Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne has DJ Khaled to thank for his first ever no. 1 single in Australia. In fact, it’s Lil Wayne’s first ever no. 1 single anywhere outside the USA, ever.

Khaled’s bubbly new posse cut I’m The One, featuring Lil Wayne alongside Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper and Migos’ Quavo has elbowed its way to the very top of the ARIA charts this week, knocking both Ed Sheeran and Kendrick Lamar off the throne. Shape Of You and HUMBLE currently sit at spots two and three respectively. It’s also topped the UK charts, another first for Tunechi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weeI1G46q0o

Despite an extremely prolific and successful career, Lil Wayne has had surprisingly little chart success outside the USA. He’s never had a chart-topping single or album outside the USA, with only one exception – Tha Carter IV hit no. 1 in Canada back in 2011. It reached no. 9 in Australia.

Lil Wayne’s last top 10 hit in Australia was Sucker For Pain from the Suicide Squad soundtrack; the collaboration with Wiz Khalifa, Imagine Dragons, Logic, Ty Dolla Sign and X Ambassadors hit no. 7 last year. Prior to that he’s only had five tracks in the ARIA top 10, most recently in 2013.

Image: Youtube

Lil Wayne has given a sit-down interview on ABC’s Nightline, during which he has shared some of his own thoughts about the Black Lives Matter movement.

The interview began simply enough, with Weezy talking about his controversial lyrics and image, noting that he felt like he was misunderstood by the public. Things got really interesting in the final two minutes, however, when the interviewer brought up the issue of racism. When asked what he thought about the Black Lives Matter movement he asked the reporter for clarification on what she meant before remarking that “It just sounds weird. I don’t know if you can put a name on it… it’s somebody got shot by a policeman for a fucked up reason.”

The interview then took a negative turn with the rapper seemingly disagreeing with the notion that awareness needed to be raised about the treatment of Afro-Americans; “I’m a young, black, rich motherfucker. If that don’t let you know that America understand that black motherfuckers matter then I don’t know what is… don’t come at me with that dumb shit ma’am… my life matter, especially to my bitches.”

When the reporter went to ask if he felt connected to the community, Wayne responded by stating that he didn’t “feel connected to a damn thing that ain’t got nothing to do with me. If you do, you crazy as shit.”

Wayne ended the interview by proclaiming that he was “no politician” and storming out, attempting a mic drop through his shirt in the process and revealing his swag via one hell of a cap back-flip. Watch the full interview below.

Wayne has since apologised via TMZ, claiming that the ABC’s questions about his daughter threw him off.

Wayne told TMZ that “When the reporter began asking me questions about my daughter being labelled a bitch and a hoe, I got agitated. From there, there was no thought put into her questions and my responses. Apologies to anyone who was offended.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZLUa8JUR18

Image: Spin

It looks like Lil Wayne took on too many lawsuits at once. A Federal Court judge has stalled Wayne’s $20 million lawsuit against Universal Music Group (UMG), in which Wayne accuses UMG of screwing him out of millions for his work with Nicki Minaj, Drake and Tyga – until he has settled his lawsuit against Birdman and Cash Money – in which Wayne claims Birdman owes him tens of millions of dollars for his postponed album, Tha Carter V.

The Federal Court judge’s decision is a major setback for Wayne as it sides with UMG. The judge has agreed that the lawsuit Wayne has against Birdman, and this one, are substantially similar and the outcome of one will effect the other.

Despite the rumours that Wayne and Birdman have been working out their differences, Wayne officially axed any settlement talks in May. This means it could be a year or more before Wayne settles that suit and sees any money from either party. Considering the time he’ll be spending in court, not to mention his recent health scares and hospitalisations, it looks like Tha Carter V won’t be out any time soon at all. Wayne did recently announce not one, but two new album, but the status and reality of these are currently unknown, too.

Image: Photobucket

The High Times Cannabis Concentrates Cup Show in sunny California certainly had a head-turning lineup, including sets from B.o.B and Lil Wayne. With fans excited to see the performers, Weezy graced the stage, only to cut his show extremely short moments later. Sure we’ve all been there when the artist just plays an anticlimactically short 45-minute set, but how about three minutes?

