hello B and gentle GS in today's episode of the syrup sipping snub Super Bowl sad boy we see the little Louisiana animal who wasn't at the halftime show the dread zeppelin the goblin goon gremlin the young money veteran who packs punchlines as a profession the man who Kendrick and the NFL left in a deep depression my goat Luni is absolutely cooked i hate to admit it all right i absolutely hate every single time this man has done an interview in the last 6 months because it reminds me that somehow he was a lot more mature a lot more confident and way more I'm going to use the word stoic i think that's the best way to describe the situation he was way more stoic at the age of like 26 in 2006 when he was calling himself the best rapper alive he's still calling himself the best rapper alive but somehow every time Kendrick Lamar takes a stride Lil Wayne's brain takes a nose dive so drop a like and subscribe for these dope rhymes now some context for anyone who's clueless out there 2025 Super Bowl halftime show took place in Lil Wayne's hometown of New Orleans lil Wayne is a massive football fan he's got his own sports agency he's been on ESPN and all those sports channels and shows a bunch of times very involved and he's even saying in this new interview that he just did which we're going to break down that the NFL was kind of planting these little thoughts in his head that he should be more present he should be more out there and he should really you know let the world know that he wants that Super Bowl halftime show slot and so he did and for some reason he thought he had it in the bag even though he would later admit that no one from the NFL actually ever contacted him specifically saying "Hey we're thinking of you as one of the candidates." But I digress he signed Lobriana the Marilyn Monrovi ho to his record label Young Money so when Kendrick Lamar and Drake got into that battle and Kendrick Lamar ended up winning and then you know getting that Super Bowl halftime slot in Lil Wayne's hometown on the heels of destroying his protege's career and reputation many assumed that Lil Wayne wasn't just mad over the fact that they chose Kendrick Lamar over him for that Super Bowl halftime slot but he was also probably mad at the fact that Kendrick who has been a longtime collaborator and student of Wayne's work would go so hard on someone who's part of that Lil Wayne family tree right drake being from the same label or not from the same label from Lil Wayne's label so Lil Wayne touches on how he felt about that whole rap battle and you'll see here he is absolutely clueless again I don't know if this is rage bait i don't know if he's just trying to pretend he's oblivious to the entire situation this was his reaction after he got snubbed for that Super Bowl halftime show that hurt hurt a lot you know what I'm talking about it hurt a whole lot um I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a let down and for just automatically mentally putting myself in that position like somebody told me that was my position it made me feel like not getting this this opportunity and when I felt like you guys reminded me that I ain't without y'all and and that's an amazing reality and this is also him in the summer singing Not Like Us as he's performing his collaboration with Drake called The Motto so which side is he on right is he on Kendricks is he on Drake's logically he would be on Drake's side but then he's singing Not Like Us as he performs his Drake collaboration he also got gifted an Exo chain from The Weekend after Drake the Weekend gotten a full back and forth with him wrapped about how The Weekend is always gifting different dudes chains now he's gifting one to Wayne kendrick also mentioned Lil Wayne on the intro to his GNX album Whacked Out Murals and Lil Wayne kind of responded to this on Twitter which led to a very small back and forth we're going to touch on that later in the video because Lil Wayne makes mention of it in this brand new interview that he did so let's break down this entire thing you're going to see Wayne is not cooking in this interview he is absolutely cooked and again it very much pains me to say this but I got to keep it real right like the first album I ever bought in my life was Lil Wayne's The Carter 2 i watched that man's entire prime when I was just a young kid between like 2005 to 2011 like I was a hip-hop fan before Wayne but Wayne showed me how far you could take the genre not just from you know a success perspective but pushing the boundaries vocally with the type of projects you're releasing you know going on this mixtape spree where he's killing everybody's beat sounding like an alien and delivering these punchlines that only an alien could think of plus his whole aesthetic like I remember this DJ Khaled song I'm So Hood remix he had everybody on this song from Ludicrous to T Pain to Big Boy Buster Rhymes Fat Joe Young Jeezy i'm forgetting like 10 names but you had Lil Wayne on this song and he just stood out to everybody not because his verse from a technical perspective was more lyrically impressive but just his entire aesthetic the whole rockstar alien persona that he gave off witnessing this run as a kid this feature run the mixtape run the number one hit single run that he had and then the influence that he would have on the next generation the Young Thugs the Futures even the Kendricks the Drakes the Ty the Creators like my dream the farthest I think I can take the Rapahholics channel is to one day have the honor of sitting down with Wayne in his studio the one that he created like all these classic albums the Carter 2 the Carter 3 I believe it was the Hit Factory in Miami and specifically going through like some of his most iconic songs the recording process behind them seeing how he actually records and documenting the entire thing and putting together some sort of real documentary on this guy cuz I mean as a musician he's phenomenal but I I say all this to say that to see the direction he's headed it's very concerning to say the least right like I can't tell if this guy is seriously suffering from memory loss if he's suffering from some sort of cognitive decline if he genuinely just does not pay any attention to anything that's going on outside of his own life and then on a less dramatic side I mean just seeing him act so surrendered and defeated over something like not getting the Super Bowl halftime show when he hasn't put an album out in 5 years he hasn't had a top 10 hit in over seven years like it's just a little bit ridiculous but you know fingers crossed this is all just one big troll and he does have a new album on the way the Carter 6 so I think that'll be fire and we get some new updates on that album in this new interview