When an artist clearly pronounces the letters at the end of each word it makes their voice sound stronger and does a better job of showcasing their vocals than lyrics which are allowed to run together can do. There are a handful of artists who are great at clearly enunciating their lyrics (Jamie Scott, K'naan, Mika, Ryan Tedder), but Rob Thomas is the best; Rob Thomas is always awesome solely because his voice is amazing, though. Enunciation really makes it more obvious that the artist has a good voice; even though Brett Dennen has a really great voice, Ed Sheeran is much better at doing something as simple as separating his words and, as you can clearly hear his vocals in each separate word (rather than jumbled together), his vocals will always sound better than Dennen's.
Vocalists who can't figure out that if they just open their mouths a little more, and put an emphasis on the last letter of each word, they will be easier to understand annoy me just a bit. Seeing a song that's titled "Without You" then listening to Usher go on and on about how he cannot do anything "withouchu" is like the inside lid on a box of chocolate telling you that you're about to eat something with a peanut butter filling, then biting into something filled with raspberry cream; it's unexpected, unsatisfying, and kind of annoying. What is so difficult about stating "Without. You"; nothing, nothing is difficult about that, Usher. Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say" does not bother me because, not only is he great at clearly enunciating every other word in that song, and in all of his other songs, but the title of the song also implies that phrase will be pronounced in that particular way; if "Without You" read "Withouchu" it would be more acceptable (I may also be unbothered by it because I really like Jason Derulo, but it's probably that first thing about pronouncing your lyrics correctly..).
Of course Lil Wayne and Eminem are great at enunciating their lyrics; you have to be good at clearly pronouncing each word if you're going to be speaking that quickly, otherwise you'll just spit out a garbled mess of words that carry a quarter as much meaning as the actual lyrics do. As a side note, if you're concerned about hearing more from these great artists, Lil Wayne (currently thirty) did claim, in 2011, that he would retire by the time he was thirty-five, but announced in 2012 that Tha Carter V would be his last album; Eminem, on the other hand, is going to be releasing his eighth album in 2013, though he has been more focused on providing his experience for Slaughterhouses's second album and Skylar Grey's second LP (which features his vocals on a verse in "C'mon Let Me Ride", whose video was released today).
The whole reason I began writing this was because, watching Rob Thomas perform, you can clearly see that he must have taken some sort of class on enunciation. If you watch his mouth, he over pronounces each word because that is the only way you can clearly and effectively enunciate each lyric while singing. In everything that he has been involved in from Tabitha's Secret (before they split up and Thomas, Yale, and Doucette added Cook and Gaynor to become Matchbox Twenty [kind of like how Kara's Flowers added another guy to become Maroon 5 after a short split]), to his solo career and, of course, the ever present (and always fantastic) Matchbox Twenty, Thomas always has great vocals because it is so easy to understand the lyrics (making it easier to hear and appreciate how great his voice is and the emotion behind each lyric). Part of the reason that Thomas' career has been able to persist for so long is because he is just so easy to understand that his music is easily enjoyable. You can have great vocals but, if your lyrics come out garbled because you cannot be bothered to pronounce any hard consonants, then your voice is not going to sound great when recorded.
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