Lil Wayne x Paul Pogba - Kindly Remembered

As much as we are a naturally curious species, we also are extremely withdrawn to new things. It’s engrained in us to be fearful skeptics of what we don’t or haven’t tried to know. That’s probably an evolutionary matter. Being reserved to the unknown was the difference between life and death when we were nothing but hunter-gatherers.

We say we hate a food that we tried once when we were a child and can’t face up to again. We say we didn’t care for a movie we watched whilst on our phone on a stream rife with awful quality. We’ll proclaim avid distaste for a musician of whom we only listened to three songs of. 

When something is completely new or unfamiliar, our initial response is to put our guard up, to be closed-minded before they could open their world to us. This leaves a lot of revolutionary ideas on the floor, shunned out by fear of the unknown. But in some cases, with just a bit of time to take a step back and sit with it, a new innovation can one day be appreciated for what it truly is and its legacy gets the sending off it deserves.

When Paul Pogba came to England, most people didn’t really understand who or what he was. People thought they knew what he was because he looked like players who’d graced and dazzled the Premier League before. But just because his figure and skin tone were similar to the likes of Patrick Vieira and Yaya Toure, it doesn’t mean Paul Pogba had anything to do with them.

At Juventus, Pogba was an attacking midfielder. Conte deployed him as the furthest forward in a midfield with a combination of Marchisio, Vidal, Pirlo, Khedira and Hernanes all taking up post behind him. That’s because Pogba was a player who never cared for defending. He was a player you wanted close to the opposition goal because he could do things that hardly anyone else in the world could.

His technical ability, his temerous skill, his use of both feet, made him a midfielder who demanded our awe and attention. At Juventus, profiled correctly by the genius that is Antonio Conte, with a hoard of midfielders next to him to do all the things he didn’t want to do - Pogba was the most admired young footballer in the world. The fact he could do what he could do with the ball, accompanied by his 6ft 3 powerful profile made him truly one of a kind. The closest we’ve ever got to Zinedine Zidane. 

But you’d never play Zidane in a pivot. 

Pogba’s move to Man United was a momentous moment for the Premier League. It was the first bonafide superstar signed from Europe since Andrey Shevchenko moved to Chelsea in 2006. It was a ‘you had to be there’ moment which every young football fan across England was feverishly ecstatic about witnessing. But as excited as we all were, the Pogba we saw in Juventus never made it across to Manchester.

Pogba started his first game of the 2016/17 season at home to Stoke in a midfield pivot next to Ander Herrera with Juan Mata ahead of him. Why Mourinho decided to put him there? I’m not sure. But it this would continue for the rest of the season and for most of his career at Man United.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the only coach who got it right. He played Pogba beside Nemanja Matic and Ander Herrera, two physical and diligent players who'd do the dirty work, freeing Pogba to do his work further forward. The 2018/19 Pogba was the closest we ever got to the Frenchman's level in Turin but after the signing of Bruno Fernandes, he was cast out and forced to play again in the pivot or in a weird position out wide on the left.

But other than this year, Pogba had a torrid time in England. Torrid because he, as the Premier League’s record signing, was judged and criticised to a level we’ve never seen before. Torrid because he was constantly played in positions and systems he should never have played in. Torrid because his name was smeared and tarnished by pundits who never even knew him despite still playing at a consistent high level. 

England has a problem with superstars. We saw it with Bellingham over the past 12 months. We don’t like egos. And Pogba has an ego. That’s not to say he was a cocky brat. He had an air of playful confidence and self-assuredness about him which was easy to love whilst being an easy target if he couldn’t back it up on the pitch. 

People will say that for the money United spent on him, he should be expected to adapt to a new position in a new league if he’s so good. That’s like buying a premium steak from the butchers, boiling it and then expecting it to taste how it does in Miller & Carter. You play your best players in their best position because that’s how they’ll win you games.

Pogba never got a fair chance. Without appreciating the skillset he possessed, he was merely glanced at in England and immediately labelled a box-to-box player, a player to sit in front of the defence and collect the ball. He was good enough of a footballer to somewhat make it work however it left the Premier League without the superstar it was promised.

