Lil Wayne take his talents over to XXL Magazine to grace the cover of their August/September 2014 issue!
The New Orleans native and rap phenom has quite a lot going on these days. From streamlining his new sports management and taking on Cristiano Ronaldo as his first client, having two of the biggest acts (Nicki Minaj and Drake) on his record label, a successful clothing brand called TRUKFIT; to now gearing up to release his 12th studio album ‘Tha Carter V’. Basically, Wayne is the most hardest working individual in hip-hop right now.
Check out a few of hs recent interview quotes whil chatting with XXL:
ON AUTHENTCITY IN HIP-HOP:
“I know I’m authentic because I’m 35 million years in the game. I don’t know where the authenticity is in the game anymore. Today everyone sounds alike, they looking alike, they acting alike, they dressing alike. I came out when everybody was super different. You had an ODB. You had a Busta Rhymes and then you had a 2Pac. You had a Biggie. And everybody was different. Biggie was talking about Mob and Mafia shit. 2Pac was wylin’, talking about West Coast this and that. You had niggas like Meth and Red talking about how high they got and making people laugh. And then now, you got them, them. You got the categories and then everyone falls under it.”
ON PRINCE BEING HIS MAJOR MUSICAL INFLUENCE:
“It was the way he pronounced words and the way he used his voice. It was like if he was playing with a baby. You know if he was playing with a kid. [Imitates a baby cooing] It was the way that he was exploring it. He wasn’t doing it because it was funny. He was doing it because he could make it sound good and exceptional. I realized that I could do that too. He wasn’t afraid of how he sounded because he knew what he was saying and how he was saying it would always sound good.”
ON THA CARTER V:
“I was feeling the success of Tha Carter I. I felt like people wanted to hear me. I was amped to do that, but then Tha Carter III? I don’t know what happened. It was amazing. And then Tha Carter IV was just unexplainable, and now this one here, there’s no words. I just hope everyone likes it.”
“I’m always feeling like I ain’t done shit. I’m still nervous about Tha Carter V… I’m confident about what I do, but I’m still nervous about what people think.
ON SIGNING DRAKE AND NICKI MINAJ:
“Call me old-fashioned and country, but with Drake, that was the first time I’d seen someone that knew how to sing and rap. That’s all it was. I didn’t know nobody who knew how to do that. You had those old school singing niggas, where people would do a little eight-bar verse on their songs. But [Drake] was spitting and singing and killing that too. It took a while though. It wasn’t until I heard him spitting on one of my beats when I was like, ‘This fool’s retarded.’ When I hear something that I know I can’t do better? That’s when I’m like, ‘They need to be on the team.’”
“I wanted a female. Every team needs a female to rep your gang. She was annihilating niggas. I mean males. I was like, ‘I have to beef my shit up on that muthafucka.’ She just knocked it out the park from day one. She’s just Nicki. I don’t know whose idea it was, but it was a good idea.”
The magazine is on stands nationally on August 12.
Shot by Atiba Jefferson
Interviewed exclusively for XXL by Jeff Weiss
Location: Paul Rodriguez’s skate park in Cayuga Park
Check out more over at XXL.
Leave a Reply