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Spence D., Editor-in-Chief, IGN Music: What's up with The Carter? You were initially supposed to drop the album last year. Then it got pushed back to the beginning of 2004. And finally it's set to drop this summer. Gimme the scoop.
Lil' Wayne: What happened was there was a change in the music. And some of the artists that were on the album are no longer a part of us, so we didn't want to put anything out with them on it because we didn't want any legal problems in the future. So instead of puttin' it out and rushing things, I was patient enough to say 'Let's just start all over and I'll wait until a later date.'
IGNM: Now did you scrap all of those early sessions?
Lil' Wayne: What I did is that I put it out as a mixtape and gave it away for free.
IGNM: Nice. So there is a version of the original floating around out there then for the hardcore fans to get a hold of.
Lil' Wayne: Yeah. It's called The Drought.
IGNM: Then when you stepped back into the studio to work on the album again, you came with all new, fresh material, right?
Lil' Wayne: Yeah, 100%
IGNM: So what's a typical day in the studio with Lil' Wayne like? Do you sit at home and write rhymes and then Mannie hollers at you and you go down to the studio?
Lil' Wayne: I don't write homey.
IGNM: What?
Lil' Wayne: I just got straight in there and cut the music on, light my good cigarette up, you know, not the tobacco, and then I go for it.
IGNM: Just straight off the top of the dome?
Lil' Wayne: Yeah. It's sort of like a war for me when he cuts the music on. It's sort of like a fight, I just start fightin' with the words. I don't need a tablet [of paper]. If I had a tablet, I'd get beat up.
IGNM: Then how do you work with Mannie? Does he call you up when he has some beats that he feels would work for you? Or do you holler at him when you're ready to go to war, so to speak?
Lil' Wayne: What happens is that Baby will call me and he'll already have like 10 songs already done by Mannie and he'll just give 'em to me and let me go from there. Like Mannie does beats like rappers do songs. You know how 2Pac kept recording? Or how like a rapper nowadays will keep recordings? Mannie does beats like that, he keeps doing beats. So he has beats for anything. He just does 'em and then I come in and kill it.
IGNM: That kind of surprises me, since most emcees usually write something down, whether it's just the chorus or a single verse, before they step into the booth to record a track. You know, they usually jot stuff down or they're in a restaurant and they scribble some lines on a paper napkin&#Array;
Lil' Wayne: Uh-uh. I'd be too high for that.
IGNM: But you ain't too high to come up with stuff off the top of your head?
Lil' Wayne: That's because it's real. Let me see if I can explain it. You know how if you have a bad dog and he's just a bad dog. His job is to be bad to anybody around. And if you catch that dog at 3 AM in the morning asleep, as soon as he wakes up, he's back barking and trying to bite you, 'cuz he's a bad dog and that's what he does. Well, rappin' is what I do, so I can be under any [situation]&#Array;I could be dyin', I could be just wakin' up, I could be at my happiest moment, my saddest moment, I could be speechless, I could be voiceless, but I could still rap. That's what I do. So that's why I really don't use the pen and pad, 'cuz I kind of feel like when you use the pen and pad, you're readin'. And when you're readin' somethin', man, you're payin' attention to what you're readin' instead of what you're doin'.
IGNM: It sounds like it's almost stream-of-consciousness for you then.
Lil' Wayne: Yeah, exactly.
IGNM: Man, I have to write sh!t down. If I keep it in my head for too long I eventually forget it.
Lil' Wayne: Well, see, that's what people always ask me: 'How come you don't forget it?' I really don't know, but I always answer that with 'Because that's what I do. It's my job, so it's always on my mind.'
IGNM: Right on. So what can we expect from the new album? I've only heard "Bring It Back" and "Get Something."
Lil' Wayne: It's my fourth solo album. I always say 'If you're a Lil' Wayne fan then you can just expect more Lil' Wayne, better Lil' Wayne, more mature Lil' Wayne.' It's crazy, man. There was a lot more thought process put into the song titles, there was a lot more thought process put into the songs. Mannie Fresh put his foot and his back into the music. Everybody else who got on the album and did anything, they did it to the best of their abilities because they not only knew that they were doin' a song on my album, they were honored to be doin' a song on my album, which made it all better.
IGNM: Speaking of which, who's on the album?
