Lil Wayne has had a year. First, he had to watch Kendrick Lamar live out his Super Bowl dreams from the sidelines. But while K. Dot was center stage, Weezy was back outside with the Hot Boys (AKA Turk, Juvenile, and B.G.), hitting sold-out festivals like Dreamville and reminding everyone where Southern rap got its swagger.
He’s also been keeping himself busy with the long-overdue drop of Tha Carter VI. The rapper sat down with Rolling Stone to talk all about it—and yes, he spilled on the Super Bowl drama, the Kendrick situation, and his new creative lane that includes some…unexpected names.
The features list you didn’t see coming
Set to drop in June, Tha Carter VI is shaping up to be a genre-jumper’s dream (or nightmare, depending on your tolerance for chaos). The features list includes Miley Cyrus, his son Kameron, Ye (potentially), MGK, Bono (U2), and Wyclef Jean behind the boards.
Apparently, Wyclef recorded thirty songs with Wayne for the project (because why do one when you can do thirty?), and he’s playing album whisperer. He even started a group chat called “the Gumbo,” featuring other New Orleans artists like Jon Batiste, Trombone Shorty, and, I assume, someone’s aunt who makes a mean étouffée.
“If there’s one thing about this album that’s different, it’s me approaching it like, ‘Man, what would I sound like on something with such and such,’” Lil Wayne said.
Speaking of trying new things, he also spoke about recording a sequel to the 2006 collab album he did with Birdman, Like Father, Like Son, but with his own kids Kameron, Dwayne III, and Neal,l who are also stepping into hip-hop.
“It’s innate. It’s not surprising at all…I’m a true musician. So it would be shocking if they came up and said they wanted to do pottery,” he said.
Beyond just the music and family, he, of course, had to share his final thoughts on the whole Super Bowl situation.
Weezy says he didn’t know “Not Like Us” was Kendrick’s song
Despite the drama the internet tried to manifest, Wayne says he and Kendrick are good. So good, in fact, he called him before the big game to say, “break a leg.”
However, here’s where it gets hilarious: Wayne somehow missed the entire Kendrick vs. Drake beef. Like, all of it—the diss tracks, the memes, the thinkpieces (or so he says).
“I’m going to give you the perfect example…I went onstage and I was singing this song [“Not Like Us”], and they thought I was dissing…I ain’t want my dude to be mad at me…I didn’t even know it was Kendrick!” Either Wayne is truly living in his own world, or he’s on a generational run of acting clueless (see another example below).
Even though everything was cool between Wayne and Lamar, he still didn’t watch his Super Bowl performance. “Every time I looked, it was nothing that made me want to go inside and see what was going on,” he said.
Now, if given the opportunity, Wayne wouldn’t take the Super Bowl performance slot. “They stole that feeling. I don’t want to do it. It was perfect,” he said.
He might not have the Super Bowl stage on his sights, but fingers crossed, he tours his upcoming project, which has social media even more intrigued thanks to the feature list dropping.
