Lil Wayne's Tha Carter V, finally, is actually going to see the light of day later this year. In a new cover story chat with Billboard, Weezy opened up about the repeatedly delayed album's troubled path to existence and how it feels to finally be approaching a surefire release.
"I'm very much a perfectionist . . . I don't know what it's setting me up forâsome big comeback, or maybe some big fall back or whateverâbut it's setting me up for something, and I'm ready," Wayne said. The album, as noted in the feature, will be the first in Weezy's catalog to not carry the Cash Money logo. Wayne's Young Money distribution deal with Republic, however, remains in play. Wayne is also now the sole owner of Young Money.
Though Wayne doesn't detail the long-awaited album's final tracklist in the new interview, the writer of the piece, Dan Rys, does point out that one track sees Wayne addressing his suicide attempt at the age of 12. The untitled song, featuring a Sampha sample, serves as the album's outro and includes lyrical references to the late Anthony Bourdain and others.
"[Wayne] just told me one day that he was ready to address it now," Mack Maine said of the incident, during which Wayne shot himself in the chest with a gun he found at his mother's house. "Just being an adult, reaching a level of maturity and comfort where it's like, 'IÂ want to talk about this because I know a lot of people out here might be going through that.'" Wayne had previously characterized the moment as an accident.
Wayne also discussed the difficulties of having an album he announced way back in 2012 take so preposterously long to be released. For Wayne, staying in touch with his children and maintaining a prolific approach to the studio helped him keep focused. "The difficult part of it was finally having to pull the curtains back and see what the hell was out that window, having to actually care about other things than my music and my lyrics," said Wayne, whose studio sessions now top out at around 14 hours a day instead of his infamous 26-hour marathon sessions.
Read the full featureâfeaturing Wayne's current thoughts on Birdman, his Young Money roster, and why he will likely never retireâhere.
Young Money shared the presumed cover art for Tha Carter VÂ on Wednesday. Thanks to a few well-placed hashtags on posts from Floyd Mayweather and Benjamin Mendy, many fans have speculated the album could be dropping very soon. An official release date, however, has not been announced.Â
