Lil Wayne: Louisiana roots, prison time, respect over money & sharing his untold stories

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find Today’s show is like sitting on the back porch in New Orleans just chopping it up with your uncles and reminiscing about the journey through the untold stories except we are in LA and it’s after midnight, but any chance to sit with Lil Wayne is one we make happen. Reconnecting with his Louisiana roots, Ryan is excited to have Weezy join him, Fred and Channing to talk about life, lessons, losses and making music along the way. Becoming one of music’s biggest icons over three decades, Lil Wayne says he’s never worked a day in his life because everything he’s done in music is for the love of it. Storying his journey from starting at 7 yrs old to now, talking about the highs and lows of his career, sharing the untold stories, the ins and outs of life changing experiences, his time in prison, the night an off duty police officer saved his life and how he’s maintained and sustained success at the highest level in the industry all the while earning the praise and accolades from fans and his peers. Never for the money and always for the respect, Lil Wayne Flashes back to childhood days of when he first started in music and reflecting back on how his mom and grandma supported him from day one not just to pursue music but more importantly to always be a good man and one he could be proud of. This conversation is a side of Lil Wayne we don’t get to see very often as he let down his walls and opened up like never before. Tap in every Tuesday at noon eastern for our premiere episode of the Pivot. Special seasonal drops on Friday afternoons at 3:30 pm. We are your one-stop platform for all your sports and entertainment content. Stay tuned for updates on upcoming Pivot special episodes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Flowing ad budget on metrics that look great, till the CFO sees them? That's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out. In. Dashboard. Confessions.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  I remember telling my boss, "It'll be good for the brand", when leads were slow. Yeah, it, it wasn't.

• 0:17Speaker 00

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title, and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 0:30Channing Crowder?

  But shit, it is what it is.

• 0:33Ryan Clark?

  Yo! Yo! Hold up, brother. What's happening?

• 0:38Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, that's true. We gotta deal with this shit. We gotta deal with this shit some more.

• 0:42Channing Crowder?

  Don't come here with the purple and yellow.

• 0:44Fred Taylor?

  Wait, what's up, bro?

• 0:45Ryan Clark?

  We just talked. I got your head, bro.

• 0:47Fred Taylor?

  Love, love, love.

• 0:48Channing Crowder?

  My nigga come here with the purple and yellow, bro.

• 0:50Ryan Clark?

  Yeah!

• 0:51Fred Taylor?

  Come on, man.

• 0:52Channing Crowder?

  Love, bro.

• 0:52Ryan Clark?

  Yo!

• 0:53Fred Taylor?

  Come on, bruh.

• 0:54Ryan Clark?

  Man! Do y'all feel like winners?

• 0:58Channing Crowder?

  Nah, I don't feel like a winner.

• 0:59Ryan Clark?

  Do y'all feel like a winner?

• 1:01Channing Crowder?

  I feel like somebody gave him a free t-shirt.

• 1:04Ryan Clark?

  Man, y'all got all this 504 around you. You gotta feel like a champion, man. Golly!

• 1:11Channing Crowder?

  Man, that's Lil' Motherfucking Wayne. That nigga can be whatever he wants to. That's cool, bro. We appreciate you fucking with this nigga.

• 1:16Fred Taylor?

  I appreciate y'all patience, man, for real.

• 1:18Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, man, man.

• 1:19Ryan Clark?

  Bro, you know, shit, we been texting about this for a year.

• 1:21Fred Taylor?

  Not enough.

• 1:22Ryan Clark?

  I remember one night, man, I was at the crib, just listening to Wayne's songs.

• 1:26Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 1:27Ryan Clark?

  Taking pictures of my iPad like a groupie. I was like, man, this joint cool. You forget how many, you forget how many songs it is, though.

• 1:36Channing Crowder?

  My game, my, my whole game came from it. My whole game came. No Silas got me so much coochie.

• 1:45Ryan Clark?

  How No Silas got you booty, though?

• 1:47Channing Crowder?

  Because, cuz. Man, when we were thinking about a girl, that, that, and that, and that. I'm like, oh!

• 1:54Fred Taylor?

  And your brother wilds.

• 1:58Channing Crowder?

  Bro, No Silas got me so much coochie back in the day. I'm like...

• 2:02Ryan Clark?

  Only you would have sex to No Silas.

• 2:04Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hit it, I hit him to anything. My beat, all you gotta do is get one beat, one little stroke.

• 2:11Fred Taylor?

  I can't listen to that shit. What are you talking about?

• 2:15Speaker 05

  Hold up.

• 2:17Speaker 05

  Nigga stomach kinda pinning it. I fought the head to witness it. Got my people feeling militant. Way I'm feeling got me up. On the mission got me up. Knowing me I got the key. On the vision I can trust. Trust. Limitless. Nigga stomach kinda pinning it. I fought the head to witness it. Got my people feeling militant. Way I'm feeling got me up. On the mission got me up. Knowing me I got the key.

• 2:39Ryan Clark?

  First off, man, welcome to the Pivot.

• 2:41Lil Wayne?

  Thanks for having me.

• 2:42Ryan Clark?

  For me, being from where I'm from, man, you the soundtrack to my life.

• 2:47Lil Wayne?

  Love, brother.

• 2:48Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean? See, I started back in the day, you know what I mean? I was with BG, Numb Drive, It's All On You, Soul Drags, to Block Is High, Guerrilla Warfare, all of it.

• 2:58Lil Wayne?

  All of it.

• 2:59Ryan Clark?

  All of it, you know what I mean? So I just appreciate.

• 3:01Lil Wayne?

  I haven't heard those two words in so long, man. Guerrilla Warfare. I'm so sorry to stop. I just haven't heard that in so long. They say Guerrilla Warfare.

• 3:12Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean? So just for me, man, and just what it means to be from where we're from, for you to make it to where you've made it, you know? If we're gonna mention Louis Armstrongs and Fats Domino's, Lil Wayne is at the top of the list of greats that ever came from our city, our state, and to me, in the world. So this is truly an honor. Freddie T, Chan, they both went to Florida. They a little sad right now after what happened in the national championship.

• 3:42Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, I ain't even gonna say too much about it, but you know.

• 3:45Channing Crowder?

  Nah, you gonna put on the LSU shit, huh?

• 3:47Lil Wayne?

  I don't know what it's.

• 3:49Channing Crowder?

  Nigga, you put that shit on, though.

• 3:54Ryan Clark?

  Wayne, man, you came right in and you were talking about kids being different, or you moving out at 14. You just recently received the Global Impact Award. And in your speech, you know, we all know as Missita, you said your mom came to you, bro, at 14 and said she needed a baby. What was that type of conversation like, especially after losing your pops, man?

• 4:16Lil Wayne?

  Being from New Orleans, man, we...

• 4:20Lil Wayne?

  We got a different understanding with every, I mean, just period. We have a different understanding with each other. You have to thank God I was blessed with the opportunity to go out and see. You have to go out and see to know how different we are. And it still hit me every day. Um, I'm gonna give you a, a, a perfect example. I was watching, uh, T here yesterday and a Popeyes commercial came on, right? I'm 40. It's my first time knowing, not knowing that everybody didn't do this. So on the commercial, dude got the money on, you know, pinned on him. The dude come on, he say in New Orleans, strangers pin money on you for your birthday. It don't make sense, but I was like, oh, I like wait. And so I had to ask my engineer, like, y'all don't, I don't. He's like, nah, I'm looking at it now. I'm like, why he got that money?

• 5:05Lil Wayne?

  I was like, y'all don't pin money on you for y'all.

• 5:08Channing Crowder?

  Y'all do that, right?

• 5:09Lil Wayne?

  What's that?

• 5:10Channing Crowder?

  For your, so for our birthdays. So, so, so, yeah, somebody come up to you, they were pinning a 20 on you. And so they hope that other people come pin money on you.

• 5:17Lil Wayne?