Lil' Wayne: I don't really do any features, but as far as production you've got Mannie Fresh, Jazzie Pha, and a few other cats from New Orleans. But as far as featured artists on my album, you've got the Big Tymers, you know Mannie and Baby, maybe Juvenile, and some other Cash Money artists. Then I have my own artists. I have an R&B label called Young Money Records and I have one of my own artists on there singing.
IGNM: Who is that?
Lil' Wayne: His name is Real.
IGNM: I'm assuming since you say he's on your R&B label, that he's on your album doing soulful backing vocals, right?
Lil' Wayne: Yeah, he's doing hooks, choruses, things like that.
IGNM: What prompted you to start an R&B label?
Lil' Wayne: Because, think about it man, there are none no more. Remember how Motown used to be just an R&B label with all the best singers? There are none like that anymore. I felt like nobody would be expecting me to come out with one, so I feel that it would be successful.
IGNM: That's a good point. I mean there really aren't any R&B labels out there like what Motown was back in the day. And my vision of R&B today is that it doesn't have the same soulful grit that it did back in the day.
Lil' Wayne: Exactly! You're vision of R&B today would probably be a song featuring a hip-hop artist [laughs].
IGNM: Or something that is totally over-produced.
Lil' Wayne:Exactly! Thank you, my man.
IGNM: That's why I've never cottoned to modern day R&B. It's too much like pop music. It's not like listening to Sam Cooke or Marvin, you know?
Lil' Wayne:Thank you!. What happens with that is that these artists today get created instead of coming up on their own. So when you're created, man, you're nothing less than a robot. You can only do so much, only what that robot can do. So what the game is missing is real artists.
IGNM: How do you find real artists?
Lil' Wayne: I mean my first artist, his name is Real: R-E-A-L. How I found him, I was in the mall shoppin' and he walked up to me. He didn't even say his name, he didn't say hello, the guy just started singin'. And I was like 'Damn!' No, as a matter of fact, he was in the same store as me and he was singin', but not to me. He was singin' as he was lookin' at his stuff, but when he saw me he came up to me and started singin' the same song. I had a show the next day and I asked him to perform with me at the show. And I saw that he wasn't scared and he sounded good in front of a crowd. Plus he was soulful. The way that you find real soulful music is, that the music that Marvin and Al and all them people used to sing was about things they were goin' through. And with Real, he's from the hood and he goes through things every day. He's got child support problems just like regular people, he's got girl problems, he's got problems on the block, he's got parole officer problems, he did three years in jail, you know what I'm sayin'? It's soul, it's real music comin' out. I know that for a fact. That's why I'm getting' behind him. I know whatever he's sayin' is truthful, is real. And as long as it's real, if it's not excepted, who cares? It's real.
IGNM: Right on. I'm stoked about this. I mean it wouldn't have surprised me one bit if you said you were starting your own rap label, you know?
Lil' Wayne: Yeah, I know [laughs].
IGNM: Now if you had told me that you were starting a Death Metal label, then I really would have flipped.
Lil' Wayne: [laughs] Yeah [laughs].
IGNM: Back to the new album, since this is the fourth one, do you think about what the public's expectations are gonna be when you go into the studio or do you just make stuff that you and the rest of the Cash Money crew are gonna vibe off of?
Lil' Wayne: Kind of both. We do what we know is poppin' out there right now, where we kind of have a feeling that the people want to hear. But we also think about what the people want to hear from us, you know what I'm sayin'? Everybody wanna hear what they want to hear. If that was the case, if we did it like that, we'd probably sound like somebody else. And that's definitely not what we're tryin' to do. But we definitely think about what they're listening to now, what's hot out right now, and how do we sound doin' our own way of what's hot. We do what people want us to do, but our way.
IGNM: I'm curious, as you get older do you have any plans to ditch the 'Lil' at the beginning of your name?
Lil' Wayne: I'm a Junior. So that's my name, Lil' Wayne. That will never change.
IGNM: You got a line at the end of "Bring It Back" where you say "&#Array;best rapper alive since the best rapper retired&#Array;" That's a pretty heavy boast to lay down on wax. Do you think anybody is gonna test you on that?
Lil' Wayne: We have yet to see. If anybody does try to test me, then I swear to you I'll eat 'em for breakfast and I'll tell you how it was next interview.
IGNM: Will you eat 'em with milk?
