long ass interview 1st part of it
Between 2006 and 2008, there was no MC hotter than Lil Wayne. After being written off as little more than a footnote to the late-’90s Southern rap scene, Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Michael Carter, Jr., had emerged from the smoldering ruins of Cash Money Records and its once-explosive Hot Boys crew as not just a resurgent bright spot, but as a straight flamethrower. And for that two-to-three-year stretch, he burned brighter by the day.
The streets were on fire, riding the white-hot waves of his relentless flood of mixtapes, while radio and retail crackled with the fury of his guest verses. By 2007, Lil Wayne had seized control of the South and, in his “best rapper alive, since the best rapper retired” claims, he was making a legitimate push for control of the whole game. But despite the unprecedented productivity and with demand at an all time high, his highly anticipated solo album, Tha Carter III, failed to materialize.
Projected release dates came and went even as more and more songs hit the streets. Speculation around the project ran rampant: Wayne couldn’t make a radio hit to match his mixtape burn; Cash Money couldn’t keep the records they wanted for the album out of bootleggers’ hands; Wayne, who had made his heavy drug use well-known both in songs and otherwise, was too high and too unstable to deliver the project.
By the time early 2008 rolled around, there was a general sense that the album may never come out and that Wayne was burning so bright, and using so heavily, that he might flame out in spectacular fashion before he could cement his legacy with a classic retail release.
I was working at VIBE at the time and we were once again facing a dilemma: Wayne was the hottest MC on the planet and it was in our interest, and our readers’, that we cover him, but without a solid release date on the schedule, how should we plan our coverage? Then, the unbelievable happened. Word started coming out of the Universal building that the release of the Tha Carter III was imminent. There was music to hear. There was an interview to be done.
There was a cover story to produce. And so it was that in mid-February 2008, I headed to New Orleans to catch up with Lil Wayne while he was in his hometown for NBA All-Star Weekend. He had one or two media appearances to make—one was at an Adidas pop-up shop—and a couple of paid appearances and parties on deck, including a Myspace Secret Show, a short set at a party being thrown by Shaquille O’Neal and a party on a boat where he kicked it with Juelz Santana.
I spent most of the weekend standing around outside, smoking cigarettes and waiting for details on the events. I ran into Bun B outside of the Secret Show, watched Bill Walton jump off a parade float to order a beer in the French Quarter, met Wayne’s childhood friend-turned-DJ-turned-manager Cortez Bryant for the first time in a massive parking lot behind the convention center, smoked about a pack and a half of Camels while waiting to be invited onto one of the three tour buses the crew was using to slice through the narrow streets of downtown N.O. (one for Wayne and one each for Cash Money Records co-CEOs, brothers Bryan “Birdman” and Ronald “Slim” Williams).
I got to know his security guard, Big John, who makes a cameo shadowing Wayne in the “A Milli” video. At one event, we squeezed into a club thanks to some strategically parked cars that provided a barrier of glass and steel between us and a rabid crowd of some hundreds if not a thousand fans. Upstairs, I watched Wayne smoke blunt after blunt as a string of artists—including Juelz and Rick Ross—stopped by to kick it. Through it all, Wayne always kept a Styrofoam double cup well within reach.
I talked to Birdman on his bus one afternoon in the parking lot of a motel in the outskirts of New Orleans. And as the weekend wound to a close, I finally got on Wayne’s bus to talk to him a bit about everything going on in his world. The interview that night was brief, cut short by a question about his childhood that set him off and immediately killed the conversation’s vibe. Less than a week later, though, I caught up with him in New Jersey, the day after a show in Newark. Once again, we were on his bus, parked in an empty lot at the Meadowlands. Despite the tension that had arisen between us in New Orleans, the conversation that day flowed fluidly and covered a range of topics. He was in good spirits, and he played some new music, including “A Milli,” which blew me away. He talked about having a photo of him as a child on the album cover. I left that second interview confident that Tha Carter III was coming and that he had heat.
While I was working on the story, “Lollipop” arrived and started what almost immediately felt like its inevitable march to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. On June 10, 2008, Tha Carter III finally arrived. With a hit single dominating the airwaves and a pent up demand in the streets, the album jumped off the shelves. A week later, Tha Carter III was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with one million copies sold, becoming the first album since 50 Cent’s The Massacre in 2005. Lil Wayne was no longer a rap star, he was a pop star. And, despite a few health scares and a one-year jail stint, he still is today.
How was All-Star Weekend?
I ain’t really do too much. I’ve had better All-Star weekends. It was at home for me, so you kinda don’t wanna go out too much. Feel like you know everyone, no one new.
I was surprised you didn’t make it more of the actual NBA events.
I wasn’t invited. I mean, I ain’t gonna buy no tickets or shit like that. So I stayed my ass home.
At the Myspace show, you asked people if they’ve ever been in love. Was that showmanship?
I do it every show. In my life man, I’m always in love dude. Always.
Seems like it.
[laughs] Fortunately, yeah.
You enjoy it?
I mean, that lets me know that I have a heart. A lot of people don’t have a heart like that. It takes a lot for a person to fall in love. I’m glad to know that it really don’t take that much for me ’cause love is a beautiful place to be, to know that I don’t need all those first-class tickets to get there.
You seem generally happy and surprised that it happened. You mentioned that you had pushed her away.
Happy and surprised, yeah. It’s been a minute man. It’s been a long time. Love is wonderful, man. My heart big as fuck. I’m like a leaf, I feel everything.