  I just learned that, no one else don't do that. So, that's, that's exactly so. So, I, you know, I mean, we, we have a different understanding. So my momma asked me, it was, it was no more, it wasn't nothing as like asking me to run to the store. I know what she was going through. We had just signed a national deal and went on the first tour. Tour, tour used to, when I would tell her we were, we going on tour, that used to mean like, I'm going for two weekends. And literally coming back during the weekend, going, but nah, when I told her this time we signed, I don't think I came back for like three months straight. And she was like, if this about to be what you about to be going through and about to be doing, I need to talk to you. And we had that talk and I was like, it's nothing, let's do it.

• 6:01Channing Crowder?

  Cause you were signed at like 11 or 12.

• 6:03Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 6:04Channing Crowder?

  How, what, what's the money? How does the money run when a 12 year old is getting millions?

• 6:09Lil Wayne?

  I wasn't getting millions at 12.

• 6:10Channing Crowder?

  Or 100,000, nigga, you was making more money than most 12 year olds.

• 6:15Lil Wayne?

  Uh, my first check, I tell everybody the same thing, cause it's the truth. Uh, my first check, I went and got a Pat Fund.

• 6:21Channing Crowder?

  Mm-hmm.

• 6:21Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 6:22Channing Crowder?

  You can't drive though.

• 6:23Lil Wayne?

  Um, my, my momma was making me go to the store for a way before I was supposed to be going to the store for, you know, she was tired. She, she worked, she worked hard, yeah. My first big check though, I just gave it straight to her. You know, like I gave it straight to my mom and the first thing she did was gave it straight back. And like, you know what I mean, I was like, I'm like, you know, this check got a hun- three digits. Yeah, I mean, got three digits before the other three digits. Like, we ain't never seen that in our lives. Right. I'm like, what you mean, you don't need this, you know, she was like, well, that's yours. You made that, you know, and just that right goes to show you how we are. You know what I mean, so just that right there, that was, I mean, I have it that right there just taught me how to be with money

• 7:04Lil Wayne?

  right there, that moment, right, that taught me how to, that it means, it doesn't mean nothing. You know what I mean, because I thought, I thought she was gonna, it was two checks, I'll never forget it, it was two checks. I thought she was gonna take both of them and be like, yeah, I, we gonna, I'm about to get this, we gonna get this, we gonna. I said, I, yeah, boy. And gave him, literally gave him right back, like, what you mean, what you, and then she like, they yours, you made that. I'm like, you don't need nothing out of this, and she was like, I don't need nothing, I was like, I'm gonna go buy, I'm gonna build you a house. And she took like the least she can take to build a house.

• 7:36Lil Wayne?

  And that taught me from that moment that, you know, it's just paper, don't mean too much, yeah.

• 7:42Fred Taylor?

  What's crazy is, uh, you just sat over there and say you forty, bruh. You said, that shit is crazy for me because like, even when I was in college, you was a teenager, obviously, you had just got started. But I was always a fan, I care you from, you know, past, you know, he, he put us on to your music back then. But even, um, just growing up, early years in the NFL, just always a fan, uh, follows you, the hot boy, you know, the whole, whole crew. In that journey, right to now, what, what, what are some of the things that you, you, you miss the most?

• 8:19Lil Wayne?

  I was always the, the obvious, it's just the bros. Yeah, you know, miss the people that ain't around no more. You know what I mean, though, you can't get those times back. You could retry, we could do it again, we could do it better, you can't get those times back. So that's about it.

• 8:35Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 8:36Lil Wayne?

  I mean, missing the people that ain't, that can't be around, you know what I mean? And you know what I mean, in different way, in a real, real way.

• 8:42Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 8:43Lil Wayne?

  Miss those people, miss those moments like that, then those moments that you know that, that you don't know why you never forget. Those moments, miss those moments, like, you know, like some of the small things, like, why I can't keep, why I keep remembering this, why I keep remembering that trick, this dude always said this. Like, you know what I mean, little things like that, you don't get that back, so.

• 9:01Ryan Clark?

  We were riding in the car, we were in Austin. It's me, Freddie T, our producer. And one of the guys that films with us was riding. And I put on Soul Dragons, Who's the Mother? You know what I mean? And I was like, hey man, like this song back when I was in high school. So I'm explaining it to him. And he had never heard the song. Because you know, they got on it with 400 Degrees, all that, right? And so I was explaining it to him. And he said, "When Cash Money made it, did it feel like the whole hood made it, or all of New Orleans made it?" And I said, I told him, I said, "Not really." I said, "Because they were already stars to us." You know, I said, "Whereas the rest of the world was playing Jay-Z, or Biggie, and all that." Like, we played the homies. You know, it was, Wild Wayne was gonna play.

• 9:44Ryan Clark?

  It started with you and LV, then it moved to y'all. Right, we was gonna play P. Like, that's who we, that's who we were. But when you, when y'all finally make it, like you say, you know, you sign that deal at 14, but it took 98, 99 for it to really get popping. When you guys finally became nationwide and worldwide superstars, what was that feeling like for y'all?

• 10:07Lil Wayne?

  Goes back to what you saying. First of all, they were already, you know, I'm, even though I'm 40, you already know the Cash, they were already up and running. They was already D shit. When I wanted to, I mean, I wanted Baby Autograph, let alone to be on, to be on the team. You know what I mean? So, that's when I got with them. First of all, as a kid, you gotta remember, I was a kid. I was literally, as a kid, every day for me was fucking Astroworld. You know, like, it sure was, they don't know that. You know what I mean? But you know, it was regular to them. And they were just sitting around in the office. They didn't, literally not doing nothing. The phone ringing, they're calling, playing with, literally talking to whoever a fan that's calling the office number. That was the highlight of it.

• 10:52Lil Wayne?

  They don't, I'm enjoying every bit of it. You know what I mean? It's Disneyland to me. I'm around real rappers. I really rap when I go back to school with my other 11-year-old friends.

• 11:05Lil Wayne?

  Right. That's why, that's how call it on me. Cause I used to have to go in the, go in the Odyssey store. Cause they put our faces on the first album cover. So I used to have to, my 11 year old friends didn't believe me. So I had, cause their parents wouldn't let them get my album anyway. We cussing. So they, you know, so I gotta go prove it to them and show them my name on the back of that motherfucking shit. So going through all that shit. So when we, when we got the deal and became, my mind was already blown. It really ain't, it, it was like the money. It really, it was no different. It was no, I, I, I had, I had goals, put it like that before. I didn't have those type of things. I had goals then, you know, like, okay, now we here, now we here. I wanna really, and that's where all that be, that's where all the best, that's where all that come from.

• 11:50Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? At first, it was cool. It was cool being the best in the world and the cool being the best of the crew. Cool being the best of whoever we, but then when we got that deal, I had females I wanted to talk to. You know, like I never thought I'd meet, you know, like, how you doing?

• 12:07Channing Crowder?

  When did you know that you was special? Everybody know you special, icon, all that stuff. When did you really know you was special?

• 12:14Lil Wayne?

  Thank God, first of all, but um, my grandma waking me up at like 10, 11 P M. When I'm, I have school the next day. I'm like seven, eight years old. And she waking me up and I gotta come up, I gotta go in the living room and I need, I gotta perform. And I don't have to, I can't, I'm not about to go up there and do nothing. I've been practicing at school with some play. We working on, was it a vibes? You know, she want me to do that in the daytime just for her. It's cause she want me to work on it. And when she come wake me up at nine, 10 P M. I had, they drank the cups sitting around.

• 12:50Channing Crowder?

  Concert.

• 12:50Lil Wayne?

  And, and the friends are her age and I gotta go up there and I gotta do sing songs that they enjoy. And I gotta do the dance, the dance moves that they know. And I'm only seven, eight years old and that's when, when I would always go lay back down after that whole event. You know, and they, I'm walking back to that, to my room, shotgun house down the number there. Walking back, walking back.

• 13:12Channing Crowder?

  Front door to back though.

• 13:13Lil Wayne?