along with a lot of other insane comments so let's go through the entire thing front to back it starts off the way most Wayne interviews have started off with the interviewer waiting hours and hours after the scheduled time because Wayne is running late i could give you guys two examples in my own life of this happening the first time I ever thought I'd see Lil Wayne was at a club in Miami i had paid because they were promoting it as like this mini Lil Wayne concert at a club his DJ has a whole set you know he's hyping up the entire crowd making it seem like you know Wayne is really coming out right like edging the entire crowd here it takes Wayne 4 hours from that DJ set to actually arrive at the club he gets there at around 4:00 a.m hits a couple blunts dances to the Young Thug and Gunner song Hot and then leaves does not perform a single song the next time I saw him was at a festival in Canada where there's a curfew at the venue of 11:00 meaning like it was a festival the entire festival was done at 11:00 no one could perform the stage lights were off like that was it game over canada is whack don't let me get started on that mind you I buy a 3-day pass for this stupid festival just to see Lil Wayne his set was supposed to start at 10:00 he gets on at 10:45 performs a 13-minute set cuz the venue has a curfew of 11:00 p.m great 13-minute performance but anyways yeah it looks like this interviewer was suffering from the same exact thing as I was he says "It's 5:00 a.m in Georgia and Tree Sound Studios is quiet." That's the studio that he's about to interview Lil Wayne at i'm in a side room of the vast Oki complex near Atlanta preparing to be the first person outside of Lil Wayne Circle to hear the Carter 6 the album he's been working on for 6 years on this mid January night our listening session was supposed to begin at 1:00 a.m but it took 2 hours for Lil Wayne to show up wayne's manager Fabian an affable stout Queens native wearing all black told me that the hip-hop icon is doing some lastminute edits to songs before I hear them it's been a long minute i augle the labyrine recording console in the room i wouldn't know the first knob to push but I have mastered the Kurig machine i need caffeine cuz again it's 5:00 a.m right so he's making some jokes here most of my time in Wayne's orbit chasing him across the map has been an exercise in indeterminant waiting i've already taken two trips to Los Angeles for interviews that didn't happen the latter missed connection due to calamitous wildfires last night Wayne headlined a concert at Atlanta State Farm Arena i got an onstage glimpse of his set but we didn't talk our cross-country game of cat and mouse will continue after tonight resulting in missed interviews late nights that turn into early mornings and a postponed Rolling Stones cover because this guy that's interviewing works for the Rolling Stone right and they were trying to put Wayne on the cover but basically because every single time that this guy tried to actually meet Lil Wayne to do the interview for the magazine he kept delaying it or he kept basically telling the guy to f off he kept the guy waiting till 5:00 in the morning the guy would leave which means that the cover they were supposed to do for the Rolling Stones kept getting delayed but back at Tree Sound Studios I finally get the nod that Lil Wayne is ready for me fabian his manager escorts me into Wayne's room and I'm smacked with a weed stench as I cross into his musky territory he stands near the door in a baggie all Balenciaga gear with a black band around his neck not unlike the soldier rag he and the Hot Boys popularized nearly 30 years ago a gleaming platinum Cuban chain sits a top his shirt now on a side note I'm probably reaching here into conspiracy land but I find it's very disturbing balenciaga back in 2022 had a very weird campaign revolving children and s abuse i'm not going to go too far deep into it you guys can look up the Balenciaga children scandal back in 2022 you'll see what I'm talking about but literally since around that time almost every time Lil Wayne is out in public he's wearing a Balenciaga outfit we know that Lil Wayne was a child star from a very early age right and we also saw some disturbing clips of him saying that you know Birdman forced him to do some uncomfortable things when he was 11 years old with this older woman and he was trying to get his artist at the time 15-year-old Lil Twist into some sort of similar situation there's videos on all this stuff i'm not going to go too deep into it i'm just saying that Balenciaga at one point in time had become kind of synonymous with child s abuse i don't know if this was intentional but you could see you know Kanye's conspiracies on this stuff like this is just a conspiracy I'm talking about here but I'm just saying ever since this campaign Lil Wayne has always been out in public in Balenciaga clothing i don't know if that's a coincidence i don't know if this is one big large conspiracy you guys can research that and let me know in the comments we'll continue with the article in the back of the room are Lil Wayne's 15-year-old son Cameron in a pink babe hoodie and his personal photographer Philip Lopez across the room is a tatted up Lil Twist who's been signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment since he was 17 years old he looks nothing like the babyfaced mohawk rapper that was first seen when the label began assaulting the Billboard charts in the late as Wayne Dapsme then mumbles something like you here to listen to the stuff while picking a track for his engineer to play admittedly I'm too busy processing the gravity of the moment to remember the specifics of the first song that I hear i do recall an uptempo beat over which Wayne spits furiously at his free associative best he nods his head feverishly to the track so just to give you guys like a little recap of what we're going to go into here the interviewer and Wayne touch on a bunch of different things they start by reviewing some new music for the Carter 6 so if you're a big Wayne fan like me this interview gives us an interesting perspective into what we can expect from the album but then he also goes into some I would say current events in hip-hop but also some events that date back to like 2011 which he completely doesn't remember everything from Kanye West and Jay-Z's run back in the early 2010s to Kendrick and Drake's beef last year so let's jump into the rest of this after the first song he previews is over he approaches and looks me in the eye and says "If you got a favorite rapper tell him "Suck my D." Wayne says his manager laughs now I'm fully awake at 42 years old and 30 years into his career Lil Wayne is still driven by the goal to