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Lil Wayne Opens Up About Birdman, Suicide, ‘The Carter V’ & More

blame it on Shake September 13, 2018

Photo: Ramona Rosales

Life, lawsuits, and the long road to The Carter V.

After years of waiting, it looks like Lil Wayne is finally able to release The Carter V to the masses. And with a rumored September 21st release date looming, he graces the cover of Billboard and talks at length about a myriad of topics.

On top of the legal issues with Cash Money and his relationship with Birdman, Lil Wayne—who is now the sole owner of Young Money—also spoke with writer Dan Rys about The Carter V, his children (“I got four beautiful jewels. As long as they’re smiling, I’m on cloud 39.”), Drake and Nicki Minaj, retirement (“I do think about retirement. I think about how I don’t think I ever will.”), and even opens up about trying to commit suicide at the age of 12—a topic he’s loosely mentioned on tracks like “London Roads” off 2015’s Free Weezy Album and Solange’s “Mad.”

“He just told me one day that he was ready to address it now,” Mack Maine says. “Just being an adult, reaching a level of maturity and comfort where it’s like, ‘I want to talk about this because I know a lot of people out here might be going through that.'”

According to the profile, Wayne addresses the attempt on the album’s outro, which samples Sampha’s “Indecision” and includes lyrics re-written after the suicides of Anthony Bourdain and designer Kate Spade.

Check out a few quotes below and Billboard for full story.

On Cash Money dispute…

“I’m a very passionate guy about anything I do,” Wayne says. “So once I find out that I’m being fucked over, I’m going to be passionate about that emotion toward how I feel about it.” But what Wayne really resented was the distraction from his art — not the money he claimed he was owed or even the conflict with one of his closest friends. “The difficult part of it was finally having to pull the curtains back and see what the hell was out that window — having to actually care about other things than my music and my lyrics.”

On Drake & Nicki Minaj…

Even as the Cash Money dispute raged on, Wayne quietly earned a new title: greatest mentor alive. Minaj and especially Drake have defined hip-hop’s last decade. “They all the way — they got it,” he says. “They know how to make them joints that y’all going to be runnin’ to. I’m something else with my music.” But they’re inspiring him to truly bring it with that something else: “I’m coming straight at Drake’s and Nicki’s neck, Lord have mercy,” he says, laughing. “I’m talkin’ ’bout machetes. I’ma out-sing Drake, I’ma date Nicki. It’s going down.”

On Birdman relationship…

Wayne and Birdman are back to talking every day, usually about the Red Sox. But Wayne is less trusting and focused on his album. “Not even just with him, but my relationships with a lot of people have become different, just because of how different I work now,” he says. “I’m submerged in everything about myself, trying to be better at who I am. It’s something where you have to cut some things off.”