Despite appearing hyped at first, Wayne did just that. Performing just a handful of songs, after about three minutes he seemingly became distracted by something offstage and proceeded to shout, “Don’t you ever call me to do this s–t again!” He rapped just a few more bars and then walked off. According to Lil Wayne HQ, Wayne ironically didn’t like the laid-back crowd of stoners, saying “You guys are too mellow. I’m from the South we turn up there”

High Times, the company behind the event issued a statement to Daily Mail regarding the sudden disappearance, saying that they are simply confused why he walked off.

“Wayne suddenly ended his performance after just four songs when he was contractually committed to performing for an hour for the fans. We are truly baffled by why Lil Wayne would do this in front of thousands of Cannabis Cup attendees – in total disregard for his fans – and are awaiting an explanation from his team.”

Whether it was something just as small as the crowd being too ‘mellow’, or a more pressing issue, it’s likely we will not be finding out any time soon. Either way, it’s not exactly the best practice to be walking off stage four songs in, regardless of how involved the crowd may seem. Considering Weezy has experienced multiple seizures in recent weeks, we can only hope that this walk-off was not the result of a health problem.

Watch below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm5VVLVWCI8

Image: Live Nation

A divisive and prolific artist since the word go, Lil Wayne is possibly rap’s most popular guest. There doesn’t appear to be a world record for this feat, but those who doubt whether Wayne would take the title could be shut down with just one look at this new website. A Redditor, named doogywassa, has painstakingly compiled every single feature spot from Weezy into one place.

With entries spanning from 1997 until the present day, it’s an astounding catalogue that covers nearly twenty years and any number of incredible tracks. Going back to Nelly and Birdman collaborations in 2002, trawling through the site is like a walk down memory lane. From Notorious B.I.G to early Kanye, Fall Out Boy or Bow Wow anyone?

Dusting off classics like Destiny’s Child Soldier and Eminem’s Drop The World, you can skim through obscure early years or unreleased tracks as well as recent releases and interviews. Doogywassa has done an impressive job, but there’s still no way to know if this site accounts for every entry from Lil Wayne’s vast career.

Another initiative spawned by the infamous Reddit, you can also check the reactions and comments of other redactors here. As always the thread covers some intelligent points, from stylistic musings…

To other suggestions as to how to categorise Weezy’s achievements…

It appears that the hard working doogywassa has also created other hip-hop catalogues. Check it out here for an actually decent amount of content for artists like Tupac, Drake, Kendrick Lamar and more.

Image by Billboard

Lil Wayne has been forced to cancel a show in Las Vegas over the weekend after suffering yet another seizure. His third in the space of just a month, the New Orleans rapper was set to play a pre party for Sunday’s historic UFC 200 at the TAO nightclub in Las Vegas but suffered the seizure just moments before he was to take the stage.

Thankfully it appears that Weezy has now been discharged from intensive care and is reportedly recovering at his home in Miami. Like his previous two seizures, which forced the rapper’s private jet to conduct two separate emergency landings in Nebraska after occurring mid-flight, this latest seizure has been attributed to the rapper failing to adhere to the required intake of his medication for epilepsy (reportedly failing to take medication at all). He has dealt with the condition for several years and has had intermittent episodes like this throughout, with two in a single week in 2013 and one even being considered near-fatal. The increased frequency of these attacks in the last month has many gravely concerned.

Many with limited knowledge of his condition were quick to point the blame for the seizures at Weezy’s highly abusive consumption of lean, he had been seen downing as many as five bottles of cough syrup at a show he played the night before his first two seizures earlier in June. While severely detrimental to general health and wellbeing, over-consumption of opiates found in lean has less than tenuous links to resultant seizures.

Nevertheless, this latest health scare has fans considerably worried for the health of the Young Money rapper. We voiced some of our own concerns after his last hospitalisation and they are unfortunately still ringing true. Hopefully this latest incident encourages Weezy to adopt a more responsible approach to his health.

We wish Lil Wayne the speediest of recoveries.

Read more: Lil Wayne, Addiction & the Dangers of Drugs in Hip-Hop

Image: Spin