  Walking back to the back and I could hear them, you know, they laughing. I could hear one or two, I'm saying, girl, that boy, I know he's stunting. You could hear some. When I would always lay my head back down, I would always know that. And I always compared myself to my friend. I always know ain't none of my friends doing this right now. I'm getting good sleep right now. Good sleep. And that's what that that type of thing would let me know you're a little different, man.

• 13:36Fred Taylor?

  If I go back, right? And looking at your career, like you were always trending this way to be a superstar. But it seems to me that after Hurricane Katrina, when you guys relocated, you guys came down to Miami. And just the resources that y'all tapped into, everything went this way.

• 13:56Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 13:56Fred Taylor?

  Was that moment after Katrina, post Katrina, was that your biggest pivot? And then you, did you feel a necessary or extra desire to carry the city of New Orleans on your back? To let them know we all gonna, you know, make this turn?

• 14:13Lil Wayne?

  I came front. I I I hit Miami before. It was before Katrina. And I felt that way.

• 14:19Fred Taylor?

  All right.

• 14:19Lil Wayne?

  I felt that way like, you know what? I'm have to, I'm carrying New Orleans. And also it was Miami was, you know, Miami was a world to me when I got out there. We went out there a little, me and my homies. We went out there, that was when it started letting me do shows by myself. Meaning, you know, you could go out and do shows with your homies because you're popping. You know what I mean? So I we went out there and somebody booked us for Memorial Weekend. And there was a, I knew he was a new promoter as well. So he didn't know too much. He had booked us without booking a hotel till the last minute. So when he had, when it came down to the hotel room, so he was like, I don't want to lose this bread. Because I already know these these shows gonna pop off. So he went and took it upon himself to buy a condo, to lease a condo for a month.

• 15:03Lil Wayne?

  You know, but just for us, for the two days, for the, y'all coming down here just for y'all for two days. We had so much fun on our own. Our first, now we would always do, we did, we did shows by ourselves, but be like South Carolina and stuff like that. We ain't never been to Miami. That was the first time doing Miami by ourselves. And he had a condo decked out for, we fell in love with it. I took the, took over the lease, called my mama right there, called my mama like, I don't think I'm coming home. And she was like, what's the address? I'm gonna send you clothes. Wow.

• 15:31Fred Taylor?

  Yeah.

• 15:31Lil Wayne?

  Because you already know, she was like, you know, I don't, I don't want you out here in New Orleans anyway. So she was like, "What's the address I sent you clothes?" And I, I think I stayed in Miami from that, from that point for like 20 years. And what, you know, I had a little few run ins when I first got there, you know, I was young, young, young. So, you know, they can get out of the city.

• 15:48Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 15:48Lil Wayne?

  You know, you ain't out with your baby? You ain't out with, you ain't out with your pops? You know, you just, oh, you just, oh, okay.

• 15:55Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 15:55Lil Wayne?

  You done grew up, huh? Okay. You know, they, they wanna be up out of there, but they understood that man at home ain't trying to do nothing but smile and fuck a few hoes. Make a few dollars, you know?

• 16:05Channing Crowder?

  It's funny you say that with Baby and, um, I heard you before give him all that love, but you had to break off at some point. You got in so young that you had the OGs, you know, kinda grooming you up. What's that feeling to become the man, to become the dude, like you saying, where you can say, "I'mma stay in Miami," and that's your decision?

• 16:23Ryan Clark?

  I know, cuz I was, I was there. You need to explain to people, or even can you explain to him, who Baby and Slim were to us? You know what I mean? It's, like, y'all saw him as dudes that ran, like, mu- a music label.

• 16:37Lil Wayne?

  I could make it better for you. When we first, bro, we would go out, not only that, they saw us as a whole, outside of, not, and for, for, for lack of, never flawed, you know what I mean? They always respecting, knew exactly what it was. But outside, you know, we went out, man, we was a clown show. Oh, yeah, that was one thing, that was something that, and that's also a part of, a part of our history that, that we don't, cuz we don't speak on it, but that never gets spoke on. But, you know what I mean, when we first came out, we was, you know, us the guys from New Orleans with the long shirts.

• 17:06Ryan Clark?

  The Reeb.

• 17:07Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, the long shirts and the Reeboks. And, you know, to the, to New Or- to New York, LA, they think, "Reeboks?" You know what I mean? They looking at it like, "What?" They, long ass shirts and big ass jeans, them bandanas, and I got every different color bandana. You know what I mean? So they really not understa- they really, so imagine that today. Imagine that's what I just said, imagine that today, we'll, we'll be looking like, "What the hell y'all doing? What you banging? What you?"

• 17:30Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 17:31Lil Wayne?

  Oh, Lord, they got camouflage, right? They saying they soldiers, Lord.

• 17:34Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 17:34Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? So now that, they really, we was a, what? If, if, if we ain't about to, until Juvi say- Back that ass up till that song come on. They ain't gonna hear nothing about nothing about nothing. Ain't y'all the guy? We was looked at as the New Orleans Two Live Crew.

• 17:50Ryan Clark?

  Really?

• 17:50Lil Wayne?

  Oh, yeah, we was looked at.

• 17:52Ryan Clark?

  So what were those conversations like amongst y'all though? Because the one thing cats from New Orleans don't wanna do is fail play.

• 17:58Lil Wayne?

  They fail play.

• 17:58Ryan Clark?

  Like that's the...

• 17:59Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 18:00Ryan Clark?

  I have that conversation multiple times with them. I be like, "Bro, like, I'm cool, I'm chill, just don't play me."

• 18:05Lil Wayne?

  Funnet call, I get FaceTimed by Lenny Funnet. Shout out Funnet, I get a man FaceTiming me at least twice a week just from failing play. He didn't wanna fail play.

• 18:14Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 18:14Lil Wayne?

  Say, "Bro, tell these dudes..."

• 18:17Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, so like, what was those conversations like amongst y'all though? Because I knew y'all had the skill.

• 18:22Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 18:22Ryan Clark?

  Y'all understood that.

• 18:23Lil Wayne?

  That's what it was. It was just, you know, trusting Baby and Slim, trusting their vision. And them knowing that they gonna put us in, like, coaches. Knowing they gonna put us in the right position, we just gotta hit the shot. And that's, we was so motivated, like, you know, that chip on your shoulder, you know, that whatever, whether, you know, how the Chiefs are, whether we got it, the Warriors, whether we really got this chip or not. That we had one, because we already knew for a fact that, okay. And then, you know, we had to perform. What I mean by that is, when we on stage performing, they literally looking at us like, you know, like, "Man, get to the song that we know."

• 18:56Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 18:56Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? And so we had to make that. And I can, it was awesome to do so. And it all happened genuinely, happened organically, you know, for each and every one of us.

• 19:05Channing Crowder?

  Being where you are now and being strategic and the artists you have under you and all, did they make any mistakes back then?

• 19:12Lil Wayne?

  I'm talking about my artists?

• 19:13Ryan Clark?

  Talking about Baby and Slim.

• 19:15Channing Crowder?

  Well, now, if you were looking way as mad as, you know what I'm saying? Like, if you're looking, did you see any missteps now that you look back?

• 19:20Lil Wayne?

  You know what I be telling my dudes? I be like, "Man, now that I'm in charge of the things I'm in charge of, I kinda look at it like it was impossible to do what they did." For just two, two guys. You know what I mean? Like, man, I deal with, man, what? Man, I be about to bite somebody's head off behind a hotel room. You know what I mean? Like, man, we rode down there fifty, sixty deep everywhere we went. And they were in charge. You know what I mean? So that was when I said, think about what they, as always, that's how I can't, I stopped thinking about it. Because it's too much to think of, like, man, what the hell? They was doing way too, because I know I'm doing too much. So they was doing, so that's how I always think about it when I think about what they, what they did.

• 20:02Lil Wayne?

  So I can't even imagine if, whatever mistake they made, I'm sure they wiped it up and erased it and cleaned it. Figured it out. Yeah.

• 20:08Ryan Clark?

  I am doing my best to be like the cordial host here. Because I really just want to tell them, hey, man, can y'all just listen to me and Wayne talk about stuff? That I want to ask him, that I've been wanting to ask him since 1999.

