Lil Wayne has been in the rap game for some time, since the age of 12, and has released countless songs in that time.
Being around that long has changed his artistic process. In a new interview with the I Am Athlete podcast featuring Brandon Marshall, Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, Adam “Pac-Man” Jones, and Omar Kelly, Wayne was asked how long it takes for him to write lyrics. “It depends on what it is,” he said around the 35:50 minute mark. “When it’s my shit, on god, man, I could take seven weeks on two lines.”
He continued, “I’ve said so much that I don’t ever wanna say the same thing. Also, you have to understand your audience. There were certain things I could have said to my audience in 95 that you’re not trying to hear right now. But you know I mean I could figure it out and that’s the beauty of it.”
Elsewhere during the chat, he spoke about seeing the potential in a young Drake. “I was like, ‘This dude sounds different,’” Wayne said around 12:25. “What I loved about him was that he was sounding just as dope as we were.”
Wayne said he told Drake, “‘Don’t stop, don’t change,’” and “you got to be the ultimate artist.”
The New Orleans native stays hip to current artists and listed his favorites, saying that he’s been listening to Baby Keem and Lil Baby. “I been on all them,” he said around the 40:40 minute mark.
He also gave a shout to Young Dolph, whose music Wayne started listening to after his death in November. “Rest in peace, I really just started getting into Dolph’s shit…because they playing it a lot, so I’m starting to hear a lot more than I’ve ever heard.” He said the late Memphis rapper had a lot of “authenticity” and reminded him of 2 Chainz.
He also praised one of Young Money’s new rappers, Euro. “His bars is just beyond anything I’ve heard yet, in the streets or period,” he said. “He just fit the mold [of] what I was looking for, plain and simple.”
Overall, Weezy is “excited” about where rap is headed. “I have no doubt in my mind that it’s going to be better just because of how much I have to do every night to make a song,” he said around the 40:04 mark. “Back then, it was just me going [and] hearing a beat and doing what the hell I want on them and sticking to a subject or something. Now it’s way more than that and that lets me know right there that if I got to be in here doing this then it’s going to be okay.”
