[ BesT of Rock ]

LiL
Wayne

puff daddy
Lil Wayne in his
Miami studio
in January

i l way n e h a s t wo pr i m a ry
passions: making music and smoking weed. Tonight, those have come
into conflict. Wayne is sitting on his tour
bus in New Orleans, having come back to
his hometown for two concerts. Hed like
to head into a studio to do some mixing for
Tha Carter III, 2008s most anticipated rap
album. But theres a problem. Wayne isnt allowed to smoke in the studio. So he stays on
the bus, lighting blunt after blunt and watching Animal Planet on the TV. Hell sleep
there tonight for the same reason: Wayne
cant smoke in his hotel room either.
When Wayne speaks, its with that same
voice from his records: a needling, grizzled
croak thats one of the most distinctive
sounds in pop music. On the bus, Wayne
comes off as a funny motherfucker. He leaves
everyone in stitches with a story about how
he had to clean graffiti off a house owned by
Cash Money Records founder Bryan Baby
Williams. We were out there scrubbing for
a day! he shrieks. That shit is still on the
house, nigga! Even after Katrina!
Waynes not always like this. Sometimes

hes pensive, and he can turn surly without

notice. Oftentimes, hes just plain weird:
Over dinner in Miami last summer, he spluttered through a half-coherent, very stoned
monologue in which he compared people in
New Orleans to crabs in boiling water, then
segued into the kind of crabs that show up in
your pants: I had that shit! The worst!
Waynes rhymes are as varied as his moods,
ranging from quick-tongued braggadocio
about girls, cash and guns to gut-wrenching
expressions of personal pain. Hes a compulsively listenable dude who will sometimes
sing (badly) and rhyme in French; a five-footsix-inch bundle of energy spitting left-field
references Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Bill Laimbeer, tooth fairies and consistently great punch lines: My spot remain,
like a bleach stain, or cranberry/Its murder she wrote, like Angela Lansbury. Hes
been getting stranger lately, too, turning out
stream-of-consciousness flows and trippy
flights of fancy like the amazing mixtape cut
I Feel Like Dying, on which he sounds seriously zonked: I can mingle with the stars
and throw a party on Mars/I am a prisoner
locked up behind Xanax bars. He may be all
over the place, but this is certain: Lil Wayne
a.k.a. Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., a.k.a. the
Pussy Monster, a.k.a. Weezy F. Baby is
one of the most unusual rappers of all time.
And right now, hes the best [ Cont. on 60 ]

By Christian Hoard Photograph by Jonathan Mannion

58 ROLLING STONE, MAY 1, 2008

Gutter Photo Credit

Inside the strange mind

and brilliant rhymes
of the most exciting
rapper of his generation

Gutter Photo Credit

Be st Mc

ROLLING STONE, MAY 1, 2008 59

[ BEST of ROCK ]
BEST NEW REISSUES
Chuck Berry
After fty years of shoddy
compilations, Berrys
entire 1950s Chess
catalog a whopping
103 songs is nally
available. Five minutely
different takes of
Sweet Little Sixteen
may be too much for
some, but hearing the
rock pioneer labor over
classics like Johnny B.
Goode is like reading
early drafts of the
Declaration of
Independence.

LIL WAYNE

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[ Cont. from 58 ] around. Just ask him.

Wayne began calling himself the greatest rapper alive in 2005. Since then, hes
been repeating and backing up that claim
on cameos and countless mixtapes. Two
of those mixes Da Drought 3 and The
Drought Is Over 2: The Carter III Sessions
were among the best albums of 2007.
Wayne grew up a wild kid in New
Orleans who dealt crack and once accidentally shot himself in the chest. It
was my moms gun, Wayne says. It was
like a chopper hit me. But the bullet went
straight through, and I bounced back in
two weeks. Thankfully, Wayne soon
discovered hip-hop and began battlerapping. When he was eleven, he had
the good fortune of befriending Baby
Williams and started helping out at Cash
Money Records. By the time he was fourteen, Wayne had a record deal.
From there, Wayne became moderately
famous as a pint-size member of the rap
supergroup Hot Boys, and he proved an
above-average gangsta MC on his early
albums. Recently, though, hes attained
a level of greatness hardly anyone could
have expected, spitting rhymes that are
wittier, odder and broader in subject matter than anyone elses. In the past year,
stars like Kanye West and Jay-Z have
featured Wayne on their songs. And hes
become a constant presence on hip-hop
message boards and blogs, which feature
feverish chatter about Waynes latest
stanzas, his sexual preferences (sparked
by a photo of him kissing mentor Williams), his drug use and occasional legal
troubles. (Hes currently facing gun- and
drug-possession charges in New York
and Arizona. Wayne pleaded not guilty
in both cases.)
Wayne is also the rare pop star who

Willie Nelson
One Hell of a Ride
Beginning in 1954,
this 100-song set
is the rst one that
spans Nelsons
entire fty-year
career from
his Crazy days
through more
recent work with
Merle Haggard and
Johnny Cash.