• 20:22Ryan Clark?

  But for, for you, man, you were like the young cat that rapped, right? The cat that didn't curse. You know what I'm saying? Like, when you finally came out, he's like, I don't curse, but in this verse, I was like, oh, man, you're cursing now. Like, that was like a...

• 20:34Lil Wayne?

  So you, you know, you come from our, so you already know, yeah, that was so, so big for me. What?

• 20:39Ryan Clark?

  What, what went into that thought process of saying, okay, we on this song?

• 20:44Speaker 00

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• 21:14Ryan Clark?

  We're going to put this part of the song, this is going to be the chorus.

• 21:17Lil Wayne?

  Stunna used to like, when I say fuck, he used to like, you know, Stunna, Stunna and Slim, they had that, they, they always had a Tupac image of me. So, you know what I mean? It was always something that, you know, if it was, it was something going to be something from his claw. You know what I mean? You know, Pac was that fuck the world, fuck, you know what I mean? They used to like, Stunna used to like when I say it. You know what I mean? I think I used to say it a lot or something. So you were like, you know, you're like, I think you need to make that a song. You know what I mean? That fuck the world. And I was like, boy.

• 21:45Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 21:45Lil Wayne?

  You sure? You want to call my mom and ask her?

• 21:48Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 21:49Lil Wayne?

  That's when I said, well, if I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna do it the right way. If I don't curse, but fuck the way. But you know, I was so young.

• 21:55Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 21:56Lil Wayne?

  That that was the hook.

• 21:57Ryan Clark?

  Yep.

• 21:57Lil Wayne?

  And I said, I don't curse, but in this verse.

• 21:59Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 22:01Lil Wayne?

  That was the hook. It's not the verse, Dwayne, but it's okay.

• 22:04Ryan Clark?

  And we already knew, but when it was, you know, squad up or dedication or the drought, you almost, like, you almost became two people, right? There was mixtape Wheezy, and then there was Wheezy that every now and then we'd be like, okay, it's cool that you go make albums, other people could buy it, but we want you to be back here. And then you learned how to do it all of the time. What was that transition like to go from, you know what? I don't need to make, every song doesn't have the sound, because think about like our music, it was like a mixture of like bounce.

• 22:34Lil Wayne?

  Mm-hmm.

• 22:35Ryan Clark?

  And then Lil Trigger Man.

• 22:36Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 22:36Ryan Clark?

  And then y'all brought it in, and y'all were really rapping.

• 22:38Lil Wayne?

  Some of that shit, yeah.

• 22:39Ryan Clark?

  And y'all mixed it all.

• 22:40Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 22:41Ryan Clark?

  How did you make the transition to be like, nah, I could rap like New York cats? And then Atlanta had come on, or LA? How'd you make that transition to say, I'm here with them?

• 22:49Lil Wayne?

  Simple. Wanted, first of all, wanted to be respected and, and want, still trying to get that whole, you suddenly just shake that ass music, trying to get that, I had that chip on my shoulder. Way more than my bros did. Aaron Ju, you get too fucked by that shit. B.J., I mean, I didn't get too fucked by it. Me, I'm, I'm, I love Jay-Z.

• 23:10Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 23:10Lil Wayne?

  I mean, I love, I love, I don't want these niggas to walk past me and walk past me. You know what I mean? So shit, so whenever I got a moment, shout out my man Raj Smooth. He has parents would teach piano lessons downstairs, but they would let us use their basement. He had, he nigga rigged the studio up in his basement. And he, I would go there after the real studio sessions, meaning after, after, after the high boy studio session, cash money. That was like school.

• 23:36Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 23:37Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? That was like school. They, we going, we, those, I, to this day, I have never seen nobody record or, or just approach it the way we approached it. I mean, when we went to the studio, man, we had song titles ready. There was subjects, and it was real situation that happened in the streets that day or that week, they gonna sit down and tell us that? You know what I mean? Then you put the song together, like it was really, and then Wayne, this is yours. This is your solo song, Wayne, this is yours. They got the beat ready. They got the idea, like, I don't see nobody, like, we go now, I don't go now like that. I mean, shit, I go like the new, like, niggas go now, we just go in that bitch. Let's just go hit that bitch, try to figure it out.

• 24:14Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 24:15Channing Crowder?

  Man, you talk about the mixtapes, man, what happened? Because that's when I fell in love with you. Well, just listen, listen from a young nigga mind. You see one song, like, you see all the song, you see all the music. And then you wait for Wayne to get on that beat. Because I know you about to come get him. And you take that person's song and kill them on it every time they drop it.

• 24:35Lil Wayne?

  I don't be trying to, but that's what, that answer, Jack, could you say, how was I able to make the transition from those type of raps to, from our shit to just trying to do mixtapes? I know for a fact, I ain't about to get on this bitch, and you don't want to hear no New Orleans shit on this hot ass song, that's a, that's a fucking song, but the whole world, so I just, I'm attacking the way you attacked it, but if I'm gonna do that, I gotta do it better than you. I gotta do it better, you know, at least, I gotta do it to where it's gonna be, it can stand next to you on a feature, you know what I mean? And so, that's where, that's where that comes from. We do this all the time.

• 25:12Channing Crowder?

  Give me a No Sales Eleven.

• 25:14Lil Wayne?

  No, what happened was, the times changed, so what happened is, back then, I could do that. And nowadays, I could, if I do that, the times have changed so much to where nothing is official as far as, like, you know, you don't drop album, official album, you don't, they don't do that. So now, we ended up, what, what, what happened is, as soon as we put that out, you know, soon as, you know how Drama might be ready to drop, Drama might try, you know, how you gonna put a whole event, it's gonna go down, as soon as it drop, those artists are calling our people, like, hey, we want that to be a single. Yeah, like, and they, they want-

• 25:50Ryan Clark?

  Because the music drops differently now.

• 25:51Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, because, and they, you know, ain't no, we don't need no date, they about to pull that up, pull that off, pay how much you want to pay for it, boom, that's the original new verse. Ain't no such thing as a remix no more, so that's all it really is, but that's new, that's their new single. We about to shoot a video and everything. And that's what takes the allure of what I was doing with that away from me. You know what I mean? Because now I'm approaching it knowing, now I'm approaching it knowing that this might be a single.

• 26:17Fred Taylor?

  It's already.

• 26:18Lil Wayne?

  I ain't gonna really just rap it the whole way you did it like I would do those mixtapes.

• 26:22Fred Taylor?

  You mentioned Jay-Z and it made me think about the Karate Kid, right?

• 26:26Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 26:27Fred Taylor?

  Mr. Miyagi, then your student gotta become a teacher. Then I start thinking about when Kobe went at Mike.

• 26:35Lil Wayne?

  At Mike, yeah.

• 26:35Fred Taylor?

  And when AI went at Mike. I know one year you said the best rapper alive since the best rapper retired. Was that your way of paying homage to Jay? Or did you always feel like you was the best rapper even before?

• 26:49Lil Wayne?

  I can say that was me paying homage. All my friends, baby, Slim, everybody I can tell you. They, to Wayne, Jay, that's all they, you know what I mean? Stan ain't gonna hear that shit. He ain't disliking me, it was just that I'm too much on it. I'm too, you know, when a nigga just too much, god damn nigga. You know what I mean? Santa Claus ain't real nigga.

• 27:12Lil Wayne?

  Yo, that nigga right around here. Well, Christmas today. You know what I mean? But shit, that nigga was, to me, he was, the way he put words together and by it being real.

• 27:22Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 27:22Lil Wayne?

  Also, I like to go organic and natural reason, meaning I don't like to know the reason.

• 27:26Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 27:27Lil Wayne?

  For a lot of things. You know what I mean? Because I feel like whatever the reason is, is what's happening. And so I never knew why I attracted to Slim like that. Because I liked Biggie, love Biggie.

• 27:38Fred Taylor?

  Right, right.

• 27:38Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? Love Jay the Kid, love all that shit, but Jay.

• 27:43Fred Taylor?

