Get Carter

From boy to man via about nine billion cameos, mixtape leaks and official albums, Dwayne Carter has become the biggest rapper on the face of the planet. And as he seemingly turns his attentions to rock stardom, is there anything that he can't do? HATTIE COLLINS tracked the mercurial emcee across two continents to try to answer some fundamental questions about probably the most prolific and yet the least understood artist currently working in hip hop.

"You look at me and tell me what you see, you listen to me and tell me what you get. That’s what it is." Pause. "That’s who I am. I am music, ya dig?"

Dwayne ‘Lil Wayne’ Carter, aka the self-proclaimed Best Rapper Alive, isn’t one for navel-gazing. Press him more than once about how he conjures such insane couplets as "I’m probably in the sky flying with the fishes/Or maybe in the ocean swimming with the pigeons," and you’ll be greeted with a sigh. Prod again, and expect an even more curt response: "I don’t think you’re comprehending the answers right," he murmurs, pausing to pick up the ever-present styrofoam cup that houses Weezy F Baby’s beloved Sizzurp‘n’Sprite. "I’m just being me. I am living in another world. Do you want to come into my world? Is it safe? I can’t say. But my world is what I am. I am that person," he insists, touching a face embroidered with ink etchings like ‘I Am Music’ as well as ‘Fear’ and 'God’ on his right and left eye-lid respectively. "This shit don’t come off. I’m crazy. I am a rock star."

Evidentially; the recently leaked tracks Prom Queen and Hot Revolver, both apparently singles from the forthcoming Rebirth album, show Wayne in an axe-laden, head-banging mood. The jury remains out as to how successful this sonic swerve may be, but given past performance, it seems likely that Rebirth will be as profitable as its Tha Carter III predecessor.

Over the course of two interviews, he certainly rolls with a rock-like attitude. At a mid-level London hotel he’s edgy, moody and even subdued at times. Like his music, his thoughts follow an unsteady stream of consciousness, meandering from the meaningful to the utterly meaningless. A few months later at the Hit Factory studio in Miami, the 25 year-old is much more accommodating. He still mumbles and arrives with sizzurp and weed, but he seems a warmer person that before. Fresh from a session with Pharrell Williams, he’s thoughtful, considered and introspective.

When it comes to meeting Wayne, it seems the only thing you can predict is that his mood will be unpredictable. A studio hermit, he professes to sleep just three hours a night, and claims to visit only the studio, the bank and his bed. But it’s this unrelenting work ethic that has contributed to his success. From a moderately successful member of the Hot Boyz, Wayne parlayed bold proclamations, t-shirt-slogan-ready statements and a proliferation of mixtapes, guest verses and collaborations into a career that has proved unstoppable. Voted the Number One rapper by everyone from BET to Rolling Stone, Wayne has transformed himself from a footnote in hip hop history to one of the most important figures in pop music.

"I'll say this," he offers, "there's only one me. Who is Wayne? I’m just being me. It’s as simple as that."

Hattie: Who is Lil' Wayne: a rapper? A rock and roll star? Your 'Girls, guitars, drugs and beefs' posturing makes you appear more like a rock star than a rapper these days.
Wayne: Not yet. I’ll be there though. I don’t think about things that I have to do to get there, I just wake up every day and do something to get there. If I think about it, then that means I’m doing something anybody can do, because you can think about doing something and take over from there. I could think about doing something and then we’d have a teacher and we’d be in class and we’d all go home and think about the test the next day. Only a few can walk in there without studying and pass everything correctly. I try to be that person. I am a rock star, I don't do things that make me a rock star, ya dig?

H: Having dominated rap, is rock music the next genre for you to take over?
W: I like to stay in my box, 'cos when you go outside your box sometimes you can’t do it. Of course I’ve ventured into a lot of music such as rock and soul and things like that, but I still keep it Lil' Wayne between the lines. Therefore I’m safe at the end of the day. You can’t say, "Oh, he didn’t do well because he trying to sing," 'cos it’s still a typical Wayne song.

H: I understand you’ve been working on both Rebirth and Tha Carter IV?
W: Yes, ma'am. We were debating how we gonna do it - we were gonna do either Tha Carter IV or Tha Carter III Rebirthed, because it’s going to be very different. Like, it will sound different in a way not everyone will like and I don’t want anyone not to like Tha Carter IV, so we’re going to go with Rebirthed. But either way, I do so much music that I have Tha Carter IV done as well.

