Lil Wayne complex magazine interview (+ pics) *very long interview*

[Elano]

In the last 12 months, our reigning Man of Next Year emerged as the most prolific, most compelling, and most bizarre voice in music. Lil Wayne is hip-hop’s ace in the hole, but is he working with a full deck?

It’s hard to believe that less than a decade ago, Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. entered the national rap conversation as the baby gangsta, the mascot, the light relief to the sinister head-bashing pronouncements of his Cash Money Records brothers the Hot Boys. But today, Lil Wayne—having declared himself “the best rapper alive”—has emerged in his second act as the walking embodiment of hip-hop itself.

In a post-album age where sales are tanking and the Next Big Thing is a YouTube video away, he has turned conventional economics on its head, increasing his value by saturating the market with his gurgling, clenched-throat verses and a Cheshire grin. Within the past few years, New Orleans’s new favorite son has guested on more songs than Luda and Busta combined, been responsible for more mixtapes than
pre-Aftermath 50 Cent, and released more music than Tupac’s corpse. Surely anyone listening should be sick of him by now. But no. Wayne—who’s quickly becoming as known for his growing rap sheet and love of mind-altering substances as he is his mind-boggling output of music—has recorded close to 300 songs for his sixth studio album, Tha Carter III.

Somewhere along the way, though, Wayne turned into the very rock star he’d long been mimicking. He’s Jim Morrison now, the Lizard King, nihilistic and delusional and still gifted enough to spin it all into perfect sense. To talk to him is to realize he exists inside a world of his own making where logic is upended: hoes become housewives, surrogate fathers get kissed on the lips, and raps don’t have to make sense. There, Wayne rules as an iconoclast, determined to do something new, but wholly defined by what came before him.

You make music like someone who’s trying to leave a legacy behind.
Exactly. Actually, legends don’t try it. You gotta let them know after they gone or try to catch them within they last five years to let them know that they’re a legend and they have a legacy. But they haven’t let me know that yet, so I’m still trying…at the Acura dealer right now trying to get that fucking Legend, you know.

You make music like someone who’s trying to leave a legacy behind.
Exactly. Actually, legends don’t try it. You gotta let them know after they gone or try to catch them within they last five years to let them know that they’re a legend and they have a legacy. But they haven’t let me know that yet, so I’m still trying…at the Acura dealer right now trying to get that fucking Legend, you know.

You don’t think you’re a legend to a lot of people yet?
To those people I live for—my family and friends—and not because of none of these albums or none of that. Things that I do for them that they can tell you about make them call me a legend.

So if you were to pass away, how would you want to be remembered by the world?
Tell you the truth, I ain’t got time to stop and look.

What are you looking at?
That green-ass dollar sign, and it got a bright-ass light somewhere. A lot of people’ll tell you the bright light’s at the end of the road; why the fuck is it that bright if it’s the end of the road? I don’t know where the fuck it’s at. I’m trying to find it and when I find it, I had bought me like three more light bulbs and some, like, lifetime light bulbs. I’ma switch it out when that light go out, it’s so hot it might burn me…a million watts. I’m a Martian, yes, and if you understand any of this then you’re Christ

You did a song with Nelly last night. What do you think about his standing in the game compared to your standing in the game?
I don’t think about nobody else’s standard in the game. No level is higher than me right now in this shit. If I was going to watch where another person at in the game it would have been Jay, a few years back, ’cause he was, to me, the greatest. But as far as me watching anybody else, I’m all about me.

Hence “The Best Rapper Alive.”
Yeah, I stated that. Thank God there’s actually no award for the best rapper alive, because two things: either niggas would be mad that I’m actually getting the best rapper alive award and I said I’m the best rapper, or I’ll be mad that niggas are getting my award.

You’ve been going at Jay a little hard lately—
Nah, I haven’t went at Jay at all, not once. Not once. What do you mean going at him?

