Lil Wayne talks about inspiring the next generation of rappers, how he discovers new talent with Young Money records, how he feels about AI, how he maintains the longevity of his legendary career, teases what his fans can expect from the 'Carter VI'' and more.
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00:00 I am naturally, organically amazing.
00:03 I'm one of a kind.
00:05 So actually I would love to see
00:07 that thing try to duplicate this motherfucker.
00:11 - You had a great vantage point,
00:24 starting at seven, signed at 11, 12, you're professional.
00:28 You've seen a lot of changes, so I was gonna ask you,
00:31 what's been the biggest changes you've seen in the genre
00:33 since you've been in it?
00:34 - There was no such thing as social media
00:36 when I was doing this.
00:38 Everything's changed because of social media.
00:40 So with that said, our genre of music
00:43 is no different than everything.
00:44 - One lesson learned that you still carry with you
00:47 since you started?
00:48 - That answer's always the same, is never stop.
00:51 Never stop learning.
00:52 Humble yourself.
00:54 Humility goes a long way, and it'll keep you learning.
00:57 And I try to get better and better and better
01:00 and better and better and better and better.
01:02 That's always my whatever rule or something I've learned
01:05 or lesson or whatever.
01:06 Always unforgettable moments.
01:08 Probably my first time grabbing a mic at a block party
01:12 and breaking my fear and rapping the stuff
01:15 that I had rapped in the mirror
01:17 for like thousands of hours that night before.
01:19 - Did you ever subscribe to the notion
01:21 that hip hop was only a young man's game?
01:23 That's what they used to say back in the day.
01:25 - No, because when I was growing up,
01:27 all the rappers were old.
01:28 I mean, I guess I'm just not from that narrative around
01:32 because when I started, people was way older than me.
01:36 So I started laughing.
01:37 So yeah, everybody was older than me.
01:39 So no, it was never a young man's game.
01:44 I've always felt when I was a young man,
01:46 I had to fight my way in.
01:47 ♪ What you have here is bought to you ♪
01:49 ♪ Courtesy of the young man young Carter ♪
01:51 ♪ I've been there, you've been there ♪
01:53 ♪ Drop a chop, drop a chop, drop a chop ♪
01:56 ♪ Drop a chop, drop a chop ♪
01:57 ♪ Hold me down ♪
01:59 ♪ 'Cause you're getting big like a flaming car ♪
02:02 - You've kind of been a blueprint.
02:03 - Thank God.
02:04 - For Label, other ventures.
02:06 What role do you feel that you've played in that evolution?
02:09 Because now a lot of rappers are doing the same thing.
02:12 - I get this from watching Jay-Z
02:15 and watching the way Reverend Run and Russ moving.
02:17 They never stop.
02:18 They just evolve.
02:20 Hopefully, these are someone, those under me,
02:22 or those like me, or whatever,
02:24 probably follow in my footsteps.
02:27 - Others might call you the first rock star.
02:29 I mean, the way you've used different genres
02:32 from rock to pop to R&B to soul
02:34 to everything else in between.
02:35 And you've got the younger artists,
02:37 like Lil Uzi Vert and Travis Scott, Young Thug,
02:40 and Trippie Redd have listed you as an influence.
02:43 So what do you think your influence has been
02:44 on this next generation of rappers coming up?
02:47 - Everybody got tattoos on their face.
02:48 Everybody got this buzzer, blah.
02:49 That's like seeing your kid come out the room
02:53 and looking just like you.
02:55 That feels amazing.
02:56 - Exactly.
02:57 - So yeah, so that part, I see that.
02:59 That's visible.
03:00 I see that influence right there
03:01 because I know for a fact I didn't get this look from,
03:04 I didn't, there was no one that inspired this look.
03:06 I just ran into looking like this.
03:08 Yeah, so they don't have to,
03:09 they can't lie and say they got it.
03:11 (laughing)
03:11 Yeah, but other than that, I hope that my work gets it.
03:15 (upbeat music)
03:19 (whooshing)
03:22 - All right, I know you've got Young Money.
03:24 You've got a roster that you're building.
03:26 ♪ We Young Money ♪
03:27 ♪ Ooh, I can make you feel like I ♪
03:30 What does it take to break hip hop artists now?
03:32 - You have to know the social media.
03:34 You don't, you have to have a team that does.
03:36 With that said, I think that the main thing today
03:39 is what has been yesterday and the day before yesterday.
03:43 You just have to have real talent.
03:45 - Okay.
03:46 - Yeah, because there's so many people
03:48 and so many people available to do this
03:50 and you have to have real, everlasting, undeniable talent.
03:55 These artists, a lot of the artists wanna be
03:58 exactly what they see on social media
04:00 and not knowing what they have inside them.
04:02 They just wanna be that.
04:03 And instead of being what they actually can be.
