. It’s not exhaustion,
as Birdman would have you believe. It’s that dependence on sizzurp, that drank. The
same reason Rick Ross caught that bout of seizures a couple of years ago. Exhaustion
wouldn’t lead to seizures leaving you laid up in a hospital for 6 days, not by itself. The
people have always regarded Weezy’s toting around a styrofoam cup of that mixture
as an open secret. Call it what it is, an addiction. And if you do, ask yourselves this: 
does Young Money care about their boy? We know that Wayne has an album coming
out in a couple of weeks. I’m not suggesting that this situation was manufactured at
all to generate media hype. But the man responsible for a big deal of your success is
pulling an Amy Winehouse number, and we know how that ends. Even the family of
Emmitt Till, who he maligned on his ‘Karate Chop’ track, sent him well wishes. If I’m
Birdman, my mind is heavy. 

Another issue that has been raised is just how frayed the chain of verification is in
journalism and news delivery these  days. Once TMZ retracted a part of their initial
story saying that Weezy was being given last rites, the Twitter retractions from different
news outlets was swift. Thankfully it’s not so widespread, but it’s still there and remains
unchecked. And TMZ is going to feel the sting of this for a minute; they built their rep
partially on getting news before all the major news outlets (i.e. Michael Jackson’s death)
and now they potentially face legal action. In the end though, I can’t help but think
that the death watch that never was revealed a lot of flaws that we can’t cover up
with Solo cups, expensive cars and brand labels. I don’t have sympathy for Weezy for
putting himself in this situation. I don’t want to see him die over it either. But I don’t
want to sit and watch delusions from the overly sanctimonious folks who think that
this is a chance to show off their ego by getting their Nancy Reagan on, or witness
folks so root for death. Maybe last Friday night was all about a death watch that never
was, but maybe it was needed to let certain things go. Perhaps Weezy has that on his
mind as well while being reminded that he is a human being after all.