A classic rap conversation has long been what exactly the "F" in Lil Wayne's "Weezy F Baby" stands for. There have been literal lists dedicated to archiving the multitude of meanings the "F" has had over the years, but one of its most iconic uses was actually made in error.
During a recent conversation on Andrew Barber's Fake Shore Drive show, Wayne's longtime associate Cortez Bryant revealed that the "Weezy F. Baby, and the F is for phenomenal" line off his 2009 track "Yes," was actually a mistake.
"The word starts with 'ph,' but he said 'f,' right?” Bryant says at the 19:11-mark. “He was like, ‘Oh sh-t, I gotta change that.’ We released it. We had an argument about that. He not understanding the concept about digital, and it’s gone now…We had pressed tons of CDs, but he didn’t realize he spelled it wrong, and I didn’t catch it.”
Bryant went on to explain that Wayne was so passionate about wanting to fix the error because he's so technical about his craft.
"Wayne is a perfectionist about that, using his words and prepositions in [the] correct way,” Bryant continued. “He might misspell something on purpose for lyrical exercise and wordplay, but he’s really precise about his wordplay. He was really down, pissed, ‘F-ck the whole mixtape’ just because of that one damn line.”
During the same interview, Bryant also talked about plans to get all of his older mixtapes onto streaming services.
"Now with streaming, I think that we want to put out everything man, all the mixtapes,” he said. “We want everyone to hear [or have them] discover [his mixtapes]. At least that’s where everybody listens to music, so they’re not forced to go into their iTunes catalogs from back in the day of what they downloaded. We want to make sure it’s at their fingertips on streaming platforms.”
Bryant noted that it's a difficult process, though, due to all the legal aspects of it like samples being cleared. But in regards to Wayne's back catalog, while chatting with Brian "B.Dot" Miller for his Art of Facts podcast, Bryant also discussed how Drake and Wayne have talked about doing another joint tour. After B. Dot suggested that the two legends should do another tour, Bryant agreed. "And they talked about it. I do think we need to do it again."
While we wait for that, watch the full interview between Andrew Barber and Cortez Bryant above.