Well, you have—
Because to me, I’m from New Orleans and if we go at a nigga, somebody dies—either me or them. That’s what we call going [at someone]. I’m from the murder capital and I stress that everywhere. I told the hip-hop police that in New York when they brought me to jail after that show, and start asking me questions about Jay-Z and 50, I’m like, “Dude, I’m from New Orleans, the murder capital. I’ma die with this on me [points to tattoo tears]. It don’t go nowhere. These don’t come out.” I’m real with that. We don’t beef over wax. I promise to God, and He knows: We will kill you. When I have beef, you’ll be asking me this same question but they’ll be checking you at the door and all that type of shit. You’ll have to get searched. I’ll be in prison, basically.

So you would do it yourself? Because you’re saying—
You’d expect me to pay somebody to do it? You supposed to be able to do anything in this world. That’s what Martin Luther King told me. He ain’t never put a specific on what to [do]. He said you can do anything. “Kill” falls under that. What I’ma pay a nigga for if I won’t do it? If I got beef with you, nigga—if I have beef with you, why would I send him to do it? You don’t know him. Niggas might have beef with me, but I ain’t got beef with nobody. But the moment I do, they gone. And that’s on my life.

Wouldn’t doing it yourself put you in danger of losing the family and friends that you mean so much to and that mean so much to you?
I’ve done so much they don’t even need me to do anything for them but love them the way I do. And you can’t stop love, not even with bars nor handcuffs. You can’t stop love with a casket. And I’m rich and wealthy with love. All that other shit goes to the dogs.

Do you think it’s possible for you to get into rap battles without getting into beef?
A rap battle isn’t important; it holds zero percentage to the game, or at least the game I play in. It has no percentage because I will devour anybody. Remember back in the day it was like Biggie, ’Pac, and Jay [who were considered the best]? Then it was Biggie, Jay, Em. Then it was like, “Y’all can’t leave out Andre 3000!” Then he started moving up the ladder and then he got out that bitch he was so cold. Like, you can’t compare that shit, he’s too cold. That’s something else. That’s where I’m at with it. Right after I tear you up with your bars, right there I’ma do the rock shit, get on my guitar.

So do you honestly think you’re a better MC than Jay?
I think I’m a better MC than anybody who’s an MC. I don’t think I’m a better MC than anybody who was an MC. The dude that is an MC right now, I’m better than that one. But Jay-Z, I ain’t better than Jay-Z, never will be, ’cause Jay-Z is Jay-Z and better is an opinion. And even in school they told you opinions wasn’t shit.

So then “best rapper alive” is an opinion?
Nah, hell no. The best rapper alive, to me, is a fact—that’s why I produce the way I produce and display what I display, because obviously it’s not a myth. But I know the nigga who’s competition is saying, “That nigga probably the best rapper alive, for real. Right now. I just try to do what I do ’cause I’ll never be able to do that, ’cause obviously he’s not even human—he’s just a fucking walking rap. That nigga’s a walking music note.” Tunes—that’s my nickname. Nobody never knew why they gave me that name, but that’s what I’m living up to.

So is there anyone you’re competing against?
Yeah…time. Me and that nigga got a serious problem against each other.

Who’s winning?
[Laughs.] You already know who’s winning, man—that nigga. You know at the end of the day who wins, but hey, a great battle is a great battle, people pay to see that.

When did this all start for you? It wasn’t always like this.
Yeah, it was. Y’all just started paying attention. I tell y’all that every time, if I’d just started then it’d be fake. I been grabbing the mic when Juvie not rapping and telling them it’s about me. Y’all just looking at that little kid: “Jewelry, little braids.” That’s his jewelry, that’s his braids, his life. Those words he’s rhyming? Ain’t nobody write that—he write that. Nobody tell him what to think—he think that.

Recently you’ve been claiming Blood a lot. That’s something that seems new to me—
Go back through your history. Juvenile’s video, “Back That Azz Up.” I’m in there with my hat on, what color that was? All red. The old Hot Boys pictures that they threw in XXL, check them. The new pics in XXL, check them. Boy’s flag been raised since he ever came out. Don’t disrespect the B gang like that. You basically saying because I’m me, they let me in. Nah. I was already in, I been under the fire, blood. Y’all just started paying attention.