Pogba was like nothing we’d ever seen before in England. He’s a player of an ilk we still haven’t seen since. And his uniqueness confused everyone before it was blasted with criticism and distaste. We never got Pogba so a lot of people, especially a lot of older people, never liked Pogba. 

If we’re talking about misunderstanding, if we’re talking about never giving something a chance to breathe before scolding it, then we have to talk about Lil Wayne and we have to talk about ‘Rebirth’. 

Lil Wayne was the biggest rapper in the world in 2009. He was still running extremely hot from the release of ‘Tha Carter III’, one of the highest selling records of all time. His run of classic mixtapes like ‘Dedication 2’ and ‘Da Drought 3’ also took him to another stratosphere whilst simultaneously altering how artists exploited and used them.

He was unimpeachable in the rap game, with only Kanye West being able to hold a candle to his cyclopean status. So that’s why, when he announced he’d be releasing a rock album later that year, nobody believed he was serious. ‘Why would the best and most famous rapper in the world suddenly pivot to rock?’ was the question on everyone’s lips. The public belief was that Lil Wayne was bluffing, he’d never follow through.

But surely enough he released the album ‘Rebirth’ in early February 2010 and it went down like a lead balloon. Though it debuted at no.2 on the billboard charts due to Wayne’s stature at the time, it quickly plummeted as everyone realised that this rapper was an awful rockstar.

Never before had a rapper tried to make a completely rock-laced album before and Lil Wayne showed that there was a good reason for that. Even now, every song sounds more like a parody and you’ll struggle to find anyone out there who would tell you with a straight face that Rebirth is a good album.

Yet it’s also one of the most important albums of the 21st century. 

To put it bluntly, emo rap wouldn’t exist without Rebirth. Lil peep, Juice Wrld, Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti have all credited the album and Lil Wayne for the sound so clearly etched into their songs. And it’s not just the sound. The way Lil Wayne was dressing, the way he was acting and all the face tattoos he was getting - you can see traces of all of it in today’s rap. No rappers got face tattoos before Lil Wayne.

His unique high pitch and snarling can be heard if you listen to the earlier versions of Young Thug and Future. It was him who brought autotune into rap and made it stick. It was his innovative and free-thinking spirit which birthed some of the most successful hip-hop artists of the 21st century. Even though the album was, and still is a tough listen, it created a legacy that can be found in all corners of the genre today. 

In the same way, though Pogba’s spell in England wasn’t what it could’ve been, should’ve been - he was still a cultural phenomenon. Every kid who looked like him dreamed of scoring one of his pulsating volleys or getting the iconic Juventus pink kit. He had people dying their hair blonde, he had rappers and musicians wearing his shirt - he inspired so many people around the world with his flair and enigmatic personality. He made being a footballer even cooler.

He wasn’t one who ensconced himself inside of football. He merged football culture with the US through popularising the dab and according to complex, he even shifted UK streetwear towards a style that was traditionally enjoyed in the USA. He was football’s Allen Iverson.

Pogba was a proud muslim who openly expressed his religion on social media, he was campaigning for Palestine years before other public figures did so. He used his platform and fame to express positivity, creativity and to stand for what he thought was right. But only now are we realising the lasting impact his career has had on the beautiful game.

Both artists were also let down by those close to them. Wayne’s later career will be remembered for a fierce and well-publicised dispute with his mentor Birdman wwas accused of withholding royalties from the rapper and in 2015 Wayne sued him for $51 million. Pogba was the victim of a grim extortion attempt at the hands of his brother and childhood friends. They held him at gunpoint and demanded £10.8 million to be paid into their bank accounts before being arrested and jailed.

Both have also endured controversy, jail sentences and bans throughout their careers. Maybe the price to pay for being unapologetically yourself, is that your life will never be straightforward and there will always be those who refuse to understand. 

It’s not controversial to say that both of these guys are two of the most influential people to ever play their hand in their respective crafts. They pushed boundaries, trailblazed creativity and were mesmeric to watch when at their best. Though their careers in general maybe didn’t go as well as they should’ve, it doesn’t matter. They created a legacy that will outlast them long after they retire.