H: Can you explain your lyrical process?
W: I blame it all on me. I don’t write nothing, it comes from my regular, natural thoughts, from what I’m thinking. I’m off the wall. My thoughts bounce everywhere. I’m a Libra and you know we’re the only sign who don’t have no soul, so... We can go anywhere and take it everywhere and feel no way. I know how to express that with words and with actions. And I think I do it well.

H: You seem particularly interested in using space as a metaphor - you often liken yourself to a Martian, for instance.
W: Yeah, I exaggerate it, but I do feel like I’m different. My thought process keeps me rejuvenated and that’s why I can stay in the game as long as I’m in the game. No-one does it like I do. So that’s why I always go to the Martian thing, 'cos I’ll never say what you think I’m going to say and I’m not going to do what you expect me to do. It’s also about being free mentally. I’ll do what I want and say what I do and make it cool and make it make sense.

H: Film and sport are another two recurring themes in your raps...
W: I watch TV, but I don’t watch a lot of movies. You can see in my records that I watch TV a whole lot. I watch sports, period. I’m a big sports fan. Every sport, I watch it. Every one.

H: Do you play much sport?
W: Nah, I don’t have the size to play any sports. So I’m glad I got a shot at this [music].

H: So other than film and sport, what else influences your lyrics? Art, your children, books...
W: I’ve read a few books in my day. Like I told you earlier, I don’t write my lyrics down. I think you as a listener have to word it as "lyrics", but me, I’m just being me. It’s not "lyrics", so I don’t have to come up with it. If it’s something I have to come up with, that’s a whole different thing. If I am that, I don’t have to come up with anything. I am what I’m saying, there’s no lyrics. I just go in there. I don’t sit in the corner and think "What should I come up with next?" I just do it. This is what I am; I am that person. If you hear a song and I’m animated, I am animated. These tattoos don’t rub off. So all that crazy shit you hear in songs [rubs face], this shit don’t come off. I’m crazy. So I am a rock star. You know how you don’t have to question a rock star about their lyrics, because ten times out of ten they didn’t even write their lyrics? But you’re still obsessed with the façade, and everything else that comes with the sound. But with me being a rapper, I got the best of both worlds. The lyrics are my lyrics so you do have to question me about them because they are amazing. And then you have to also question me about the rock star lifestyle and all this and all that. So... [pause] There’s only one me though. I just am who I am and every single thing that ever happened to me, or that will happen for me, or to me, will be who I am behind that mic - every single thing: daughter, mother, relationships everything. I don’t write. When you write, you live within that paper and then you’re only as good as your last line. So I don’t write, I don’t have a last line. I’m just trying to get better.

H: You say you don’t write lyrics down, so how does that work? Do you record tracks in one go, or sentence by sentence, verse by verse?
W: It depends. It may be the whole lot, it may be three words. It depends what comes to mind. Some people might come in the studio and hear a song and ask, "What the hell is going on?" But when it all comes together it’s definitely amazing. Like, I usually hear the music and what I do is I come up with a gang of ideas. I lay them down and if I don’t like them, I take them out until you have a piece here and a piece there. It comes out great.

H: Do you have a favourite Wayne lyric? Have you written the perfect 16 yet?
W: No, because I’m such a perfectionist and I’m always trying to be better than my last shit. I always say the last shit is better than my last shit [laughs].

H: How about a song? Is there a personal favourite on Tha Carter III?
W: I would think the Mr. Carter song was the highlight because it was with Jay-Z. That right there was an amazing moment. Everything else is amazing as well, but that right there? I go to that song first when I put the album on. The song was given to me, I did the song and he and I, we know the same people. Someone played him that song and he said "I got to have it." He called me and I said "No problem."

H: What sort of influence has Jay had on your career?
W: Earlier on in my career, a few years back I moulded and made everything about me around what he did and how he did it, because he was making the best music at the time. If you want to be like anyone, you want to be like the best and that’s inspiration in itself.

H: What frame of mind were you making Tha Carter III? Were you aware of the intense pressure from fans, eager for you to deliver a classic album?
W: I would say no but I have to say I would be lying if I didn’t consider that. It was in the back of my mind that everyone was expecting me to do great. But I was looking at it like, the capacity of the anxiety was so great that it was like anything I did would be better than OK. All my job was to make it better than OK. And I did that, so therefore when it came out it was whatever it was.

H: How did you celebrate selling ‘A Milli’ in a week?
W: I went to the studio and did a Thank You song for the fans.

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