When was the last time you went without smoking weed for a day?
[Laughs.] I done it recently from Friday night up until Saturday night when I was in jail in Boise, Idaho. Apparently they don’t let you smoke weed up in there—no shit.

What’s wrong with them?
I don’t know, man, it’s like medication. Get a real bad stomachache and go see a real good doctor, he be like, “Nigga, that’s a pill bottle of weed!”

What’s going on with you and Superhead?
Super Bread! Karrine, that’s my shorty. Of course the world has what they see her as—obviously I don’t. People just be looking at the situation thinking, “Oh, he’s getting super head?” That’s not even a question. That’s like saying you’re in a bank [and] you don’t get no money. What the fuck did you go in there for? Fucking right. That is a bank, ain’t it? That is Superhead, ain’t it? [Laughs.] I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.

You were also deeply involved with Trina, who also has a risqué image. Is there a reason you’re drawn to these types of women?
Why the hell would I want to be with somebody who ain’t been through much? When I meet a person that went through that kind of stuff, that makes them more of a somebody to me. It’s like finding a million dollars in a garbage can—it ain’t about where you got it from, it’s what you do with it. I make the most of mine. You see what they go through. Her new single is called “I’m Single Again.” [Laughs.] You can ask anyone that’s been in my world who ain’t in it right now where they’d like to be. And if they don’t say with me, you smack that bitch ’cause she lying. Unless she tells you God [or] Heaven. Other than that, Hell ain’t even better that what I can do. I’m hotter than Hell. That’s why I know I can’t go—I’m too hot. I’d take over. I could be totally wrong, but that’s damn sure what I be thinking. Fuck it. As long as it feel good, I’ma keep thinking that way.

So if you have 270 songs and nobody's heard them, how do you get paid off them?
Tax and little shit. When niggas get shit that be leaking, we gotta figure out a way to beat this leak shit-out of 200 something songs, you're going to get songs leaked, so that's why I just do everyone at the same ability or hype. I try to top the last songs I've done basically. Now we've found a little way, we can actually, I don't know if you can-but we sell the songs to a company that wants them, most of the time ring tones.

Do you think that having so many songs out for free makes people not want to pick up the album?
No, I think if that's the case then you're stupid because you read the whole play wrong. When you hear me on everybody's beat, that's my promotion, I am my promotion. I sat down with my team at Universal, and I had to let them know I don't want a street team. I was like, "I don't want you to have to tell a person to play Lil Wayne's album or please can you spin this, I don't want that, I want those motherfuckers calling y'all like, 'where the fuck is that Lil Wayne album?'" I'm my best promotion, straight up, I get better on everything you hear, every song you hear you think it's mine and some people be actually upset that it isn't.

Is there a statement you're trying to make with the album?
Nah...not at all, not at all, I don't make statements, I make moves.

Do you think your life has a meaning?
Yeah it does, of course. I don't care, I'm not worried if it has a meaning to the world-but to my family and friends, yes my life has a meaning, I live through them.

So if you were to pass away, what would you want the statement of your life to be, how would you want to be remembered by the world?
I can't answer that question either because if I tell you how I want a motherfucker to perceive me while I'm [young], then I need to be pinched because I got too much bullshit time on my hands to tell you what another person should be thinking about me, fuck no. I can see red out of my eyes, you can see blue so people love me, people hate me, people like me, people never heard of me. I can't answer the question for all those people.

What do you listen to these days?
Me! All day, all me. Ask me this question too: do I not like anybody? Nah, it ain't that, I got friends in this whole industry, everybody who do anything is cool with me, but you're not about to see Kobe at AI's game, chilling, watching. He gonna be working on being Kobe, making Kobe better but that's how I do me, I gotta listen to me, critique and analyze everything, every time you hear music playing. I don't want to be without that Aaliyah, "Let Me Know," "Killing Me Softly," shit like that. I don't really listen to no rap.

You seem to be singing a lot more now too.
Mmmm, hmmm. Pain, that's all that is, pain, pain brings that out you.