  I know they say he never wrote. He don't write. He don't write nothing. Did that inspire you? Because were you always that way?

• 27:50Lil Wayne?

  When I heard it, when I heard that and heard it, the moment I heard it, I stopped. You could ask him, boy. The moment I heard, I heard that nigga Jay-Z, I don't write no more.

• 27:58Ryan Clark?

  Right, just like that.

• 28:01Lil Wayne?

  So we went in the studio in Rod Schmoo's studio and we did 10,000 bars and that was the last time I rapped anything off of a paper.

• 28:09Ryan Clark?

  Man, that's dope. You used to talk about, you know, you don't really want to know the reasons. But in going to November, you know, a journey of Rikers Island, you're just pinning your thoughts. You know, and they would say like even there, it wasn't like you didn't want to rap in front of people, but you said that there was the beauty in that people couldn't take away, that no one could take away your creativity. You know, when you are there, man, and you're writing in your notebook, which eventually becomes a book to sell. What were those moments like? Cause that's 242 days when you were the best rapper in the world. Right? You were at the height of everything you had ever worked for.

• 28:55Ryan Clark?

  And now you walk in there. What was that time like? And what made you start writing your thoughts down like that? Especially we're talking about a rapper that doesn't write anymore.

• 29:04Lil Wayne?

  The writing my thoughts down, that right there, I think that was just plain and simple.

• 29:10Lil Wayne?

  I think that probably was recommended, yeah, not to make it a book. Just period, like as far as like a therapist skate type of thing. They were like, you probably need to write your thoughts down since you don't write your, that's what it was. It was like, you know, like, man, since you don't write no damn raps, man, you probably just write your damn thoughts down. You know what I mean? Like, I couldn't do that. That'd be something to look forward to, but the rapping, right? When I went, you know, I mean, I used to call it, I'm going to the studio. When I'm, that I'm, that's how I want to approach it differently because I don't write no more, man. I don't write no more. So now when I'm, now I'm in there though, lock-in time, when it was like 10, 10:30 and shit like that. That I'm telling them, that's studio time. I'm going to the studio. I put my sheets up on my cell and everything.

• 29:56Lil Wayne?

  I go, I'm going to the studio. I got beats and because I'm going to actually write. So that's my idea of actually recording a song. So now, when I want to listen to music or whatever, I just, I got the beat that I've already written this song. I got it written down already. It says like, listen to the song. That's an unheard song. Going, that motherfucker, just rap that verse to the beat. Listen to them, if I don't like something, change it real quick. And those songs became songs, you know what I mean?

• 30:21Channing Crowder?

  How was that like, bruh? Like being in jail, doing that? Like you saying, all the, everything that you had to make happen?

• 30:26Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 30:26Channing Crowder?

  And then everybody know the Drake song when you was in jail? You wrapped the motherfucker over the phone?

• 30:30Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 30:31Channing Crowder?

  Yeah. So like doing that, but knowing like, seeing that you're this amazing talent? And you sitting here in the cell, three hots, three hots in a cot?

• 30:39Lil Wayne?

  Thank God my life is way too blessed for the reality that others deal with. That others are, that was literally around me dealing with for that reality to even hit me. And I'm living with y'all, living right there. We sleeping, we living in the same motherfucking prison, you know what I mean? So, but, you know, I was too, I'm too blessed. And I thought, I thank God every day and like in there, out of there. Cause I already know my situation. And niggas was getting out before me. You know what I mean? Niggas getting out before niggas, and niggas dealing, niggas living better than me in there. But I already know, you know, I'm just saying that in the reality of that place never really set in like that.

• 31:18Ryan Clark?

  How do you do that? Cause you actually wrote that you saw people's spirit get broke. You say, "I saw people's spirit get broken that hellhole. And jail is something I wouldn't wish on nobody." So for you to say, "For me, it wasn't that sort of experience." How did it feel to watch other people be broken by incarceration that way though?

• 31:39Lil Wayne?

  Being around baby and them, fortunately, New Orleans, a lot of people did some time. Stunning them did a lot of time. You know what I mean? The people that was around, my uncles, whoever they was, they did a lot of time. So, I was institutionalized already. Like, man, look at y'all jokes. I'm just looking like, look at how y'all, this how y'all New York boys, this how y'all do y'all time?

• 31:59Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 32:00Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? And they doing, and they doing the same thing. They like, and they, and they wondering like, man, how much time you did? Where you, man, I ain't never been in no jail. I just been around them niggas, man. Hey, I've been around real, real, real, real niggas, man. It's a real, real nigga who probably supposed to be in jail. Yeah, I mean, but. And I was telling Peyton and Eli, one of my, one of the, one of the homies that was like my uncle, he was shot on his time. And when he was shot, you know how they, they used to let them clean the city up? He had to clean, he had to clean up around, uh, what school they went to? Newman. Newman. Yeah. So they would have to clean up like around four or five o'clock in the morning before the kids get there because they prisoners, honestly. But they on, they cleaned up the highway around, around the school or whatever.

• 32:43Lil Wayne?

  He said it was never morning that he was out there that, that he was, that they cleaned up and they, that that was on their route when they had to go around Newman or whatever, that, uh, Archie, Cooper, Peyton, he said Eli was a baby crawling out there five in the morning. Already working. Out there. He said, and he was like, and you could hear, he said, all you could hear is bitch, fuck. Like, what? He's like cussing them boys out. Right. What? Bitch, you dropped the bump. And he said, but he was out there for Cooper. It was all about Cooper. They was out there for Cooper though. Yeah.

• 33:13Fred Taylor?

  Tom, we know you big in sports, man. So we, I, I want to keep it right here too while we here. And I know you love the goats. Tom, are you gonna keep it at home and go with, with Peyton? Who, who's the best quarterback?

• 33:25Lil Wayne?

  Tom Brady.

• 33:27Fred Taylor?

  You ain't gonna keep it at the crib?

• 33:29Lil Wayne?

  What you mean like, is Peyton a Peyton Manning?

• 33:31Fred Taylor?

  The best quarterback that the NFL had ever seen, Tom Brady or, or your hometown Peyton Manning?

• 33:38Lil Wayne?

  It's not even a question.

• 33:39Fred Taylor?

  Say it fast, man. I know he did say it fast. I just want to hear him say it. Cause I, I like when you debate with Skip.

• 33:45Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 33:45Fred Taylor?

  You know, I want to ask you how you find time to keep up with all these sports like that and still go and be the top dog of what you do. You know what I'm saying? And be able to go debate on a, on some real shit like you actually debate Skip like, like, like, um, like Shannon does. You know what I'm saying? So with, with the Brady question, I, I want to ask you, cause you could have been biased.

• 34:04Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 34:04Fred Taylor?

  And said Peyton.

• 34:05Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 34:05Fred Taylor?

  Cause he from the crib. So that's why I want to ask you.

• 34:07Lil Wayne?

  And his brother would have loved, if I got it, would have loved if I said Peyton.

• 34:12Fred Taylor?

  That's his brother though?

• 34:13Lil Wayne?

  Huh? That's his brother.

• 34:16Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, them nice haired dudes. My man. Nah, he definitely, he definitely, Peyton, what big head that is, Peyton?

• 34:21Fred Taylor?

  So what separated the two?

• 34:23Lil Wayne?

  The rings.

• 34:25Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, I mean, it ain't, it ain't that hard. Seven, seven of them things.

• 34:30Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, playing it seven, man.

• 34:31Ryan Clark?

  Seven of them things, but I do, I have one bone to pick with you. When I was in Pittsburgh, we played Green Bay for the Super Bowl. And that's the year you came out with Green and Yellow. Oh, well, you almost lost me, dawg. There was a real touch of time between RC and Lil Wayne.

• 34:47Lil Wayne?

  Man, hold on, man. First of all, that was, if I am mistaken, wasn't that like, then, wasn't that, they, they asked me, not the team, then Wiz, wasn't that like asked to do that, right? Yeah, like, I was asked to do that.

• 35:00Ryan Clark?

  Sometimes you can say no, Wayne.