be the best rapper alive born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr in the Holly Grove section of New Orleans he was signed around the age of 11 after calling the Cash Money Records office every single day rapping into their voicemail until Brian Birdman Williams and his brother Slim gave Wayne a chance decades later after helping Cash Money become a southern rap giant as 1/4 of the Hot Boys then becoming the label's flagship solo artist then helming the Young Money movement Wayne still makes music every single day and props to Wayne for doing that man like every time we hear of him as much as I'd like to not hear from him if he's going to be crying about the Super Bowl I do love the fact that my goat is still in the studio 30 years into his career every single night so they continue "When I asked the last time Lil Wayne went on vacation he says matterof factly that vacations are recording." Okay sure but how about an actual chill vacation wayne says "I never understood that what are we taking a break from if it's a vacation you're supposed to do things that you enjoy right so I take my music with me and in turn music has taken Wayne to heights few rappers can ever compare to he has 187 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and in 2024 his feature on Tyler the creator Sticky extended his streak at having 22 consecutive years with at least one song charting on the Billboard Hot 100 put it like this one song from Lil Wayne has hit the charts every single year for the last 22 years w Clev Jean a key collaborator on the Carter 6 thinks Wayne will be seen as an icon centuries from now you got to think like how people study Bach and Shakespeare he explains over Zoom from Paris wayne's going to be regarded as one of the greatest Renaissance wordsmith composers of our generation wayne's disregard for norms helped him reshape the contours of hip hop his dreadlocks body enveloping tattoos and colorful clothing made him a fashion maverick serving as the mood board for hordes of young MC's to follow he held it down for lyricists during the as onslaught of ringtone rap and snap dancing and did so with a relentless output that redefined what quote unquote prolific meant in hip-hop moody crewing deep cluts like me and my drink engendered entire wings of nihilistic melodic hip hop that followed them he's tried his hand at practically every style and theme even dropping rebirth his 2010 rock album wayne's history is still being written recently he's fed fans via collaborations with everyone from Dojaat to Lil Baby to Nas to Jack Carlo in 2023 he dropped Welcome to Collie Grove with Two Chains and the mixtape The Fix Before the Six and it feels like these days Wayne is more focused on bar work and experimentation rather than chart chasing beyond his artistry Wayne's no ego approach as an executive paved the way for Young Money Signees like Drake and Nicki Minaj to become icons and set up artists like Taigga for sustained success his latest entrepreneurial endeavor is co-running his Young Money APA sports agency representing more than 100 athletes including the Heisman Trophy winning Travis Hunter set to be a top pick in the 2025 NFL draft like Jay-Z and 50 Cent Wayne is a rapper entrepreneur but he doesn't always get the credit for wearing multiple hats he says he doesn't mind mostly because he's still focused on the rapper part and uses a basketball metaphor to explain imagine you're a player coach still averaging 30 points a night and someone's asking "Hey do you feel slighted that they don't put you in the coach type of conversations?" He says "No I'm still here dropping 30 points a night i'm fine being the best rapper." And then you just found out "Oh he owns Young Money oh he put Drake out oh my gosh." The first curveball in my reporting occurs somewhere over the Rockies on a flight from New York to Los Angeles to interview Wayne back in December i'm told that Wayne has an emergency and needs to cancel i'm assured that his health is fine he just can't do the interview i fly back to New York the next day then in early January I return to LA just in time to witness the catastrophic wildfires spreading across the city i hear a loud urgent buzz from Wayne's manager's phone and I think it's another wildfire advisory in fact it's his ringtone for a Lil Wayne phone call his manager answers in speaker mode while walking out of the room before he leaves I overhear Wayne exclaim "I'm not doing that stuff tonight you see what's going on?" Wayne I learned later had to evacuate his Hidden Hills home which was undamaged except for temporary power loss his manager returns to the room about 10 minutes later and informs me tonight isn't happening last month I got the cancellation alert in the air at least this time I hear Wayne's voice so basically like this guy went to New York then he went to LA to try to interview Wayne both time Wayne cancels at least on the second time he heard Wayne himself can canceling through his manager's phone call 11 days later at Atlanta State Farm Arena the crowd is ready for the main event a Lil Wayne concert just before the College Football Playoff Championship game there's just one problem lil Wayne isn't there yet it's 11:00 p.m an hour after Wayne's set was supposed to start and a dozen or so people mostly members of Wayne's team wait backstage so this is the exact same thing that happened to me when I was supposed to see Wayne right he just came on ridiculously late compared to when his showtime was supposed to start so the guy continues one Baldin Arena worker quips to his co-workers in a Georgia twang saying "You think I could grow some hair by the time this guy gets here?" 30 minutes later things abruptly go from 0 to 60 as three Atlanta cops dash outside to meet Wayne's sprinter van there's two people in Wayne's crew wearing free Lil Dirk t-shirts in the dressing room later when I ask Wayne about them he tells me he didn't even know the Chicago rapper was in jail mind you Lil Durk at this point has been incarcerated for basically 6 months wayne has no clue and he also has two sons that are 15 and 16 years old that are rappers you would think at least they would inform him if Wayne can't find that information out himself atlanta Hawk greats Trey Young and Dominique Wilkins are probably the only other people who could get away with walking through the arena's metal detector token of blunt neither would the detector goes off as Wayne passes through but no one cares there's relief and excitement as the previously scattered parts of Wayne's ecosystem huddle together and form a wall around him security in front and it's interesting because I think way back in like 2007 when Wayne got arrested in New York which led him to spend eight