Kanye West made an interesting observation earlier this summer when he noted Hip-Hop was in a healthy place competition wise. G.O.O.D. Music has been a constant presence with “Mercy” and “New God Flow” both serving as small scale events as opposed to “songs.” Then there’s the forthcoming compilation album, Cruel Summer, set to drop in September. Maybach Music Group, on the other hand,  made it a mission to command summer 2012 following a blueprint having them release one major project every month. Where May saw Meek Mill’s Dreamchasers 2 and June with the conglomerate’s Self Made Vol. 2, Ross closes out July with God Forgives, I Don’t and Meek’s debut, Dreams & Nightmares, plays the closer in August.

An active summer in rap, indeed, from a release standpoint. Then there’s Young Money, whose shadow over rap never truly lost any steam. Nicki’s coasted past the 500K mark with her sophomore project while Birdman and Slim covered Billboard. Drake has been on arguably two of the summers hottest songs in 2 Chainz’s “No Lie” and French Montana’s “Pop That.” Plus, he’s gearing up for OVO Fest and the inevitable release of new music sure to set the Internet and trending topics on fire. Yet and still, Y.M. had yet to drop the project causing all the momentum to reside in their camp. The game changer if you will. Read the rest of this, after the jump.

Enter the announcement from Lil Wayne and DJ Drama the fourth installment to their legendary Dedication series would be dropping next month. Taking into account Weezy’s success and Young Moula’s stranglehold on FM dials, the feeling couldn’t be removed D4 does hold more than its fair share of significance for Wayne.

First things first, let’s get the obvious out of the way.

— For as controversial as Weezy can be at times – both right and wrong – let’s not forget the fact buddy had one of the most dominant stretches in Hip-Hop history from Tha Carter II up until the time he went to prison. That’s late 2005 to early 2010. In rap, that’s damn near unprecedented.

— While I Am Not A Human Being more than served its purpose of keeping Weezy afloat while he was incarcerated and Sorry IV The Wait was intended to appease fans for the delayed Carter IV (which was met with several side eyes from critics), remember one thing. The last truly groundbreaking, undeniable piece of work from Dr. Carter was No Ceilings; one of the best mixtapes of the past five years, by the way.

Having said that, Dedikation 4 is symbolic. It represents a competitive challenge anyone who has made a career off proving people wrong cherishes. Wayne having a chance to prove to his growing band of naysayers his mind still works with the same tenacity which birthed timeless material is what’s at stake. And that’s another trait lost in this. A truly stand-alone, replay-surplus mixtape from Wayne is just as good as an album. Wayne’s bread and butter and the cause for his meteoric rise to present day pop stardom began on the mixtape circuit thus birthing the term “mixtape Weezy.” And DJ Drama represents a significant piece to the puzzle.

Dedication 1 planted seeds. Dedication 2 dropped a bomb still being felt to this day. Dedication 3 was more so a pre-cursor to what would become the We Are Young Money album more than anything else. This is the reason why the only two voices heard on the tape would ideally be Drama and Wayne. Maybe a feature from Drake given the fact they do make quality music together, but this needs to be, for the majority of the listen, Wayne.  Also, just as important as Wayne’s approach and his lyrics happen to be instrumentals Dram feeds him. Tapes in the vein of D2 and N.C. worked well because they benefited from Wayne frantically rotating from Billboard smashes (“I Think They Like Me”) to niche beats (for example, “Watch My Shoes”).

In the grand scheme, Dedikation 4 is simply another mixtape from one of the all time great mixtape artists who just so happens to be one of the biggest musical names in the world. He’ll never have to fight and claw to gain the respect of his peers and the purchasing public as he once did.

Yet and still, it all boils down to pride. At some point, money, after a person makes enough of it, becomes secondary to love and respect. Why else would 50 still be promoting albums with no sort of buzz even though he’s valued at over $100M? Because it’s like Jay-Z mentioned on “Monster” when he admitted, “Everybody wanna know what my Achilles’ heel is/Love, I don’t get enough of it.” It’s why Brett Favre kept playing football. It’s why Kobe still chases that sixth ring.

Wayne hears the chants from the peanut gallery (the blogs, Twitter and wherever else us non-famous people with opinions reside). What better way to shut everyone up than with an indubitable piece of audio humble pie? I guess we’ll all find out next month when Wayne and Drama serve the meal next month.