• 35:02Lil Wayne?

  Oh, no, I was not gonna say no for my, I was gonna do it anyway.

• 35:07Lil Wayne?

  But it was like, you know, I just made sure, you know, I had to, here we like, make sure Wiz no, boy, this ain't no, this ain't no, this is all sports.

• 35:13Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 35:13Lil Wayne?

  So, you know, it just coming back out of my head, and you're like, shit, you making my shit hot.

• 35:19Ryan Clark?

  No, it was, so it was me, Ike Taylor, Mike Wallace, we was all hot. Hey, we was all, we was like, come on. I was like, man, they ain't got nobody from New Orleans on their team. You know what I mean? I was like, they don't have nobody from, from the city on their team, and he gonna make a song for them? Well, nah, we was, we was hot about that, boy.

• 35:38Channing Crowder?

  How many things you say no to now as Lil Wayne at forty years old?

• 35:41Lil Wayne?

  As far as music?

• 35:42Channing Crowder?

  Just opportunities and different things that you do, like, like you talking about the, the, the pregame song and all, like, do you, do you tell people no a lot?

• 35:50Lil Wayne?

  I don't. You know, I have to have someone like, gotta, I have to have someone like, to, to let me know. I mean, to tell me, like, someone like Karen, let me like, Wayne, you probably shouldn't. Like, I know you want to, I know you just don't wanna say no, you know, we probably shouldn't do this one, or we probably should, you probably should pass on that. But it's, when it comes to music and opportunity, you know, again,

• 36:13Lil Wayne?

  I haven't worked a day in my damn life.

• 36:15Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 36:15Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? Like, I literally been doing this, I told you, since seven, eight years old, and I signed at eleven. So I've never gotten them, I've never had a real job other than this. You know what I mean? So I've been living my dreams since and I just been making sure that I maintain and keep it going.

• 36:33Ryan Clark?

  By the way, thank y'all for not making him say no to this. Cause hey, we were driving over here, I was bragging like hell in the backseat. I was like, shit, I was like, really? I could read the text messages to you. I hit him up. He said he gonna be here and we doing it.

• 36:48Lil Wayne?

  Look, I told, I was like, nah, I said shit, I was like, shit, the boys, they just gonna stop me, get something to eat. They could buy like shit, ask them, cause they, I'm be by the hours too, that shit, I already. I was already dressed, them niggas that hit me up, they was supposed to leave the photo shoot and the video shoot at 8:30.

• 37:01Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 37:02Lil Wayne?

  Niggas hit me at 10, telling me we leaving and I'm like, man, what y'all shot? Y'all doing, who you, bruh, I ain't, you not even a artist, bruh. What is you doing, man?

• 37:11Ryan Clark?

  Before we even started, you know, talking about kids, you know, you've had some, some cool moments lately. Killer Cam, like you say, he called you and I just thought it was, I thought it was beautiful for you to say, you say, you know, look, I'm gonna take a picture of sin so Cross could have it. You know, it just show, it showed what type of father you were, but just also the type of man.

• 37:31Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 37:31Ryan Clark?

  And that's something we enjoy talking about on this show. And Ray Janae always has your back. And recently, it was probably like in January, she tweeted out, she was like, look, which is a, it's a testament to you, right? You're such a, such a great rapper, respected so much. Anytime a new young cat comes out, he's now the next Wayne, or he raps like Wayne or whatever. And she was like, look, leave the marathon Wayne ran out of that. And I respect that. When you have this relationship with your kids and we understand it, we play ball, we aren't where you are, but we just daddy. Right? We just, we just daddy to them. How much did, like, you know, like you say, you tried to give your mom two checks, she didn't want them. You, you told your mama you gonna stay in Miami, she sent you clothes.

• 38:14Ryan Clark?

  How much of that relationship has helped you be the father that you are now?

• 38:19Lil Wayne?

  I was gonna, actually, I ain't wanna stop you when you say it, you was like, when you said the part about not only a great father, but the man you are. Her. Because I have no father. You know what I mean? I lost my father early as he got killed, murked. And so I probably knew him for a good six, seven years of my life before that happened. Other than that, my real pops, he walk around something that way. I'm sure he picked out, I go super hard and I know you got friends. They be like, nigga, you don't know that nigga? That nigga, that, that.

• 38:49Lil Wayne?

  You know, I had to prove to my friends when I was 11, that nigga, this is me on the album. So he got to prove like, nigga, that's my son.

• 38:56Lil Wayne?

  But it's all her though. All her. Taught me how not to be that.

• 39:02Ryan Clark?

  Really?

• 39:02Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? Taught me how not, the farthest, the furthest from being an immigrant mother. I mean, that was their thing. We gonna teach this young, young boy how to be a man before anything.

• 39:16Ryan Clark?

  We are in a time of judging a book by its cover. By the way it looks, by the way it sounds, by the way it moves around, right? And when you're a rapper and they're listening to your music, they're like, well, this person has to be this. And you've continually shown, not only just with your kids, but with the way you love on your folks around them, right? Like, I see the day ones that are still here. Or to have, you know, Drake, who is famously not involved in the Grammys at any time, say, hey, I'm here, but I'm here for Wayne. To get that sort of respect, man, for the man that you are, how much does that mean to you?

• 39:56Lil Wayne?

  The world and beyond. The world and beyond. I mean, that's actually, that's what I, that's what we do. That's what I do it for.

• 40:04Speaker 00

  Flowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them? That's bullspend and marketers are calling it out in Dashboard Confessions.

• 40:14Speaker 01

  I remember telling my boss, it'll be good for the brand when leads were slow. Yeah, it, it wasn't.

• 40:21Speaker 00

  Cut the bullspend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 40:35Lil Wayne?

  Goes all the way back to the moment when I said that, that from that moment I knew the money, it was not, it's not for the money. You know what I mean? And it was for every single thing else, other than that. It's for the love, it's for what you asked me, what do I miss? It's for those moments and it's for, it's for showing, not only the world, but showing anyone I come in, I come that I meet that hasn't met me, the man that I am. I'm so proud to do that. Like, and it's all because of my mother and my grandmother. I'm like, that's what I should, like, that's their perfume, that's their fragrance they sprayed on me. I cannot wait, I love for you to, you know what I mean? A person that don't know me, for you to, oh my God, that's me, that's who I am, yeah.

• 41:16Channing Crowder?

  You came up, like you say, cussing and, well, we started hearing cuss words was through you. And then now, like, you live, like, a life, like, you, how do you stay out of all the BS? Like, it don't be bad stuff about Wayne out there right now. I look back, I was doing research and trying to spy on some-

• 41:30Lil Wayne?

  I work too much, man.

• 41:31Channing Crowder?

  But with the, with the, with the kids, with the baby mamas, with the whatever, you know what I'm saying? Whatever you're doing, like, it's just, everything's solid.

• 41:37Lil Wayne?

  The man I am, when it go, when it comes to, anyone I've known, when it comes to people who I've dealt with regardless, in any business, in any form or fashion, it goes to, goes back to the man I am. The people, the person that my grandmother, first of all, who she raised me to be, the person that my mother keeps on, keeps maintaining, I mean, that I be. Other than that, isn't, I don't, I don't have a, I don't have a technique, I don't have a procedure, I don't have things that I don't do, you know what I mean? I don't have, I don't have superstitions, I just live.

• 42:11Ryan Clark?

  Hey, speaking of living, man, we're coming up on a year, though, where Robert Hoobler passed, his last July. And he essentially saved your life. And, you know, you've told the story before, and the relationship that you continue to keep with him. When you, but when you think back to that day, what it was, was it like 94?

• 42:35Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 42:36Ryan Clark?

  When you, when you think back to that day and what he, what he did for you, man, I would just love for you to get an opportunity on this platform, to just, to just give him some praise, man, for not waiting on ambulance.

• 42:48Lil Wayne?

  And first of all-

• 42:50Ryan Clark?

  Picking up a young cat, man.

• 42:52Lil Wayne?