months in Riker's Island jail it was a firearms charge but I believe what prompted cops to go and search his tour bus was the fact that he had a concert and went through a metal detector wreaking of weed it seems like almost 20 years later he's doing the exact same thing but at this point they don't give him any problems about it the interviewer continues saying "I've come to realize that time simply isn't a factor in Wayne's world philip Lopez the photographer tells me that their private jet to Atlanta was scheduled to leave LA at 1:00 a.m they sat on board waiting until Wayne showed up at 6:00 5 hours later but no one I speak to recalls Wayne's unpunctuality or late hours resentfully they simply chalk it up as a feature not a defect of being around a non-conformist white Cleav Jean theorizes that he and Lil Wayne are night owls because of their shared astrological signs saying most Libras are nocturnal in the 90s Birdman would take the Hot Boys to the studio to record overnight and the routine stuck wayne's average day ends shortly after leaving the studio and getting breakfast while watching morning sports shows like First Take he sleeps then wakes up to dinner around 6:00 p.m later I tell him that his schedule is the inverse of the average humans and he says "I never thought of it like that thank you." Wayne apparently got enough sleep to Rock State Farm Arena with a career- spanning set when I try to enter a backstage room where Wayne is taking pictures with fans his security guard blocks me with his elbow i tell him I'm with Rolling Stone he dismissively scoffs "Nah!" as if I just asked him for $20 instead of seeking to do my job after the brief photo session everyone exits the arena and jumps into a policeled cavalcade of sprinters and SUVs the next night at Tree Sound Studios Wayne mostly lets the album speak for itself hovering near his engineer and pointing out which song to play next sometimes he offers a tidbit about guest appearances by Elephant Man or MGK or producers like Kanye who produce one track that may or may not make the album and the producer Whey and then he walks out to the far corner of the room and jams out in his own world he two steps to some songs and feverishly nause to others i hear a track where Wayne definitely mimics the cadence of Biggie's One More Chance and Tupac Hit Up that's interesting so we're going to get a flip of Tupac's diss track Hitim Up on the Carter 6 another track is an ode to Cruising Through LA that kind of sounds similar to Kendrick's Bar on TV off where he said "Walk in New Orleans with the etiquette of LA." Maybe a call back to that and that song also features a shout out to the late Matthew Perry wayne laughingly tells me afterwards that he didn't know Perry and only added him after researching a name that would fit with the syllable space basically he had no clue who Matthew Perry was and just name dropped him cuz it rhymed in the bar the Carter 6 which is due on June 6th is a testament to Wayne's malleable mic presence he rhymes over different tempos and moods but always sounds like himself wayne divulges that he's still cool with Birdman the surrogate father who spearheaded his career until a 2014 contract dispute led Lane to sue Birdman's Cash Money Records for $51 million he accused the label of withholding money owed to him and delaying the release of the Carter 5 which he had already turned into the label in 2018 Wayne settled for a sum of reportedly more than $10 million since then however the pair have patched things up wayne says "Birdman is still my pops talk to him every day." Wayne says "Birdman often calls him to ask for sports betting advice." He thinks that time mended their relationship wayne says "Also Birdman being happy for my success he gave me the ball years ago and told me "Go ahead now show me the end zone." One big Billboard hit I hear is the song These are the days featuring Wayne's son Cameron and Bono the YouTube vocalist sings about quote unquote counting the days while Wayne raps about being in a hospital bed after one of the numerous epileptic seizures he had since childhood as for his health Wayne tells me he feels amazing these days on These Are the Days Cameron Wayne's son has a shrill preescent voice wayne says the song is from 2013 or 2014 and it's interesting because this is what he did on the Carter 52 right he featured his daughter and that album also while it came out in 2018 it featured a bunch of songs from like 2011 to 2014 as for his sons becoming rappers Wayne says "It's innate it's not surprising at all i'm a true musician so it'd be shocking to me if they came up and said they wanted to do pottery." He says he enjoys seeing them quote unquote from the start of their craft it reminds him of his own early years wayne says it's impossible for you to not compare i'll say this "What the f I was looking like when I would come in and people would be like "What you just said?" In 2006 Wayne and Birdman did a tandem album called Like Father Like Son and Wayne says he's open to a sequel with his sons on a 2015 track Wayne said his lifestyle was skate smoke rap and sleep with women while that is still the case to an extent fatherhood takes precedence wayne says "Now it's make sure you watch over these kids and make sure you're there at these vital ages that's coming first now," he affirms making sure these guys ain't going to jail making sure nobody's playing with my princess that would be 26-year-old daughter Regina an actress and social media influencer and on a side note while it's sad to see Wayne so detached from you know what's going on in hip-hop today while still making comments antagonizing you know the greatest rapper of this generation Kendrick Lamar it is great to see that his detachment likely stems from the fact that he's more focused on fatherhood rather than like Drake put it being you know integrated in that rapper life now back to the Carter 6 win says he's focused on collaborations on the Carter 6 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 billy Isish and Miley Cyrus make appearances but the most unexpected guest I hear is Italian opera star Andrea Boselli sorry if I'm mispronouncing that name who sings a Maria on another track wav Jean flew to Italy to ask Bochelli's permission to sample the song and ended up telling Bochelli the story of Wayne surviving a self-inflicted firearm wound at 12 the tenor was so moved that he decided to sing the opera standard himself it's one of them records that I feel is going to stop time wcliff Jean says so as of right now from this interview we have a strange list of features for this album right anyone from Billy Isish to Miley Cyrus to the opera singer who sings a Maria it sounds like Jean has a hand in