word games

Lil Wayne’s New Single Has the World Asking: Is the ‘G’ Silent in Lasagna?

In his review of The Anthology of Rap, New York book critic Sam Anderson points out “one of the great paradoxes of rap: The toughest, coolest, most dangerous-seeming MCs are, at heart, basically just enormous language dorks.” Forcefully bringing that point home this week has been the chatter surrounding Lil Wayne’s crazy comeback single “6 Foot, 7 Foot.” Among many, many other awesome things proclaimed on the hyper-dense track, Weezy lets it be known that “Real Gs move in silence like lasagna.” And now the world retorts: Dope line, but is the “G” silent in lasagna?

Over at Billboard, Mariel Concepcion pondered the question, and then actually called people up to talk about it! Says MTV’s Jayson Rodriguez: “A cursory listen and the line comes off clever. But then if you slow down and think about how the ‘g’ and the ‘n’ connect, you realize they work in conjunction to make the pronunciation of the word come together so it takes the sting out of the line.” That seems to be the general consensus, although no one’s too upset about the apparent flub. BET’s Carl Chery adds “If we start being technical with lyrics, then we’ll have to void a lot of these rappers’ punchlines.” (Very true, Carl Chery.)

But Vulture checked with our peerless copy editor Alicia Kennedy, and she’s strictly pro-Weezy. Kennedy says that according to Merriam-Webster, the “g” is officially silent in “lasagna,” which should pretty much dead all confusion right there. As she explains it (and as Billboard concedes), the “g” only comes into play in the Italian pronunciation of the word, which is of course the dominant pronunciation. But, technically, Wayne is totally covered. Also, think about it: You can’t hear the “G.” It’s silent. In that case — well done, Wayne! And now on to the next burning question: Is his “mind so sharp” he “fuck[s] around and cut[s] [his] head off”?

Lil Wayne ‘Lasagna’ Line In ‘6’7’ Causes Controversy, Thoughts? [Billboard]

Lil Wayne’s New Single Has the World Asking: Is the ‘G’ Silent in Lasagna?