04:06 - We're talking authenticity.
04:08 - Exactly. - As well, too.
04:09 So is that hard to draw it out?
04:10 - No, and even if it is a challenge,
04:12 that challenge has always been
04:14 one of the most funnest things ever to me, so.
04:17 - What do you listen for?
04:18 What two or three qualities you think artists today
04:20 need to have since, as you just said,
04:22 it's so hard to rise up above everything that's out there.
04:26 - The genre that you're attacking,
04:27 even if it's hip hop or not, you have to be great in that.
04:31 You have to be at least good, at least good,
04:34 only if you're willing to turn and work as hard as you can
04:38 to turn that good into great.
04:40 And then, you know, come out at me
04:42 and you'll be talking about the greatest.
04:44 Show me, think hard to challenge yourself.
04:47 - Is it hard for you to say to someone,
04:50 "It's not there yet"?
04:51 You've had to say that.
04:52 - Oh, not at all.
04:53 - Not at all, okay. - It's not hard at all.
04:54 Yeah, if they're my artists,
04:56 I can't tell no other artists that.
04:58 - Yeah. - Yeah, but if you're my artist,
04:59 all right, yeah, I'll let them know.
05:01 - All right. - You better go do
05:02 that shit again.
05:03 Yeah. (both laughing)
05:05 (upbeat music)
05:08 - What's been your secret to longevity?
05:14 - Me?
05:15 I don't have a secret.
05:16 I just work and I never stop.
05:18 I don't do nothing but my music.
05:21 In my mind, every single time I say the word work,
05:24 I ask God to forgive me
05:25 'cause I know this has never been a job.
05:27 So it's just a dream come true.
05:28 So that's why I've never stopped.
05:30 - I'm excited by the growing ranks
05:32 of female rappers right now.
05:34 I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
05:35 I started at Billboard in '99 and it was, you know,
05:37 you had your Roxanne Chantay's and Kim's and Queen's
05:42 and MC Lyte's and stuff and then there's nothing
05:45 and then Nicki pops up.
05:46 Why is this happening now?
05:47 What's your thoughts on that?
05:49 - I think that it just wasn't,
05:51 it wasn't interesting to women.
05:52 You know, it was as interesting, you know,
05:54 as the way Nicki and Meg and others have,
05:57 it looks like, you know, it's awesome.
05:59 And it was, I don't think it was as, you know,
06:01 I don't think they looked at it, viewed it as something
06:04 that they wanted to do and actually make a living from it.
06:07 - Right.
06:08 And it seems maybe the industry's
06:10 a little more open-minded.
06:12 - Oh, definitely.
06:12 Now?
06:13 Oh, what?
06:14 Yeah, definitely, yeah.
06:15 We gotta hear it for everything now.
06:17 (upbeat music)
06:19 - Technology, AI.
06:22 What are your thoughts on that
06:23 coming into the music industry?
06:25 - Someone asked me about that recently.
06:28 And so, you know, I was, they was trying to tell me,
06:30 they was like, you know, they got someone
06:31 could make your voice.
06:32 - Right.
06:33 - And like, and say, they could sound just like,
06:35 I was like, but if it's not me,
06:38 what, it's like, if it's not gonna,
06:40 but you know, it could say something like,
06:42 but if it's not me, it's like, I'm amazing.
06:47 Like, plain and simple.
06:49 That was the answer.
06:50 - Exactly.
06:51 I love that answer.
06:52 The whole thing too with holograms
06:54 has always bothered me too a little bit.
06:56 - Yeah, and also they cost a lot
06:57 'cause I tried to get one to perform.
06:59 - Yeah, okay.
07:00 - And they told me how much that was,
07:01 I was like, man.
07:02 (laughing)
07:03 Rest in peace, man.
07:04 - You were a big mixtape person.
07:06 In the wake of the technology,
07:07 is mixtape still a thing?
07:08 - The terminology, definition changed.
07:11 That's all, it just changes.
07:12 It changes up.
07:13 It had, 'cause it changed before I started too.
07:15 Mixtapes can mean an album.
07:16 It mean anything now,
07:17 but everybody know when it comes to Lil Wayne,
07:19 they know how I approach my mixtapes,
07:22 so my mixtapes won't ever change.
07:23 - Working on something now?
07:25 - I'm always working.
07:26 - Okay.
07:26 - I'm working on Carter Six though.
07:27 - Okay, all right.
07:29 So anything I haven't asked you
07:30 that you wanna share about Hip Hop 50?
07:32 I know you're on the bill there
07:34 for the Yankee Stadium event.
07:36 - Yeah.
07:37 - What's your plan?
07:38 What can we expect from that?
07:39 - Do not set expectations for me
07:42 because I will always exceed them,
07:44 so just go there with a clear mind
07:46 and expect the best,
07:47 and I'll be better than that.
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