somewhat executive producing the album kanye is an actual producer of one of the beats as well as the producer Whezzy mgk is a feature elephant man is a feature what the hell could this album sound like right wf and Wayne recorded around 30 songs for the Carter 6 leaving W Clean and Lil Wayne in a studio for 24 hours is a dangerous thing wclav Jean warns you don't know what's going to pop out wayne adds "You're going to probably do like eight songs with YF because he's going to keep flipping what you did on one song and make a whole new song out of that stuff." The collaboration extended beyond the studio wf and Wayne created an informal group called the gumbo that the Fuji likens to Nars Barkley New Orleans musicians John Batist Leichi Trombone Shorty and PJ Morton are members as well wf and Wayne also rift on guitar during the sessions wayne has been playing for nearly two decades he doesn't know music theory but plays by feel and often adds a solo to his features as on Jello's recent Tweaker remix while showing me one of too many guitars at Treeound he points out a left-handed Jimmyi Hendris model hendrickx is his favorite guitarist if you watch footage of that guy play if they don't show the guitar you'll never know he's playing a guitar he's so calm he looks like Jaden Daniels or something Wayne says referencing the Washington Commander rookie sensation after one Carter six song Wayne tells the room they could have had some music mimicking guitar playing but instead they got rapping he's talking about the NFL they effed up he says after another song so it's crazy right like he's so harped on this Super Bowl performance that he was never invited to perform at to begin with but talks with this entitlement as if you know the music he's cooking up on the Carter 6 would have been way better to be performed on the Super Bowl stage right he's saying they could have had some real music but instead they got rapping and obviously he's referencing the fact that you know Kendrick's set was filled with barheavy songs right you had Euphoria DNA Peekabboo Man at the Garden like these were not the hits obviously Kendrick took a very unconventional approach but I think that's why it was the most watched Super Bowl halftime show of all time it's why we're still talking about it months later right because it was an anomaly kendrick was telling a story within that performance that fans could later go on and actually dissect there's actual depth to it it wasn't just the hits and I mean as far as Wayne you know saying this what is he going to do go up on that stage and perform Lollipop with a guitar solo like have you seen Lil Wayne pick up a guitar he's nowhere close to his idol Jimmyi Hendris so I'll tell you that much again this is my goat but like what's with the shade right like he's playing his new album to this random interviewer and he's talking about the NFL effed up they could have had real music instead they got rapping like you know downplaying the quality of what Kendrick actually brought to that stage and he continues about the Super Bowl so basically the interviewer continues "In 2023 Wayne told Rolling Stone he'd love to play this year's Super Bowl halftime show since it was happening at New Orleans Superdome his hometown stadium but last September the NFL announced Kendrick Lamar was getting the nod and Wayne released a video revealing that not being selected broke him onlookers wondered whether NFL brass had told Wayne something to make him feel like he was poised to be the choice wayne says the league encouraged him to be more public-f facing in preparation for the show making him feel like the selection was inevitable he said "To perform it's a bunch of things they're going to tell you to do and not to do butts to kiss and not to kiss." He explains adding "If you notice I was a part of things I've never been a part of like Michael Rubin's all-white parties i'm doing stuff with Tom Brady that was all to get that Super Bowl halftime show you ain't never see me in them type of venues i'm not Drake i'm not out there smiling like that everywhere i'm in the studio smoking and recording." So again right like his connects or his friends over at the NFL told him to you know make more public appearances right go to these big parties attach yourself to these big figures and then maybe you'll have a shot at actually getting that performance so that's what he did and he's saying like he's not like Drake where he pops out everywhere right he's usually in the studio but he made the effort because he thought that would land him that Super Bowl slot he says that after the Kendrick announcement someone at the NFL apologized and told him "We're not in charge of the Super Bowl halftime show." Wayne says "All of a sudden according to the NFL they got curved so I'm going to have to just settle with whatever they say." he resolves jay-z who Wayne calls a close friend runs Rock Nation which oversees the halftime show last year halftime show producer Jesse Collins said Jay-Z had chosen the Super Bowl act since 2019 wayne says he's cool with Jay-Z lauding him as someone with a wealth of advice who's just a text away neither the NFL nor Jay-Z responded to a request for comment for this Rolling Stone story wayne tells the interview at Rolling Stone that things are fine between him and Kendrick wayne called the LA rapper ahead of the Super Bowl to clear the air and to encourage him earlier on last year's GNX album Kendrick had rhymed "Irony I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down." A day later Wayne made a Twitter post warning "I just be chilling and they still come from my head let's not take kindness for weakness let this giant sleep." Those lines spurred speculation that Wayne was set to insert himself into Drake's beef against Kendrick following the Super Bowl snub and you guys probably remember this right the day after GNX was released Wayne sent out that tweet where he said "Don't wake the giant up." Like "I'm just chilling they're still coming for my head." So many people thought he was referring to the bars that Kendrick wrapped on whacked out murals where he said "Used to bump the Carter 3 I wore my rolly chain proud the irony I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down." Well he said it more gritty like "Irony I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down." Yeah I'm still working on my Kendrick impression but basically again people thought that that tweet was Wayne trying to step in to be like "Don't test me Kendrick cuz I will destroy you i am not Drake." But Wayne would then go on to say that he never even heard the whacked out mural song and Skip Bis read the lyrics to him in an interview and Wayne looked like literally like he's never