Between 2006 and 2008, there was no MC hotter than Lil Wayne. After being written off as little more than a footnote to the late-’90s Southern rap scene, Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Michael Carter, Jr., had emerged from the smoldering ruins of Cash Money Records and its once-explosive Hot Boys crew as not just a resurgent bright spot, but as a straight flamethrower. And for that two-to-three-year stretch, he burned brighter by the day.
The streets were on fire, riding the white-hot waves of his relentless flood of mixtapes, while radio and retail crackled with the fury of his guest verses. By 2007, Lil Wayne had seized control of the South and, in his “best rapper alive, since the best rapper retired” claims, he was making a legitimate push for control of the whole game. But despite the unprecedented productivity and with demand at an all time high, his highly anticipated solo album, Tha Carter III, failed to materialize.
Projected release dates came and went even as more and more songs hit the streets. Speculation around the project ran rampant: Wayne couldn’t make a radio hit to match his mixtape burn; Cash Money couldn’t keep the records they wanted for the album out of bootleggers’ hands; Wayne, who had made his heavy drug use well-known both in songs and otherwise, was too high and too unstable to deliver the project.
By the time early 2008 rolled around, there was a general sense that the album may never come out and that Wayne was burning so bright, and using so heavily, that he might flame out in spectacular fashion before he could cement his legacy with a classic retail release.
I was working at VIBE at the time and we were once again facing a dilemma: Wayne was the hottest MC on the planet and it was in our interest, and our readers’, that we cover him, but without a solid release date on the schedule, how should we plan our coverage? Then, the unbelievable happened. Word started coming out of the Universal building that the release of the Tha Carter III was imminent. There was music to hear. There was an interview to be done.
There was a cover story to produce. And so it was that in mid-February 2008, I headed to New Orleans to catch up with Lil Wayne while he was in his hometown for NBA All-Star Weekend. He had one or two media appearances to make—one was at an Adidas pop-up shop—and a couple of paid appearances and parties on deck, including a Myspace Secret Show, a short set at a party being thrown by Shaquille O’Neal and a party on a boat where he kicked it with Juelz Santana.
I spent most of the weekend standing around outside, smoking cigarettes and waiting for details on the events. I ran into Bun B outside of the Secret Show, watched Bill Walton jump off a parade float to order a beer in the French Quarter, met Wayne’s childhood friend-turned-DJ-turned-manager Cortez Bryant for the first time in a massive parking lot behind the convention center, smoked about a pack and a half of Camels while waiting to be invited onto one of the three tour buses the crew was using to slice through the narrow streets of downtown N.O. (one for Wayne and one each for Cash Money Records co-CEOs, brothers Bryan “Birdman” and Ronald “Slim” Williams).
I got to know his security guard, Big John, who makes a cameo shadowing Wayne in the “A Milli” video. At one event, we squeezed into a club thanks to some strategically parked cars that provided a barrier of glass and steel between us and a rabid crowd of some hundreds if not a thousand fans. Upstairs, I watched Wayne smoke blunt after blunt as a string of artists—including Juelz and Rick Ross—stopped by to kick it. Through it all, Wayne always kept a Styrofoam double cup well within reach.
I talked to Birdman on his bus one afternoon in the parking lot of a motel in the outskirts of New Orleans. And as the weekend wound to a close, I finally got on Wayne’s bus to talk to him a bit about everything going on in his world. The interview that night was brief, cut short by a question about his childhood that set him off and immediately killed the conversation’s vibe. Less than a week later, though, I caught up with him in New Jersey, the day after a show in Newark. Once again, we were on his bus, parked in an empty lot at the Meadowlands. Despite the tension that had arisen between us in New Orleans, the conversation that day flowed fluidly and covered a range of topics. He was in good spirits, and he played some new music, including “A Milli,” which blew me away. He talked about having a photo of him as a child on the album cover. I left that second interview confident that Tha Carter III was coming and that he had heat.
While I was working on the story, “Lollipop” arrived and started what almost immediately felt like its inevitable march to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. On June 10, 2008, Tha Carter III finally arrived. With a hit single dominating the airwaves and a pent up demand in the streets, the album jumped off the shelves. A week later, Tha Carter III was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with one million copies sold, becoming the first album since 50 Cent’s The Massacre in 2005. Lil Wayne was no longer a rap star, he was a pop star. And, despite a few health scares and a one-year jail stint, he still is today.
How was All-Star Weekend?
I ain’t really do too much. I’ve had better All-Star weekends. It was at home for me, so you kinda don’t wanna go out too much. Feel like you know everyone, no one new.
I was surprised you didn’t make it more of the actual NBA events.
I wasn’t invited. I mean, I ain’t gonna buy no tickets or shit like that. So I stayed my ass home.
At the Myspace show, you asked people if they’ve ever been in love. Was that showmanship?
I do it every show. In my life man, I’m always in love dude. Always.
Seems like it.
[laughs] Fortunately, yeah.
You enjoy it?
I mean, that lets me know that I have a heart. A lot of people don’t have a heart like that. It takes a lot for a person to fall in love. I’m glad to know that it really don’t take that much for me ’cause love is a beautiful place to be, to know that I don’t need all those first-class tickets to get there.
You seem generally happy and surprised that it happened. You mentioned that you had pushed her away.
Happy and surprised, yeah. It’s been a minute man. It’s been a long time. Love is wonderful, man. My heart big as fuck. I’m like a leaf, I feel everything.
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