Lil Wayne sat down in his hometown of New Orleans with Rap Radar’s Elliott Wilson as part of Wilson’s long-running CRWN interview series. With Wayne’s triumphant Tha Carter V finally out after half a decade of delays, they had a lot to talk about. As Pitchfork points out, that included discussion of the album’s Kendrick Lamar and XXXTentaction features, its lack of a Drake feature, Wayne’s truce with Birdman, and more.
If you, like me, have been wondering why Wayne’s former Young Money protege Drake wasn’t on C5, Weezy says it was related to clearance issues. Wayne and Drake’s 2014 single “Believe Me” was originally billed as the lead single from Tha Carter V, but that wasn’t the song that had to be cut.
Wayne says Mack Maine decided on the album’s tracklist and sequencing. It was Maine’s idea to put the late XXXTentacion on the album; prior to Maine bringing him the sample that became “Don’t Cry,” Wayne says he “didn’t know who XXXTentacion was.” As for the Kendrick Lamar collaboration “Mona Lisa,” Wayne says, “That song old,” while the Nicki Minaj-featuring “Dark Side of the Moon” is on the newer side. Wayne considers the 90-minute runtime “short” and says he has another album’s worth of songs locked and loaded, which is no surprise considering his prolific recording habits.
Wayne also addressed his relationship with Birdman, his former Cash Money label head, with whom he recently reached a settlement to leave the label and release Tha Carter V. He says he didn’t realize when Birdman apologized to him onstage at his Lil Weezyana fest in August. “I was on stage, I was in performance mode, I was trying to remember the words. Somebody actually had to tell me, ‘Oh he apologized to you onstage tonight.’”
The interview is a Tidal exclusive. Tidal subscribers can watch below, while everyone else can see a three-minute preview.
This article originally appeared on Stereogum.