heard these lyrics in his life right so where did this tweet stem from was it someone from his team that just told him like "Hey Kendrick is kind of talking crazy about you on this album and Wayne just took to Twitter right away or you know what prompted this entire thing right?" Well I would say we get some clarity here but if anything this confuses things even more so the interviewer goes on to say "Wayne seems to not quite remember the Twitter post he wrote when I bring it up." Wayne says "I sound like I'm talking about the media because I said they," he says in fact Wayne says that he didn't pay attention to Kendrick and Drake's war of words wayne says "I'm going to give you the perfect example i went on stage and I was singing this song and they thought I was dissing." The song was not like us kendrick smash hit with DJ Mustard wayne burrows his face into the arm of an accent chair while laughing about unknowingly rapping along to a Drake diss track wayne says "I ain't want my dude to be mad at me i didn't even know it was Kendrick." So basically that clip I played you guys earlier where Wayne is you know rapping on the beat of the song the motto his song with Drake he says "They not like us they not like us." People thought that this was him showing allegiance to Drake cuz he's wearing an OVO chain wayne says here he literally didn't even know that song was by Kendrick and he was just rapping it during that performance cuz he liked the song like this is really how detached Wayne is from hiphop and everything that goes on in general right but he says he was at Michael Rubin's white party drake was there as well that was like a month after this beef happened right are they you know not on speaking enough terms where Drake is recapping to him everything that's going on like how is it that the biggest beef in hip-hop took place with one of Drake's proteges and Wayne was so clueless to it to the point where he's literally rapping the song on stage not knowing it's a Drake diss track not knowing it was recorded by Kendrick Lamar just rapping it cuz he thought it was a good song absolute insanity but they continue for most of the rap world the Drake Kendrick beef was hot button news it didn't make a blip for Lil Wayne while pointing to a nearby TV playing ESPN Wayne declares "If it don't happen on this channel or FS1 I wouldn't know that happened." Crazy that you could be that detached from it right like I remember when Drake released backtoback his disc against Meek Mill wayne actually recorded a freestyle to that song like did he have no idea that Drake was dissing Meek Mill at that time wayne has been dissed countless times by Push A T the only time he ever responded was he gave him one bar on one song saying "F Push a T anybody that love him his head up his butt I'm going have to headbutt him." It makes you wonder like is Wayne really that clueless or is this simply you know rage bait to confuse the audience and allow Wayne to you know not really pick a side in any of these issues and you'll see later he talks about how him and Kendrick actually spoke but before then they continue on about different topics saying in between my questions the conversation meanders freely amongst the room's a natural comedian bouncing all over he talks skating with Lopez then gives his take on the latest Saw movie opening the new one is good that guy Jigsaw is still living when is the cancer going to kill that guy he loves watching the Discovery History Channels and the self-described Martian stays a breast of news on extraterrestrials from the Pentagon and the White House wayne says they like to release stuff right in the middle of something popping he theorizes joking that Taylor Swift could drop an album and NASA finally releases like "Yo we just merked three aliens." As a workaholic Wayne misses a lot cameron spearheads a primer for Wayne on Mr beast wayne doubles over laughing when he learns that one of the YouTubers's first viral videos was him counting to 100,000 later in the evening I reference Jay-Z and Kanye West watch the throne wayne says "What's that?" as he stares into the Sports Center replay the interviewer replies saying "Kanye and Jay-Z's album." Wayne says "They did an album?" The rest of the room spends the next 5 minutes playing songs from the iconic 2011 album to jog Wayne's memory he looks bewildered trying to decipher the opening moments of Otis asking Twist if he ever freestyled to it twist shakes his head saying no though he does recall the songs Paris and No Church in the Wild and this is this part's the craziest to me the absolute craziest cuz I was following Wayne very very closely throughout this time so let me give you guys a couple interesting tidbits on this entire situation right at this point in time it's 2011 wayne is on top of the game and he just ushered in his latest protege Drake who was also dominating the game with Hit after hit they're collaborating so much that they actually announced that they're about to put out a collab project together Drake and Wayne at the same time Kanye and Jay-Z then announced that they're about to drop their collab album Watch the Throne kanye years later would state that him and Jay-Z would have never made Watch the Throne if Drake and Wayne weren't putting that insane type of pressure on them to remain at the top of the game and the spiraling sexy red stunt double would make sassy comments in interviews around that time stating that you know I hear these other two guys are coming out with an album i wonder you know where they got that idea from me and Wayne still have to do ours but you know now we got two other giants in the hip-hop game about to release an album and I wonder where they got that idea drake even wrapped on the Lil Wayne DJ Khaled and Rick Ross song I'm on one saying I still feel like the throne is for the taking watch me take it there were plenty of subliminals back and forth throughout that Watch the Throne era and not just from Drake from Lil Wayne himself as well the first single off of Watch the Throne Ham featured a sneak disc from Jay-Z at Birdman when he wpped i'm like "Really half a billy really you got baby money keep it real with guys these guys ain't got my ladies money." Basically saying because Birdman was like "Wayne is richer than Jay-Z he's a better rapper." Jay-Z was saying "You have half a billy that's not even as much as Beyonce has my wife." I have a whole documentary on you know the subliminal war between Jay-Z Drake and Lil Wayne and it really revolves around this particular period of time and Wayne was very aware of this kanye played him that ham song in the studio one of his Young Money artists Jay Mills said that when Wayne heard that verse when he heard that sneak from