  Man, what, and man, first, he was off duty. He was off duty. And so, you say, yeah, he admitted, like, I was being nosy. You know, he was like, I was off duty, but you know, it came through my, you know, it came through his radio or dispatch, whatever. And he heard it was the spot, you know, that's his, he felt like, man, that's my spot. You know what I mean? Like, I, I know everybody in that kind of damn complex.

• 43:12Channing Crowder?

  Uncle Bob.

• 43:13Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, so he was like, who the hell, he was like, who the hell done got shot over there? So that's why he said, that's why he even came over there. And when he got up there, I'm laying down, he was like, I see you laying down at the door. And I was like, I'm expecting to see four, five more bodies, because why they, why they ain't picking you up? And that's when, you know, that New Orleans, you know, you gotta be, that New Orleans came out, I'm right there at the door, like, what the fuck? He woke me up. See, if I was coking out, he woke my ass up. He woke me all the way up. I was always messing with him though. Uh, because he got a bad, I think he had one bad leg or whatever thing, one of his legs, as far as I was like, Uncle Bob, you be talking that shit, you just couldn't, you just couldn't crawl, you couldn't jump over my head. Why you stop right there? Yeah, I can't go no fucking more.

• 43:56Lil Wayne?

  Well, everybody, he got me, picked me up. He did, he said that, he told me something I never knew. I never knew, he said, nah, he said, we sent an ambulance with that way.

• 44:06Channing Crowder?

  Really?

• 44:06Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, I never knew that. He said the ambulance with that, he said they hadn't, he said they got this dumb ass. Now that we all know the, you know, general, we all know the rule, but he's like, they got the three, the three tries. Whatever he said, they had to went through their three tries, it was done.

• 44:19Channing Crowder?

  Really?

• 44:20Lil Wayne?

  On God. I never knew that. I had to, I had to, that was, I met, that was me sitting down, talking to him to find that out. Yeah, he was like.

• 44:27Channing Crowder?

  And so he scooped you after that?

• 44:28Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, because he was like, he saw that I was, you know, I guess, I don't know if I had my eyes open or whatever, if I was reacting, but I was clearly awake, I could hear him talking and shit. And so he must have, you know, like, Jimmy, he ain't dead? You know what I mean? So he brought me straight to the bus, through the, through the emergency room, through the waiting room.

• 44:45Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 44:46Lil Wayne?

  I had everybody in the waiting room at my, at my, at my hospital room after, you know, after they passed me, I'm just trying to people, I don't know, just like a line. It was coming up, babe, we just want to see if you made it.

• 44:56Channing Crowder?

  That's New Orleans though, right?

• 44:58Lil Wayne?

  Yeah. Come through that with you like that in his hands, I ain't think you would, I'm just glad you, you know, glad you made it, babe.

• 45:07Channing Crowder?

  That, that had to change the hell out of you.

• 45:09Lil Wayne?

  Huh?

• 45:09Channing Crowder?

  That, that experience had to do something, just.

• 45:11Lil Wayne?

  That changed, it changed my whole family. What internally in you like? It's the reason why we sitting here right now.

• 45:21Fred Taylor?

  To go from that moment, right? And just looking back on that and then being able to look forward to September and receive the BMI Icon Award. Have you had an opportunity to put that in perspective, let's say, Icon? Like, that's crazy, right?

• 45:38Lil Wayne?

  Haven't had a moment to think about it, actually. You know, I'm one of those guys when it comes to accolades and their rewards and their awards. And so I be feeling like you're way too late.

• 45:51Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 45:51Lil Wayne?

  Yep. You know what I mean? I feel like I've been going harder than whoever you put that award and whoever hand you put that award in. No disrespect to them, but it's all the respect that I got for myself and it's me not disrespecting how great I am.

• 46:05Fred Taylor?

  Correct.

• 46:05Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? So when it comes to those things, you know, thank God, I appreciate it, appreciate it and shit. But you know, I would, I'd be lying to you if I said that I said and thought about it. You the first person that told me I was, I thought you September after my birthday. I didn't know what we was talking about.

• 46:20Fred Taylor?

  You still skating?

• 46:21Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 46:22Fred Taylor?

  Still boarding?

• 46:23Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 46:24Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, you boarding with Nigel yet?

• 46:25Lil Wayne?

  I skated with Nigel before. Yeah, Nigel Houston, yeah. Why you skateboard, man? That's not smart. I didn't say that's not smart.

• 46:34Lil Wayne?

  It's just an extra risk on the money machine, bro. I am not an athlete, boy. I could, I could, I can go on stage with the crutches. I can wheel myself up there and as long as the mic work, we gonna kill that bitch.

• 46:51Lil Wayne?

  But, but, but no, the skating thing, man. I done had, did live full tours, what, before every show? I gotta let them know, hey yo, how y'all doing, Indiana? Uh, I just wanted to stop and show, let y'all know. At some point in this, this show, at some point, I will start bleeding over my left eye. Do not, I repeat, do not worry, don't panic. It's a skate, skate scar, don't worry.

• 47:21Lil Wayne?

  All right, let's get it. Boom, everybody gonna start sweating and bleeding. I got like nine stitches. Yeah, this is what I do, man. I'm post-surgery is deep. It's fun. Fun ain't to worry, man. It's the escape, the escape part of it is unexplainable. You know how you can watch someone escape and you see that's their escape. I've never, you know what I mean? It's so simple. You can't, you think about anything, it's impossible. Yeah. To think about anything else, once you kick that motherfucker, put your other foot on there, you're on four wheels. You trying to think about anything else than what you, in front of you and on the side of you, then you gonna be behind you. Yeah, so, and so you do that for a good two, three hours straight. Damn, what the hell I was mad about again? You know what I mean?

• 48:04Fred Taylor?

  So, the skate documentary, can you give us a little people that, what it's gonna be like?

• 48:09Lil Wayne?

  The skate documentary, first of all, it's all about my skate team. You know what I mean? It's all about the skate team. It's me getting the opportunity, you know, because I skate and giving me the opportunity with them, people, they interested in the fact that I skate with this, me, it's all about the team. It's gonna be all about the team, me introducing the world to my skate team. Them boys go hard. You know what I mean? I want them to be validated and just start putting out their parts and all that, just plain and simple be validated. I don't want them to be just some skaters, they don't know who this is. Nah, this is our skate team. I want it to be quote unquote, all that's the dudes who skate for Wayne. Nah, nah, nah, this the skate team, this their team, this our team, this how we rock. The documentary also gonna highlight why I love it so much. When did I start? Why did I, you know what I mean? How hard do I actually go?

• 48:54Lil Wayne?

  Things like that, which is funny, you know what I mean? The funny like, I might. I remember when you started, bruh. I know you do. But nigga, but you know like, the funny part be like, a nigga might, certain artists might be like, what you doing tonight? I'm skating, I'm going to skate park. You know what I mean? All right, cool, whatever, I'm pulling up. Like, pull up, give them the address, and they pull up. Everybody go thirty, forty, five minutes, they ready, they like, damn, that nigga ain't say what's up yet. Right. You know what I mean? Like, that nigga, that nigga can't shake out of hands, and that was it. He like, nah, he like, that nigga, and soon as I skate my ass back up to probably drink a squig or what, first thing, damn nigga, you really skate. Yeah, what you thought we was gonna be doing, talking and chilling? Don't mind him, I'm trying to break my neck, boy.

• 49:36Ryan Clark?

  You know, you mentioned, you know, you do it for for long enough and it's kind of some of those things go away. Has that become a form of therapy for you though? Just to to get out there, release, because I am, you know, I've learned to be creative in different ways. Like, I've tried to to write before. The words don't necessarily come to me the way that words come to me when I'm speaking. Right, and for you to be able to go into a studio, give a bar, have them play it back to you, give them four more, like, that is a creativity level that feels like it wouldn't shut off. Are you able to shut some of those things off when you skate? Or are you still having all those thoughts going through your mind while you're doing it?

• 50:18Lil Wayne?

