Artist: Lil Wayne

We’ve been going on about the Lil fella for ages now; finally, after much begging and pleading, the sizzurp sipping, simile-slanging, New Orleans rhymer has agreed to talk to the one and only RWD. People, please know, this is a UK EXCLOOSE!

RWD: Mr. Lil Wayne - how are you?
Tired.

RWD: How are you finding the UK?
(Shrugs). Yeah same old, same old. I been doing this since I was 11 baby.

RWD: Have you noticed many differences between UK and US?
Not really, except the food ain’t too good. Except for that, it ain’t too much different. The fans are the same, they love me the same, they treat me the same way and I appreciate them all. There were some places we went on this tour that were a lot different like, uh, Paris and places like that. I didn’t too much like it there. People were mean. I ain’t get that. I ain’t get Paris.

eNorse: Have you listened to much UK music?
Not too much. They was telling me some names, but I ain’t really had a chance to check anything else out. I ain’t gonna lie, I don’t listen to anybody but me all day. I don’t listen to anything else because it doesn’t make sense to listen to other people, cos then you end up sounding like everybody else.

RWD: You’re known as the Greatest Rapper Alive; but do you consider yourself pretty rock & roll too? The syrup, the women...
(Sips syrup) Not yet. I’ll be there though. I don’t think about things that I have to do to get there; I just wake up every day and do something to get there. And whatever it is that I do, I look back and say ‘That’s what I done to get here.’ If I think about it, then that means I’m doing something anybody can do, because you can think about doing something and take over from there.

RWD: Er...
Like, I could think about doing something and then we’d have a teacher and we’d be in class and we’d all go home and think about the test the next day. Only a few can walk in there without studying and pass everything correctly. I try to be that person.

Carly Donelien: How do you come up with such off the wall, but tight lyrics?
I blame it all on me. I don’t write nothing, it comes from my regular, natural thoughts, from what I’m thinking. I’m off the wall. My thoughts bounce everywhere. I’m a Libra and you know we’re the only sign who don’t have no soul, so... We can go anywhere and take it everywhere and feel no way. I know how to express that with words and with actions. And I think I do it well.

RWD: So how much of it is truth, and how much because it rhymes well? Like, is Gremlins your favourite movie?
Yeah, definitely. It was when I was five, not now. Right now I’ve been watching Beowolf. Every day. I like Angelina Jolie. But other than that, I don’t watch too many movies like that. I don’t know why. I watch TV, a whole lot. I watch sports period. I’m a big sports fan. Every sport, I watch it. Every one.

RWD: Do you play any sport?
Nah, I don’t have the size to play any sports. So I’m glad I got a shot at doing this.

RWD: How much has New Orleans influenced you as an artist?
I don’t think you’re comprehending the answers right because you’re asking the same questions. I told you I don’t come up with nothing, I just am who I am and every single thing that ever happened to me, or that will happen for me or to me will be who I am behind that mic. I don’t write.

Jason: What’s your own favourite lyric?
I can’t say, because I’m such a perfectionist and I’m always trying to be better than my last sh*t. I always say the last shit is better than my last sh*t (laughs).

RWD: Tell us about The Carter III?
It’s gonna be nice. Hopefully everyone will enjoy it. I think what people fail to notice is that I haven’t had an album out in three years, so they really don’t know too much about me apart from what you’re hearing. You haven’t had a CD with at least eight solo Wayne songs in three or four years. I mean mixtapes, yeah, but an album is who you are.

RWD: Lollipop is hitting pretty hard, so far...
(Laughs) Yeah, but you know it’s not just a song for you. I want you to love it, but the dude’s need to know every word of it. Rest In Peace to my homie Static Major too. I miss you homie.

RWD: What happened to Static?
He shouldn’t have died, like something went wrong during a normal surgery.

Donna: What rapper, dead or alive, would you have feature on your next album and why?
Sleepy Brown, I haven’t worked with Sleepy yet. I would say Cee Lo, but I just worked with Cee Lo recently. And Jaguar Wright. Other than that, anything else is cool.

RWD: Who is producing the album?
You got Jim Jonsin, Kanye, you got some new cats on there. I want some surprises, you know?

RWD: Considering how many people you’ve recorded with, who do you think you work with best?
Me and Juelz [Santana] match good, and of course me and Baby, but I think right now it’s a female’s voice that I want. I like to hear me on a female song; I like the Mary song, I like Natasha Bedingfield... anything I do with a female is love. I just did some stuff with T-Boz, so, phew, that’s gonna be crazy. If any females wanna send me a song, I’ll jump on it right quick.