Jay-Z he ran out of the booth and then decided to record a sneakiss of his own and asked you know all the people in the studio "Is this too much to release?" That's when we got the song "It's good." when Wayne flipped that Jay-Z bar and wrapped talking about Baby Money I Got Your Baby Money Kidnap Your Girl Get That How Much You Love Your Lady Money so before they even released the first single to Watch the Throne Wayne got an exclusive premiere of that song and then flipped it to sneakiss Jay-Z on his own record kanye has gone on to say that Jay-Z and him would have never made Watch the Throne without Drake and Wayne wayne released the Carter 4 only two weeks after Jay-Z and Kanye West released Watch the Throne they were both at the VMAs that year both performing at the VMAs wayne watched in the crowd Jay-Z and Kanye West performed the song Otis and now he's pretending like he's never heard it before and then a year later at a Grammys afterparty Wayne took the stage and spit a freestyle where he said "I met a bad red bone i took that girl home i asked her what she want to watch." And she said "Surely not the throne." So he's literally acknowledged this album in freestyles 10 years ago and at this point in time in 2025 he has no memory of this album ever being released he didn't know that Jay-Z and Kanye West did a collab album together he acts confused when Lil Twist plays him the Otis song asking if he's ever freestyled over it on a side note that beat would have gone crazy on the original version of Sorry for the Weight but hey at least he remembered No Church in the Wild and you know People in Paris but like the out of touchness is almost a little bit concerning when he's made so many acknowledgements to this project in the past and the interviewer continues "Wayne's obliviousness pops up again when it comes to rapper Sexy Red who features on Sticky with him Gorilla and Tyler the Creator wayne says Tyler was like "I know you don't know who that is." Wayne said "I damn sure don't." "Red who?" "Sexy what?" He jokes tyler had to remind him that they were at a Balenciaga show together again with the Balenciaga but Sexy Red imprinted herself in his memory with her bold verse on Sticky wayne was like "Oh crap this is dope." Then they go on to you know the incredible feature run that Wayne has had for over 20 years at this point and I find this part cool they say Wayne's been known as a feature killer who's collaborated with anybody he professes that there's never been a pain artist that he's turned down even if he didn't like the song wayne said "I look at it like a challenge you're going to have to be the reason why you like it i'll kill it and be like that stuff wasn't whack at all i killed that don't play his verse just play mine." And as quickly as I thrust into Wayne's world I find myself on the outside looking in after our studio conversation I still have questions to ask i think our next interview is going to be the next day in Atlanta but Wayne flies back to LA we schedule a Zoom follow-up for a late January Friday at 9:00 p.m eastern that evening he pushes it back to the next night at the same time and on Saturday after waiting on Zoom for more than 6 hours until 3:30 a.m i realize he's never coming on we schedule another Zoom for the following Tuesday but it gets cancelled an hour beforehand and one of his publicists apologetically citing new personal developments that may cause delays after three cross-country trips fleeing a wildfire and numerous innervating weights I feel the biggest story of my career slipping through my grasp for some reasons I can't discern wayne's Rolling Stone cover had a set date for months but without a second interview the magazine keeps postponing it maybe I should thank Lauren Michaels for reconnecting us in February Wayne is in New York to perform at the SNL50 special that night before the show I head to Penthouse Recording Studios at 2 am for another late night interview to be held after Wayne finishes an SNL rehearsal finally at 6:45 a.m 2 and 1/2 hours after the interview scheduled Wayne's manager informs me Wayne is ready to talk i head up to his suite and find Wayne in the kitchen area kneeling against the kitchen island rolling a blunt on the island I notice another tray containing about 20 tubes of blunts a box of just water and three lime green bags of fruity candy he had the same batch of party favors in all three of his studio sessions I've been to martians must be a creature of habit the conversation during the entirety of which Wayne remains standing starts with him talking from the other side of the suite in the 6 hours I spend with Wayne I don't see him sit down once as we build a report he walks closer to me and his manager who's sitting right by my side by the end of our conversation he's walking right up to me while demonstratively talking with his hands wayne says that he didn't watch Kendrick's Super Bowl performance him and Lil Twist played pool during the set then went outside to smoke wayne says "Every time I looked it was nothing that made me want to go inside and see what was going on." And that's crazy right like this is someone who professes himself as the best rapper alive you're about to witness the first rapper in Super Bowl history perform a complete rap set with basically no hits right straight rappy no backtrack like maybe at the very least you could take a couple notes from this performance right but no Wayne says that every time he looked there was nothing from the performance that made him want to go inside and actually watch it basically just again hating on the idea that Kendrick was the one chosen to be that Super Bowl halftime performer or you know to give Wayne some credit maybe this is you know just the essence of his greatness right that he doesn't pay attention to the outside world he doesn't listen to other rappers he literally is so ingrained in his own psyche and his own brain and his own music and his own creativity that to break out of that to pay attention to someone else would only distract him from his main mission of you know consistently being that best rapper alive but as far as the best rapper alive touching the Super Bowl in the future Wayne now says that he vows he'll no longer consider doing the performance ever in his life he says "They stole that feeling i don't want to do it it was perfect." Then they go on to talk about Wayne's link up with Trump way back in October of 2020 which for you guys who don't know Wayne was actually facing around a 10-year prison sentence for a firearm that was found on his private jet and Trump President Trump at the time actually pardoned Wayne allowing him to walk away from those charges a free man so the interviewer continues "In October 