Where's the pain coming from these days?
Me. If you blame something else for your pain then you're an asshole. You are your pain, nigga. You can cut yourself right now. That don't hurt because you are your pain. If it hurts you, then you done that, it's a mind thing. You ever notice when you have a very stuffy nose or you have a cold and you eat something, you don't taste nothing, you be like, "I can't eat nothing, I can't taste it, I'm hungry," that's because you don't actually taste nothing, you know what I mean? You are you, you make everything around you. You make water, you make the sky, because it's you, if you don't want that to be water then it ain't water, fuck. It's you, so...ya dig?

So is there anybody you're competing against?
Ask Oscar De La Hoya because he's a beast, because he caught Floyd Mayweather and Floyd Mayweather got like 10 million and they say he [Oscar] got like 25 million. When Michael Buffer started speaking he didn't say broadcasting live from Showtime HBO, that nigga said, his first words were, "Brought to you by Golden Boy Promotions..." That's his fight, I don't give a fuck, beat me, you made my fight, [claps] thank you. Can you please whoop my ass again on TV? It was the most viewed fight ever in history; I broke records, thank you. That's how you gotta think man, that nigga's a monster. Him, Tom from MySpace and Bill Gates, I just wanna smoke three blunts with them, just three, just three blunts, I bet you I'll come back high, whoo, them niggas are beast.

What about Mark Cuban?
He's a G for real, I saw him coming out of my condos one day with an iPod on him and two big niggas with him, ain't no security. They were just rocking, three together. I ain't got no racist issues, but when you see a cracker with two niggas, you know that cracker got all that money, he don't even need to see a nigga, no black people ever need to come in his eyesight he's so rich-and these your homeboys? I respect the fuck out of him for that, you know, and he ain't see me but he saw my homie, he asked him what's popping tonight, he's a G for real, so I fuck with Mark Cuban heavy. I love a nigga who do what the fuck he want, just like I told you, Martin Luther King said we can do what the fuck we want, he do what the fuck he want, him and Bam Margera. What will Bam do next? Whatever the fuck they want...that's one of my favorite shows.

[Laughs] What's your writing process like? You just jot everything down?
 I don't write nothing, I just keep ideas and never fucking use them. I just write down shit, like bad situations or stories. Jot them down as I go, like, cool idea, and if I fucking remember when I'm in the studio-when I'm in the studio, when I hear a new song, I'm going to start a line off fresh and I always just keep going because I be like, "I'm killing it right now but I know I got some bad ass ideas written down."

How do you lay down your verses?
Sporadically. I just be chilling, drinking, smoking and I'm like turn the mic on. I visualize a lot of things too, I like to see it before I say it, how I want to look on the video or if it's going to be a single, I take it all the way down to if I was rapping this motherfucker song a capella to a person that don't know or like me, that's how I approach every song, how can I get a person to pay attention to it? I ain't gotta get you to like me but I can get a person to pay attention. Like, the people you're sitting next to on the plane and they're wondering why the fuck you're sitting next to them in first class, I want them to be able to ask me a question and I'll be able to start rapping to them and they don't even know it's a rap. That's how you do it, that's how you bring people into whatever you want to bring them into.

I see...
What I mean is, if you working the door at the Trump Towers, and when you got the job they told you to say "hello" or "goodbye" to everybody that pass out that motherfucker, but when you clock out and you work your door at your house, you don't even speak to motherfuckers, or you be like, "what up nigga". You can't come to the Towers and say "what up nigga," you gotta say, "hello" and "goodbye." Now it's on you to get your point across to where even they say "what up, nigga." You gotta figure out a way to make them motherfuckers feel exactly what you're saying because everybody went through the same thing, the whole world. Black, white, green, yellow, purple, dogs, animals, people, we all go through the same thing, ain't no different shit about us, nobody.

Did you ghostwrite Tity Boi's verse on "Duffle Bag Boy"?
Hell no, everybody be asking that, it's so great that people think I wrote it because it shows that I am helping the game. I'm making niggas get on their shit. He's just so much on his shit to where y'all actually thought I wrote it. Like I wrote an album with Juelz Santana and I ain't going to lie, niggas ain't going to listen to that shit in New Orleans for some years. I can't help but be competitive, niggas is spitting and I'm glad because you gotta look at it like when Biggie was doing it. When Biggie and Pac did it, they didn't have anybody trying to beat them.