The
Replacements
Let It Be
A solo home demo
of Answering
Machine and a
cover of T. Rexs
20th Century
Boy are two
highlights of the
bonus material on
the Replacements
denitive album.

has been able to dramatically raise his

profile in the last two years without releasing an official LP. Theres a wealth of
Wayne material all those mixtapes and
leaked songs that has surfaced online.
The hip-hop merch site mixunit.com sells
twenty-three mixes featuring Wayne,
most of which are easy to find online for
free. This isnt some kind of viral marketing plan. Its just this: Wayne makes new
songs like you make lunch, and songs
have a way of getting out especially
when theyre as irresistible as Waynes.
How many tracks has Wayne cut in
recent years? Somewhere in the thousands, he says. (Hes been smoking.) The
real number is probably closer to 500,
but whats clear is that
Wayne is an irrepressGET THIS:
Stocked with
ible studio rat. Recordall-star beats,
ing is an addiction,
Da Drought 3
he says. I cant stop.
mixtape is
Wayne works quickly
Wayne at his
he writes nothing
most condent
down, records rhymes
and hilarious.
as soon as they pop into
his head, and completes up to five songs
a day. He can also knock out a verse for
someone else within a half-hour of hearing the beat . That has served him well
financially: Wayne charges $100,000 for
the average cameo or $75,000 if he likes
the beat or the song. But nothing less!
Wayne says. I wouldnt do a song for my
sister for less than $75,000.
After more than six months of delays,
Waynes sixth official solo album is finally slated for June. This is partly because Wayne wants to keep tweaking
songs; and partly because of difficulty
in getting clearance from featured artists record labels (hes recorded with
Lil Mama and Busta Rhymes, among
others). Another possible reason: All the
prospective Carter III material thats

Joe Higgs

U2

Life of
Contradiction
The Father of
Reggae and a
major inuence on
Bob Marley Higgs
seminal 1975 album
is back on shelves
with two additional
tracks and vastly
improved sound
quality.

The Joshua Tree

A killer 1987 Paris
concert DVD makes
this set worth the
price alone, but
fourteen bonus
tracks especially
Wave of Sorrow
show U2s
masterpiece could
have been a double
album. ANDY GREENE

leaked online has prompted Wayne to

record new album tracks, which only extends the delay; Wayne has said that no
leaked material will end up on Carter III.
Though Carter III will probably be one
of 2008s best-selling hip-hop albums,
its hard to imagine it being better than
Waynes best mixtapes. Wayne doesnt
seem concerned in fact, he wont even
help select the track list. I just come up
with good songs, he says. Its up to [Universal Records] to figure out what goes
on. I dont want that headache.
After a late night on the bus, Wayne
steps into a class at Eleanor McMain
Secondary School in New Orleans,
which he attended back in the Nineties.
Hes here for a Q-and-A session. Wayne
cheerfully answers kids questions about
his nine-year-old daughter, his favorite
cameo (Destinys Childs Soldier) and
Lil Wayne haters out there (If they aint
talking about you, you aint doing nothin, he says).
After forty-five minutes with the kids,
Wayne climbs back into the tour bus. He
visits a Katrina-damaged athletic field,
which hes helping to restore through his
new One Family Foundation, then heads
off to play a gig in Atlanta. Waynes tour
will end within weeks, but hes not taking
any time off. Soon hell put the finishing
touches on Carter III and head off on his
first-ever European tour.
Maybe Wayne will find time to improve his guitar skills; hes a self-taught
axman who played on Enrique Iglesias
Push. Or maybe hell get his psychology degree, too; hes been taking online
classes from the University of Phoenix.
Maybe hell also shrink from fame sort
of (but hopefully not exactly) like his favorite rock star, Kurt Cobain. He was
a rebel he didnt give a fuck, Wayne
says. Thats me.

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The perfect way to enjoy Patrn is responsibly.

60

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