2020 Wayne says the picture of him and Trump was taken spur of the moment during a meeting purposely about criminal justice reform and other initiatives for the black community." Wayne jokes that Trump is an a-hole of a wisecracker who had him laughing the whole day wayne says he ain't take nothing serious literally in there saying stuff like "What do we have to do again crap i forgot." As Wayne tells it former Trump adviser and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner greeted Wayne before the meeting and told him that Trump wanted to pardon him on federal firearm charges he'd soon face after a 2019 search of his jet uncovered a loaded gold-plated 45 caliber handgun wayne didn't know who Kushner was before the meeting but soon learned that he was a fan who spearheaded the summit and pushed for the pardon wayne's like "He's naming the exams that he crammed to while listening to my music that I helped him." He was like "I'm not about to watch my hero go to jail for this." Wayne would end up getting charged the next month and faced up to 10 years in prison but when Trump pardoned him in January 2021 it wiped away the charge so basically it was because Trump's son-in-law was a massive Wayne fan and told Trump to essentially pardon him wayne recalls Trump's pow-wowing with the rapper's lawyer Bradford Cohen a former contestant on The Apprentice wayne does his best obnoxious white guy voice as he mimics Trump and Cohen telling each other "F you." and Trump joking to him "You got this motherfer representing you you're going down." Wayne says "There were some people in there like y'all should take a picture." Trump didn't even ask for a picture trump has these two nice little things with him wayne recalls seemingly meaning two women and Trump says "These mother effers asking me for effing pictures all effing day man can we please?" I said "It's the president." Okay trump was like "Thank you people be bothering me all day." There was widespread criticism of the photo across social media did Wayne care wayne said "F no I don't care about no backlash for nothing I do you know me man." He says in a low croak my mama would have been mad if I ain't smile that might have been the only backlash I would have been worried about when I ask if he would have joined his rap Pier Nelly in performing at the inauguration Wayne says "I was asked but we had something to do trump got endorsements from several rappers last election cycle but Wayne says he probably would have passed had he been asked i would have told him you probably don't want that because I don't know what's going on," he admits shrugging "at least he's honest." Wayne continues saying "I can tell you who won the last game but I can't really you know what I mean?" When the interviewer asks how Wayne feels about the post perception that he's a Trump supporter Wayne notes I don't feel anything about it i don't give a f about that type of stuff tell him my genitals big though in 2006 Wayne released the protest anthem Georgia Bush where he slammed then President George Bush's poultry post Katrina response with fiery system appraising verses his empathy is palpable in lines like "I know people that died in them schools now what is the survivor to do?" But he's also said that his anger stem from a specific affront to his hometown it didn't radicalize him at the end of a 2016 controversial ABC interview where he said he didn't feel connected to the Black Lives Matter movement Wayne scoffed "I ain't no politician." Wayne is similarly curt when I ask him about a recent Business Insider report that detailed how Wayne spent funds he received from the shuttered venue operators grant which aided struggling venues artists and performing art businesses that lost revenue due to COVID quarantines according to the report Wayne spent this stimulus money on private planes luxury clothing and hotel trips for various women wayne looks genuinely perplexed when I bring it up i don't know what that means he says his manager quickly interjects saying he ain't got nothing to do with none of that stuff he don't know nothing about that it's not the way his money comes and goes or none of that stuff but everything's been clean and audited it's done and over it's just people fishing if you're not famous they're not talking about you kathine Long one of the reporters behind the story shared a screenshot showing that when she texted Wayne asking if he saw her email he replied saying "Did you see my genitals i'm sure it's much longer and better than the email." You like them long right Mrs long he doesn't deny sending the text in fact he doubles down on it saying "Any female that texts me is going to probably receive a sexual comment." "My phone is a personal phone so if you got my number that means you went out of your way and doing too much so if you texted me and I send something you don't like then suck my D," he says with an icy stare "just make sure you suck it right." For better or worse Wayne is a droid at dropping barbs that leave me speechless as I'm preparing to leave he gives me a firm handshake and apologizes for the delay i'm not sure whether he's talking about tonight or the entire month-slong interview process but I appreciate it wayne can be hilarious personable and insightful when he wants to be he can jump on the mic and hang with any rapper in the world when he wants but he can also be coarsely crude when he wants wayne's former manager Cortez Bryant once acknowledged that after Wayne was out from Birdman's wing he felt he didn't have to answer to anyone and aside from his brief jail stint and his legal wrangling over the Carter 5 his entire world has been more or less up to his valition since then with minimal consequences few of us would turn down that kind of freedom but it's worth wondering how many missteps we'd make with it as we exited the studio Wayne said "We goody." I dapped him up and he told his publicist and me "Good night." It was 8:00 a.m broad daylight who knows what time Wayne thought it was but regardless of the numbers on the clock it was time for Wayne to get back to work and I don't know about you guys I thought this was a very interesting interview i mean as a Wayne fan it's great to see that he's still you know sharper than ever in the studio more passionate than ever about his bars more confident than ever that he still is the greatest rapper alive but with his recent output with his recent comments and with the fact that he seems completely detached from hip-hop history and what's going on today it makes you wonder at the very least is living in this fantasy land that Wayne concocted the reason for his greatness or the catalyst to his downfall we'll have to wait and find out on June 6th for the Carter 6