Lil' Wayne: Naw, I don't need nothin' to digest it down with. They're weaklings [laughs].
Lil' Wayne: What happened was there was a change in the music. And some of the artists that were on the album are no longer a part of us, so we didn't want to put anything out with them on it because we didn't want any legal problems in the future. So instead of puttin' it out and rushing things, I was patient enough to say 'Let's just start all over and I'll wait until a later date.'
IGNM: Now did you scrap all of those early sessions?
Lil' Wayne: What I did is that I put it out as a mixtape and gave it away for free.
IGNM: Nice. So there is a version of the original floating around out there then for the hardcore fans to get a hold of.
Lil' Wayne: Yeah. It's called The Drought.
IGNM: Then when you stepped back into the studio to work on the album again, you came with all new, fresh material, right?
Lil' Wayne: Yeah, 100%
IGNM: So what's a typical day in the studio with Lil' Wayne like? Do you sit at home and write rhymes and then Mannie hollers at you and you go down to the studio?
Lil' Wayne: I don't write homey.
IGNM: What?
Lil' Wayne: I just got straight in there and cut the music on, light my good cigarette up, you know, not the tobacco, and then I go for it.
IGNM: Just straight off the top of the dome?
Lil' Wayne: Yeah. It's sort of like a war for me when he cuts the music on. It's sort of like a fight, I just start fightin' with the words. I don't need a tablet [of paper]. If I had a tablet, I'd get beat up.
IGNM: Then how do you work with Mannie? Does he call you up when he has some beats that he feels would work for you? Or do you holler at him when you're ready to go to war, so to speak?
Lil' Wayne: What happens is that Baby will call me and he'll already have like 10 songs already done by Mannie and he'll just give 'em to me and let me go from there. Like Mannie does beats like rappers do songs. You know how 2Pac kept recording? Or how like a rapper nowadays will keep recordings? Mannie does beats like that, he keeps doing beats. So he has beats for anything. He just does 'em and then I come in and kill it.
IGNM: That kind of surprises me, since most emcees usually write something down, whether it's just the chorus or a single verse, before they step into the booth to record a track. You know, they usually jot stuff down or they're in a restaurant and they scribble some lines on a paper napkin&#Array;
Lil' Wayne: Uh-uh. I'd be too high for that.
IGNM: But you ain't too high to come up with stuff off the top of your head?
Lil' Wayne: That's because it's real. Let me see if I can explain it. You know how if you have a bad dog and he's just a bad dog. His job is to be bad to anybody around. And if you catch that dog at 3 AM in the morning asleep, as soon as he wakes up, he's back barking and trying to bite you, 'cuz he's a bad dog and that's what he does. Well, rappin' is what I do, so I can be under any [situation]&#Array;I could be dyin', I could be just wakin' up, I could be at my happiest moment, my saddest moment, I could be speechless, I could be voiceless, but I could still rap. That's what I do. So that's why I really don't use the pen and pad, 'cuz I kind of feel like when you use the pen and pad, you're readin'. And when you're readin' somethin', man, you're payin' attention to what you're readin' instead of what you're doin'.
IGNM: It sounds like it's almost stream-of-consciousness for you then.
Lil' Wayne: Yeah, exactly.
IGNM: Man, I have to write sh!t down. If I keep it in my head for too long I eventually forget it.
Lil' Wayne: Well, see, that's what people always ask me: 'How come you don't forget it?' I really don't know, but I always answer that with 'Because that's what I do. It's my job, so it's always on my mind.'
IGNM: Right on. So what can we expect from the new album? I've only heard "Bring It Back" and "Get Something."
Lil' Wayne: It's my fourth solo album. I always say 'If you're a Lil' Wayne fan then you can just expect more Lil' Wayne, better Lil' Wayne, more mature Lil' Wayne.' It's crazy, man. There was a lot more thought process put into the song titles, there was a lot more thought process put into the songs. Mannie Fresh put his foot and his back into the music. Everybody else who got on the album and did anything, they did it to the best of their abilities because they not only knew that they were doin' a song on my album, they were honored to be doin' a song on my album, which made it all better.
IGNM: Speaking of which, who's on the album?