  I can try to, but it's, you know, you can try all you want. Soon as that, like I told, soon as you, it's all about, man, where my left foot need to be. Hey, man, where I need to, should I land low, should I land high, should I? It's all about that. And that's that, and I've literally, I've literally have never met, I've done nothing else. I have taken my focus like that. You know what I mean? I've been able to do everything and still think about what we're around with. You know what I mean? Not on the board.

• 50:50Ryan Clark?

  You famously said that you told your homegirl Katie that you're gangsters and you're gangster, and gangsters don't ask questions, and gangsters don't ask why. But I do have like just one last question about you, just a man. When you look at the music business for for sure, it's very rare that someone reaches this elite quote-unquote goat-grade level, and they're able to bring a lot of people with them in that way. Right, you know, like, we've seen Jay-Z, and as he's gotten older, he's figured out how to do it. You know, there was a Kanye, and then there was a Rihanna, but Young, he tried it, you know, he tried it with Bleep. And he tried it with Beans.

• 51:31Lil Wayne?

  You definitely gotta go through it and not.

• 51:32Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, it's very difficult. You know, you've had, you know, whether it's Drake, Nicki, the people, you know, people with Young Money, now with Skate Team. You seem to become a real team-type guy when you have an individually unique, elite talent.

• 51:50Ryan Clark?

  What has made you so much about family? Instead of saying, you know what? I'm Wayne, I'm more talented than anybody. I could do this all by myself, make records the rest of my life, and be rich as hell and never had to bring anybody with me. But you've made a decision that it's gonna be about everybody getting it.

• 52:06Lil Wayne?

  Brian Williams and Brian Williams, who is Slim, baby and Slim, no more, no less. You know what I mean? They real, real hustlers, you know what I mean? And they, you know, I would, when I tell my mom, when I came back and told my mom, that's who I want. Now, I'm gonna rap with cash money. You know, first thing they go, Cat, you talking about Brian, baby? She went to school with him. First thing she like, he, he home? You know? She, first thing, she like, that boy out of jail? You know what I mean? She like, all I remember was he used to be too young and all them going in the mouth. And had too much money for the begone of full shade.

• 52:44Ryan Clark?

  Right, yeah.

• 52:45Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, I mean, so, and then she, all she remember was he went down the stretch, it's time. You know what I mean? And then she was like, but my, my uncle Peanut, was she like, but you know what? His, ask his brother who his best friend was. And it was, Slim would always say, Wayne, your uncle was my, would be the only nigga fuck with me in school. And see, you know, I'm hearing it from my mom, you don't even, you know, you don't believe your mom. Like she just talk, Peanut the only one, man, ain't nobody even wanna be with him. But he kept her, he was like, nah, man, your uncle was the only nigga, because Slim, Slim used to what, take glasses or some shit. And so, I guess niggas mess with him or whatever. My uncle was in there, what you what?

• 53:19Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 53:20Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? So you, you, you respect that. So, just the way they, I always felt, I always would look at, literally, I would always look at them the same, like you, I would be, it'd be a time where I'd be look, I'd look around and look at them like, why the hell? Like, why is not just the people that, you know, like, to me in my head, I'm like, the people that, that matter? The people that's doing like, why we gotta have sudden like, and they, and why they really care about the such and such, saying, like I always was, and why do they care about us? Like I'm, like I always, like, why, why in the hell he giving me a shot? I'm eleven.

• 53:56Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 53:56Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? I know for a fact, man, when I'm, when, when all of us come together and everybody rap their verse, I'm seeing your, y'all reactions to Juvi verse and to, to BG, cause they make, they saying shit you can relate. I know for a fact I'm coming with this eleven year old shit, trauma artist though.

• 54:14Channing Crowder?

  Right.

• 54:14Lil Wayne?

  Trauma and, you know what I mean? So, and you, you know how to make me feel just as welcome, just as good as, you know what I mean? Like with, uh, like a, like a parent with a newborn, you know a lot of kids, man.

• 54:26Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 54:26Lil Wayne?

  You're good, you're a good parent, man.

• 54:28Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 54:28Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? And they, they taught me, just, just plain and simple, that the reason how, the way they never stopped. You know what I mean? Like when the check came, the big such and such came, the big, that they could have wiped, you know what I mean? Could have, yeah, all right, peace out, you know? And you know, you heard, you saw, we, and being in New Orleans, we saw certain stories, certain people did get that bag and you, y'all never heard of them, you know what I mean? Cause they ain't do what they're supposed to do. I mean, so just watching them and watching the way they did that, and then again, it's a New Orleans thing, watching the way P, it was like, look at P.

• 55:01Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 55:01Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? It's like, and P had like a zillion artists.

• 55:04Channing Crowder?

  Yep.

• 55:04Lil Wayne?

  You know what I mean? Cause you not gonna come over here and not get, not, I'm, I would not, and I'm not gonna put you out and then give you the same shine. Your album gonna look like everybody else's album cover, just showing you that we gonna put the same effort to, you know what I mean? Nobody's, and, I mean, it was the same way, you know what I mean? So, and that's where I get it from.

• 55:22Channing Crowder?

  And bro, you put out so much music. Bro, is something wrong with your memory or?

• 55:27Lil Wayne?

  I can't.

• 55:27Channing Crowder?

  I can't remember all your songs. Something wrong with your memory?

• 55:29Lil Wayne?

  Yeah. I'm so glad. I got the, when I get asked this question, he's never here.

• 55:38Channing Crowder?

  Who?

• 55:39Lil Wayne?

  This, they got one person that love me to death that hate, that's the one thing he hate about me. He fucking hated Terry. He would vouch, T, do I have a bad memory?

• 55:52Lil Wayne?

  The word, I mean, that man will be like, "Tone, you really don't remember meeting Michael Jackson? You really don't remember stepping on Michael Jackson toe when he was doing the moonwalk? Oh, no, I don't." But it be thin, you know, I meant to be real shit like that, like, "I don't." You're like, "Tone." And he had goo goo. That'd be me stepping on Michael Jackson.

• 56:15Channing Crowder?

  You had to be drinking or something.

• 56:16Lil Wayne?

  Nah, I don't drink.

• 56:18Channing Crowder?

  You had to be doing something. You had to be smoking something, not to remember stepping on Michael Jackson.

• 56:23Lil Wayne?

  I ain't stepping on Michael Jackson, I was just joking.

• 56:25Channing Crowder?

  I'm just playing, like, yeah.

• 56:26Lil Wayne?

  That was an analogy.

• 56:27Channing Crowder?

  No, no, no, I'm saying like, Sam.

• 56:28Lil Wayne?

  I have a horrible, I always, I say it's a gift and a curse. I say, "He blessed me with, I'm gonna bless you with all these amazing, amazing moments in life." He ain't gonna remember too many of them, no. Yeah, he ain't gonna remember too many of them. Enjoy it when it happens.

• 56:43Ryan Clark?

  It's late, bro, it was so, I'm, like, what I said in the beginning of the show, man, like, I truly mean, a few nights ago, we were asked, "Name your top five rappers." First one, I'm like, "Wheezy." And to me, man, you know, when you said it, you know, they took away the teams, but, and at that time, that was all we had to represent us. And when you were representing us at that time, we couldn't have been more proud.

• 57:05Lil Wayne?

  I appreciate it.

• 57:06Ryan Clark?

  And to continue to watch you grow, and now to see so many other people in the world recognize how great you are, how amazing you've been, and the longevity that you've had in this game, and the human you've become, man, I am, for sure, proud that I'm from Louisiana. I'm proud I'm from the West Bank of New Orleans, man, and to be a part of that legacy in any way is an honor, man. Thank you for joining us on the pivot, bro. My dog. Yes, sir.

• 57:36Lil Wayne?

  For real.

• 57:37Channing Crowder?

  Oh, look, Brahman missed me, Gator shit.

• 57:39Lil Wayne?

  I miss you, that's right.

• 57:40Channing Crowder?

  What size, what size you want?

• 57:42Lil Wayne?

  Huh?

• 57:42Channing Crowder?

  Nah, that boy don't want no Gator, son.

• 58:19Speaker 07

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