RWD: You give a lot in your music. What do you hold back?
Nothing, I don’t think. I was Lil Wayne at 11 so ain’t nothing too much important happen before 11, except hide and go seek and Nintendo games. Other than that I’ve been Cash Money, I been rapping so everything I say is all of me. There was never a point where I worked at such and such and I could rap about that. I was scooped up at 11 and that was that.

Alishcia Campbell: How have you dealt with all negativity surrounding the kiss with Baby?
You know, that’s my pops. He put me in the game. That’s family right there. I stepped into music on Friday 13 May, 1993. Cash Money was already a label then and Lil Slim told me he’d put me on. He kept his word and introduced me to Baby. I took it from there. I was about 11 then.

RWD: What sort of father are you?
She always say I’m the best daddy in the world, but every kid say that. She a great kid. She just sit back and watch daddy and knows the lights are staying on without me having to tell her. She’s mine. She’s perfectly mine. She think like me, move like me, everything. It’s almost like you have nothing to worry about with her I think.

RWD: Do you have any plans for more kids?
I don’t know. I wouldn’t mind but, hey, you never know.

RWD: Would that be with Trina, Karinne, Lauren London...!
(Sips) Ah, you know. They all very special to me. I’m a passionate dude, you know? They all friends of mine.

RWD: Are you still doing your psychology degree?
Yeah. My schedule’s getting stupid now, but my tutor’s helping me. I do it online. It’s different for me cos I don’t have to turn up in a class or hand nothing in, so if I’m going to do it, I have to be interested. It’s not like I’m being forced to do it, I have to do it if I want to do it, so that makes it a whole lot different. I’m just trying to kill time.

RWD: What else do you do to chill?
Nah, I don’t really chill. Chillin’ is for dead folk. That’s what you do when they put your body on ice. Me, I just go hard cos one day I’m going to stop. No time soon, but one day I’m going to get very tired and be like ‘I quit,’ ya heard. I been doing this for 15 years but I don’t like to put no limit on it.

Lily: Why do you have has so many tattoos and what do they mean?
Yeah, I got a lot. Everything has a meaning but if I got into all that, we’d be here all day. I just got 10, 12 new ones; on my ear, this one on my head [reads I Am Music].

RWD: Did the eyelids hurt?
Love hurts, pain doesn’t. I don’t worry about nothing. I have fear of God. That’s it.

RWD: Who is Lil Wayne?
That’s simple. I can explain me in one word; unexplainable. Anybody who can be explained should be ashamed of themselves. If you can fall under a word that comes from the dictionary, then that word was created before you were even here. That means you were created before you were even here so how do you know you were finished? You probably wasn’t even finished. I have no word, I wasn’t created, I wasn’t made. I was put here and there’s no word for it. I can’t explain myself. You look at me and tell me what you see, you listen to me and tell me what you get. That’s what it is, that’s who I am. I am music ya dig.

The Carter III is out 12 May

Wayne Lyrics:
Here’s some of RWDmag.com readers favourite Wayne moments from the Greatest Rapper Alive:

“Just spent a hundred of that brown paper bag money/ It feels good to be young money, cash money/ Rehab I’m addicted to fast money/ I got stacks of rubberbands up in that….” (Brown Paper Bag) Lily

“I get head in the strangest places/ Two at the same time, call it changing faces…” (Getting’ Some Head) - Carly

“Yeah I’m in this bitch for terror/ Got a handful of stacks, better grab an umbrella/ I make it rain...” (Make It Rain) - James

“But your boy just relax like a fresh new perm/ Got the world in the barrel of the pistol term/ Well we get it how we live it, never live and learn/ Gotta talk about the flow cos you is concerned/ Only down south rapper could've been in The Firm.” (Dough Is What I Got) - Sean

“Pretty women want this n**a right here-a like Richard Gear/ I switch the gear-a/ And steer... (Diamonds and Girls) - Alishcia

And ours…

“Me, me it’s all about me/ Play with me and its all out beef/ Beef? Yes! Chest! Feet! Tag! Bag! Blood! Sheets! Yikes! Yeeks! Great Scott! Storch, can I borrow your yacht.” (Ride For My N****s)

“I am the beast/ Feed me rappers or feed me beats/I am untamed, I need a leash/ I am insane, I need a shrink/I love brain, I need a leech/ Why complain on easy street?…” (We Takin’ Over)

“Here’s my most funniest joke… I’m broke.” (Diamonds And Girls)

RWD Magazine

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