Lil Wayne What You Say

\"I don't think I got to express this, but it's who you are. You get treated accordingly,\" Lil Wayne told \"Nightline.\" \"I don't know nothing about that, what they're talking about. I'm rich as ****. Man, don't get mad 'cause I'm rich and I don't see none of that.\"

Lil Wayne What You Say

\"I don't know, that you put a name on such a -- that's what it was. It's not a name; it's not whatever, whatever,\" Lil Wayne added. \"It's somebody got shot by a policeman for a **** up reason. I am a young, black, rich ****. If that don't let you know that America understand black **** matter these days, I don't what it is.

\"I know how difficult it was for those people to watch us come up with our pants sagging and our shirts all big and bandanas on and rapping street things and talking about guns,\" he said. \"I sold a million records in a heartbeat. It was about lyrics. It wasn't about what you were talking about. It was about how you was talking about it.\"

\"If that's what you categorize it under, then so be it,\" he said. \"All those same lyrics made me who I am and I am a very successful man. So, if it takes me to be degrading, then, man, please keep looking out for more, 'cause it's coming, baby.\"

JAS PRINCE: Back in 2006, I was in school but I had told my dad that I wanted to get into the music business. He told me that I had to look for the hottest thing, to find someone who had a buzz. MySpace had a music explore page at the time, and you could see who was trending by zip code or whatever. I ran across all types of artists on there, like Soulja Boy, but Drake was the one that caught my eye. He was ranked number one or two on the unsigned trending artists list. His page just said that his name was Drake and he was from Toronto, and there was a picture of him and he had a video on there for the song "Replacement Girl" with Trey Songz. You know how MySpace had a little radio player on the right side? He had a couple of songs on there, and I was listening to him like, Damn, he's pretty dope.

"Well, I don't know the connection to Miami other than it's a pretty big rap scene there. Maybe that's what it is. I would think he's from Louisiana," Mulkey said. "I don't know him well enough to speak for him, but he's Louisiana as far as I know. I don't think that we have to worry about Lil Wayne (pulling for Miami).

Wayne, whose shares his real first name, Dwayne, with his father, says that he dropped the D because, "I'm a junior and my father is livin' ...he's never been in my life, so I don't wanna be Dwayne." Asked if his father knows this, Wayne says, "He knows now."

"I'm not an example for how people should live their lives," he says. "Never in my life would I ever set out to be an example for people on how to live their lives. If you need an example for how to live, then you just shouldn't have been born. Straight up. I am a great role model, because I'm only a role model for two, and that's all. That's what matters to me - those two. So why don't you worry about yours, and let them worry about theirs? I got mine."

For years, critics and fans alike have been hearing you say things like "fly go hard like geese erection" (from "Dr. Carter") and they've always assumed you were just saying some next level shit that we would totally understand if only we were as awesome or high as you. But this Tom Petty fiasco brings all of that into question. Maybe the music world has convinced itself that your rhymes are genius because we can't stand to face the possibility that you're just rapping whatever pops into your head.

OK, Tom Patey is a mountain climber Lil Wayne. He's a mountain climber who died in 1970. Just what kind of shenanigans are you trying to pull? Did you have someone change the words in that lyrics database just to throw me off the scent? Or maybe, the problem is bigger than I think? Lil Wayne, do you think Tom Patey is fast too? Because I assure you, his trek to the top of Everest was almost assuredly a slow one. Nobody just fucking sprints to the top of Everest. It probably wouldn't be littered with the carcasses of several dead mountain climbers if people did that, because, like, they'd just run back down when they realized they were getting all dead and stuff.

Though Wayne has already done this somewhat leading up to this point in his verse, the middle section is where Wayne begins to flow on top of the beat, extending rhyme schemes to the middle of the next bar to lead into a new rhyme. There are no non-sequiturs for the sake of advancing his lyrics. He begins to split up bars with internal rhymes which makes everything feel so cohesive and fluid.

I Am Not a Human Being II [Cash Money/Republic, 2013]Oh no. He's rhyming about almost nothing but--yuck and/or bor-ing--sex. Hasn't he heard of artistic growth? Probably he has, actually--his star bubble is no more hermetic than anybody else's. In fact, I say it's progress that 11 of the 15 tracks here deploy the P-word the way God intended (as opposed to the p****-a**-n**** form, which I'd as soon he s***can myself). It suggests that, unlike most rappers and related pop lifeforms who brag about sex, Weezy really seems to savor it (especially--psst--oral--both ways!). Plus his posse cuts are finally showing some savor too, albeit not on the vestigial guns 'n' violence ones--the Gunplay collab is easily the dullest music here. Brightest: a pro-sex theme song featuring Drake and Future and called, officially, "Love Me." You want socially conscious themes? Really? A loose-lipped ship-sinker is what he was meant to be. A-

Funeral [Young Money, 2020]Out a mere 15 months after the long-awaited, redolently branded, widely reviewed, 88-minute, two-disc Tha Carter V, this 76-minute collection has been downplayed by most of the few outlets that bothered to review it at all--five mostly kindish notices are nonetheless stuck down in Metacritic's dread 50-60 zone, with only Rolling Stone's a takedown pan. Cherishing no vested interest in hip-hop's musical progress, if any, I enjoy the shit out of it while admitting it's more a collection than an album, its parts more impressive than what they add up to. But it had me from the superb lead/title track: "Welcome to the funeral/Closed casket as usual/Soul snatching, that's usual/Amen, hallelujah though/Whole family delusional/Niggas cryin' like two-year-olds." With Adam Levine's and 2 Chainz's cameos better fits than XXXTentatcion's and The Dream's, I say this is his best since 2010's No Ceilings. You say you don't remember that one? Go to school. A-

DIMITRI EHRLICH: How are you guys doing? This is Dimitri. You can just let the interview roll if you want, Paris, but I have one question for both of you to start. Paris, you first: When did you first meet Wayne or what was your first thought about him?

[Verse 1 - Lil Wayne]Throw dirt on me and grow a wildflowerBut it's "fuck the world", get a child out herYeah, my life a bitch, but you know nothing bout herBeen to hell and back, I can show you vouchersI'm rolling Sweets, I'm smoking sourMarried to the game but she broke her vowsThat's why my bars are full of broken bottlesAnd my night stands are full of open BiblesI think about more than I forgetBut I don't go around fire expecting not to sweatAnd these niggaz know I lay them down, make their bedBitches try to kick me while I'm down: I'll break your legMoney outweighing problems on the triple beamI'm sticking to the script, you Niggaz skipping scenesBe good or be good at itFucking right I've got my gun, semi-CartermaticYeah, put a dick in their mouth, so I guess it's "fuck what they say"I'm high as a bitch: up, up and awayMan, I come down in a couple of daysOK, you want me up in the cage, then I'll come out in beast modeI got this world stuck in the safe, combination is the G-codeIt's Weezy motherf-cker, blood gang and I'm in bleed modeAll about my dough but I don't even check the peepholeSo you can keep knocking but won't knock me downNo love lost, no love found 041b061a72