Listen my friend, just because one acknowledges that Wayne has real talent and was a force in his prime doesn't mean I don't respect other great rappers. Don't put words into my mouth. Secondly, those who immediately discount Wayne without having any real knowledge on his real quality projects like the The Drought is Over series, Dedication series or The Carter 2 are the same shallow minded individuals that mutter retarded opinions like "I hate rap, but I love Eminem." I'm not saying you believe this, but it's the impression I get when you say flat out wrong things like Wayne is "talentless." When he's shown time and time again that dude can legitimately rap and completely changed the game with his flow, wordplay, charisma (an attribute you can't give to certain other quality rappers.) and etc. Whether you want to believe it or not, 80% of people that really know what they're talking about in hip-hop give prime Wayne his dues because they are deserved.

Also, I don't know what you mean by the pop culture machine in general as Wayne has become a caricature of himself both in his music and of the mainstream's opinion of him. There's no pop culture machine pushing him as quality anymore, only as a joke. Which is a shame considering he was a force back in the day and that's a fact that people either willfully forget about it or aren't aware of because of how he's looked at in the public eye in 2015.

And for the record, I don't believe Drake is a legend, but I do believe he's doing the right things and has only ever released quality, accessibility should not be something we use as an attack on rapper's or their credibility as that's just petty and says more about the one dismissing the rapper than it does about the rapper themselves. Hip-Hop fandom in general is probably the most immature and petty of all music fan bases, but none are worse than people that push shallow ideologies like "Real Hip-Hop" that purely comes from a place of superiority, of thinking they're better than the masses so no rapper that has any public appeal can ever be good. All of this is coming from a guy who's favorite rapper all-time is DOOM but I wholly understand the appeal of rappers like Drake or Wayne, I respect what they do and won't ever be shy to bump La La La or 5AM in Toronto