To what extent do you think competition has helped today's rap game?
I really can ride and listen to the radio now, you know what I mean, because whatever comes on, niggas ain't on no bullshit no more. You got Rick Ross, he's spitting, you got Jeezy, he's spitting, Plies, these people been out. "If I don't do nothing I'ma ball, counting all day like a clock on a wall": man, I gotta talk, because people are listening. "Bling Bling," that shit went everywhere, nobody even knows I made that. White people be like, "You have bling bling in your mouth." I'd be like, "do you know I created that term?" You know what I mean?

Right.
It ain't that no more, it ain't the, "Back That Ass Up" era no more. Like I was saying, I made it to where, these fly niggas in the game, it was Puffy, Jay, you gotta put on a Versace t-shirt, hat, glasses, all that. You can throw on a v-neck and walk down the red carpet at the Grammys. But let me break real down to you, we done made it to where you can actually wear a colorful pair of tennis shoes with a check and a star, with an ape on it, a colorful hoodie, you look like a fucking cartoon and you can actually make a song about it and people going to love it. Now who the hell dumbed down fashion like that? Who created a path so you can do that? Who started wearing Bapes? I mean no disrespect to the Clipse, nor Pharrell and them, but I was the hottest nigga to ever have Bapes on...quote that, and I'm the hottest nigga that'll never put another piece of it on because of the way they did me.

How'd they do you?
No disrespect to nobody and I fuck with the homie Nigo. He's cool as a motherfucker because he let me keep the shit, wear whatever, it's nothing against him and I ain't stopping wearing because the Clipse said. I stopped wearing because I don't want no more problems. I don't want y'all niggas to think I wanna be like y'all and y'all get mad at me. We brought y'all through the 'Nolia way back in 2002. We brought y'all through there so y'all was straight, feel me, niggas showed y'all love then they fuck with Gillie-you know, that's a whole story; he was on the video so that's why I really kind of thought that this is about me, they shoulda said my name, is that a promotion? But like I said, I just don't want no problems so that's why I took it off, plain and simple, I don't want no beef because beef is a different fucking thing from where I'm from, I don't want that, I don't want that at all, I-don't-want-that.

Do you think you will ever settle down with one woman?
I think they don't commit to a nigga, they committed to a myth. I'll be on the road two weeks straight, the whole time I'm telling them, "oh I'm coming home, oh I love you blah, blah, blah" soon as I get there, I done pulled in about seven that evening, at 10 I'm going straight to the studio. Ain't no woman want to get into that. I got marriage in the future, though. I just don't talk too much about it, because I ain't sure yet, that's the example of saying I'm engaged and nothing happened and I ain't do that, but marriage in the future, hopefully. You know the person when you just ain't ask it yet, [laughs] I ain't ask her yet but...

Does she know who she is?
Mmm-hmm. I was thinking hard, the [BET] Awards are tomorrow, so I had the ring-I don't have it with me, I was trying to get it for tomorrow, but it's a problem, fuck y'all up.

You were going to propose on stage?
 I was going to hopefully win the award, I was going to do it like this: if I had that ring I'm not going to do it on the reg, I'm only going to do it if I win the award. If I win the award then I'm supposed to get married, but no I didn't get the ring from them so I'm not going to do it. She'll be there tomorrow, though.

What scares you?
Never having a wife, a not-leaving wife

Really?
 I don't want to do that shit alone, like my family and friends can come and share the weekends if they want, but I want to make somebody happy. You look at the future, you expect it would be you and some kids and so on. I think a woman gets a glimpse of that when they fuck with me, that's the beginning basically, they see that what I just said, they see that and that's hard to look over.

