Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. is no longer just your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. In fact, considering the way he’s been carrying around a guitar lately, you could be forgiven for wondering if he event wants to be a rapper anymore. But the fact remains that for 12 long months, no one dominated hip-hop like Wayne did. No one sold more records, generated more headlines or appeared on as many tracks. No one flooded the market with as much product, and — in a genre loaded with compelling characters — no one was as mercurial, controversial, hilarious and, well, bizarre as Weezy was.

Not to mention, when you move 1 million copies of an album in one week, it’s pretty safe to say you’ve crossed over to the mainstream. Wayne most definitely was hip-hop in 2008, but he was pop culture too.