Lil' Wayne: I don't really do any features, but as far as production you've got Mannie Fresh, Jazzie Pha, and a few other cats from New Orleans. But as far as featured artists on my album, you've got the Big Tymers, you know Mannie and Baby, maybe Juvenile, and some other Cash Money artists. Then I have my own artists. I have an R&B label called Young Money Records and I have one of my own artists on there singing.
IGNM: Who is that?
Lil' Wayne: His name is Real.
IGNM: I'm assuming since you say he's on your R&B label, that he's on your album doing soulful backing vocals, right?
Lil' Wayne: Yeah, he's doing hooks, choruses, things like that.
IGNM: What prompted you to start an R&B label?
Lil' Wayne: Because, think about it man, there are none no more. Remember how Motown used to be just an R&B label with all the best singers? There are none like that anymore. I felt like nobody would be expecting me to come out with one, so I feel that it would be successful.
IGNM: That's a good point. I mean there really aren't any R&B labels out there like what Motown was back in the day. And my vision of R&B today is that it doesn't have the same soulful grit that it did back in the day.
Lil' Wayne: Exactly! You're vision of R&B today would probably be a song featuring a hip-hop artist [laughs].
IGNM: Or something that is totally over-produced.
Lil' Wayne:Exactly! Thank you, my man.
IGNM: That's why I've never cottoned to modern day R&B. It's too much like pop music. It's not like listening to Sam Cooke or Marvin, you know?
Lil' Wayne:Thank you!. What happens with that is that these artists today get created instead of coming up on their own. So when you're created, man, you're nothing less than a robot. You can only do so much, only what that robot can do. So what the game is missing is real artists.
IGNM: How do you find real artists?
Lil' Wayne: I mean my first artist, his name is Real: R-E-A-L. How I found him, I was in the mall shoppin' and he walked up to me. He didn't even say his name, he didn't say hello, the guy just started singin'. And I was like 'Damn!' No, as a matter of fact, he was in the same store as me and he was singin', but not to me. He was singin' as he was lookin' at his stuff, but when he saw me he came up to me and started singin' the same song. I had a show the next day and I asked him to perform with me at the show. And I saw that he wasn't scared and he sounded good in front of a crowd. Plus he was soulful. The way that you find real soulful music is, that the music that Marvin and Al and all them people used to sing was about things they were goin' through. And with Real, he's from the hood and he goes through things every day. He's got child support problems just like regular people, he's got girl problems, he's got problems on the block, he's got parole officer problems, he did three years in jail, you know what I'm sayin'? It's soul, it's real music comin' out. I know that for a fact. That's why I'm getting' behind him. I know whatever he's sayin' is truthful, is real. And as long as it's real, if it's not excepted, who cares? It's real.
IGNM: Right on. I'm stoked about this. I mean it wouldn't have surprised me one bit if you said you were starting your own rap label, you know?
Lil' Wayne: Yeah, I know [laughs].
IGNM: Now if you had told me that you were starting a Death Metal label, then I really would have flipped.
Lil' Wayne: [laughs] Yeah [laughs].
IGNM: Back to the new album, since this is the fourth one, do you think about what the public's expectations are gonna be when you go into the studio or do you just make stuff that you and the rest of the Cash Money crew are gonna vibe off of?
Lil' Wayne: Kind of both. We do what we know is poppin' out there right now, where we kind of have a feeling that the people want to hear. But we also think about what the people want to hear from us, you know what I'm sayin'? Everybody wanna hear what they want to hear. If that was the case, if we did it like that, we'd probably sound like somebody else. And that's definitely not what we're tryin' to do. But we definitely think about what they're listening to now, what's hot out right now, and how do we sound doin' our own way of what's hot. We do what people want us to do, but our way.
IGNM: I'm curious, as you get older do you have any plans to ditch the 'Lil' at the beginning of your name?
Lil' Wayne: I'm a Junior. So that's my name, Lil' Wayne. That will never change.
IGNM: You got a line at the end of "Bring It Back" where you say "&#Array;best rapper alive since the best rapper retired&#Array;" That's a pretty heavy boast to lay down on wax. Do you think anybody is gonna test you on that?
Lil' Wayne: We have yet to see. If anybody does try to test me, then I swear to you I'll eat 'em for breakfast and I'll tell you how it was next interview.
IGNM: Will you eat 'em with milk?
Lil' Wayne: Naw, I don't need nothin' to digest it down with. They're weaklings [laughs].
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