You claim Baby as your father, did he ever have to discipline you?
Yeah, if you take discipline as giving me game. He never has because I always had those three brothers and them niggas is a problem. You look at discipline as telling me things, giving me a way, showing me an example of a better way to live, a way to do things, that discipline he's giving me. Him and his brother Slim, but as far as discipline I been my own discipline. Like my mama, she got a harsh way of talking, that's why I rap, I might tell these niggas "go eat your mama's pussy" and don't mean no word, letter of it, that's how my mama talk. Basically she never had to touch me or nothing like that but her words. [laughs] They come after your heartbeat.

Now when you say your three brothers you're referring to the Hot Boy$?
Yup.

Are you still in touch with them?
We back! [Laughs] That's the new thing, everybody's back, we ain't started yet but we about to do the thing over. The first single they did, you know we got B.G. on there and Mannie did the beat. Hot Boy$, my brothers, we coming, we definitely coming. We're going to be heard.

How did you guys get back together?
The zone, I always just take a stand because I gotta rock with my team and if you have problems with my team, you got problems with me, but now you know they saying that they don't have a problem, they clearly stated that. My team also. I find we're more mature; to take someone's problem and call it mine, that'll kill you and I don't want to die. I don't have problems with none of them. Also the business aspect-they could be on my label, I'm going to plan the Baby return minus the trouble, and that's when it was like "OK, I'm not doing it for the money, I'm doing it because I love these niggas." I always say if you think I'm doing this for the money then I don't need that. I could do me and make more. I started with them, I'm trying to end with them, so here, shine the light.

So who approached you with the idea for the reunion?
Somebody said Juve want you on the phone. B.G. of course is like y'all going to do it? Y'all going to do it? Y'all going to do it? And once it came back from that end to me it was like-you should do this and get off your fucking high horse and be like "what are you guys going to do?" A solider, we make a solider, didn't New Orleans tell you, whatever we say, believe it man. Third world country New Orleans. They tried to wipe us off the map for real.

A lot of people, word on the streets including myself here, think that Kanye took you on that "Barry Bonds" joint...
He took me?

Yeah.
I think he did too, meaning his verse was better. Yeah but I'm going to get him. 'Ye killed me on that song. I was tight because I was like it could be way hotter than this. So when I heard his verse I was like "oh, we doing this again." I done it twice, they got two different versions. I done one and I ain't hear his verse and I done the other one after I heard his verse and even when I finished I said why don't you let him be the man of song. Meaning that it was needed and what I've done nobody else can do it.

[MontrealCity's Most]

Dude is a ugly motherfucka...

Another thing about hip hop interviews and im not saying every artist because you can very good interviews and not to mention insightfull with guy like Scarface, Nas, JayZ ( business wise ) , Tupac ( rip )
Or funny , Snoop dogg

Its usualy always the same bullshit.

[Meho]

Lil Wayne is so wierd, every interview I've read from him or every Youtube clip I've seen, he doesn't make any sense. He always looks like he's about to O.D. or some shit like that. They ask him a normal question and he starts talking about something completley different.

BTW the official release date for Carter 3 is March 18, confirmed by Universal.

[AnybodyKilla]

Dude is a ugly motherfucka...

Another thing about hip hop interviews and im not saying every artist because you can very good interviews and not to mention insightfull with guy like Scarface, Nas, JayZ ( business wise ) , Tupac ( rip )
Or funny , Snoop dogg

Its usualy always the same bullshit.

[Elano]

Its usualy always the same bullshit.

is not the case of this interview

[Tha Psycho Hustla]

ima check it later.
thx 4 uppin it.

[Retro]

he sure is high

[Philip1123]

It doesn't matter if he acts weird and how he looks. The man drops some tight ass albums, and many of his mixtapes and guest appearences (not all of them of course) are good, so that's what matters.

[Joseph Bonanno]

he sure is high

[PLANT]

lil wayne is one fucked up dude

[Brigante]

what a joke. has music fallen off so bad ?

[JAZ]

i read it but i wonder why..

[arthurnelson88]

how do u not understand wat he's saying, and Weezy is far from fallin off

[Nat Turner-reincarnated]

weezy trying way too hard to come of like he crazy

[WestCoasta]

speaking of swagger jackin

who does he think he is in the last two pictures, Kool Keith?