Trivia / Lil Wayne

• Development Hell: The Carter V. It was first announced in 2012 slated for a 2013 release date, but it missed it's target released date several times. His then-ongoing legal battle with Cash Money Records is apparently the reason for the album's delay, but Word of God is that album is finished and that he can release it whenever he wants. As a result of the delays, he's released 2 full-length albums and 5 mixtapes in the interim, and Wayne has stated before that he plans to retire at 35 (i.e. in 2018). It finally saw a release date in 2018 to much rejoice and even good reception.
• Follow the Leader: He's pretty much single-handedly responsible for bringing "hashtag rap" (that is, removing all the prepositions from your metaphors, so your lyrics look like an SAT analogies test) into the mainstream. He didn't invent it, though; he just (re)popularized it.
  • His use of "hashtag rap" often makes him seem like a Captain Obvious. For example, "Tote tools like mechanics/Mechanisms" from "President Carter".
    • Todd in the Shadows was calling him "MC Obvious" before he started using this style.
• Screwed by the Network: This is the reason why Tha Carter V took an eternity to be released, as the CEO and co-founder of Cash Money Birdman was frequently shelving the album and postponing it to an unconfirmed release date. It resulted in Wayne filling lawsuits towards the label and he eventually departed from the label and took his label Young Money Entertainment with him in 2018.
• Screwed by the Lawyers:
  • Many of his independently-released mixtapes like Da Drought 3, No Ceilings, Sorry 4 The Wait, and the Dedication series will never see the light of day on major streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music because the freestyles used instrumentals from many different rap songs without permission from their artists or labels. As a result, they're uploaded primarily on mixtape sites like DatPiff and LiveMixtapes.com and through fan-uploads on YouTube. It's also why Wayne's barred from ever performing the fan-favorite "I Feel Like Dying" live.
  • One of the songs from Tha Carter III titled "Playing With Fire" was taken off on all current prints of the album due to Abkco Records (owners of The Rolling Stones (Band) back catalog) filed a lawsuit against Lil Wayne, claiming that the song was obviously derived from The Rolling Stones' song of the same name, to which they owned the rights. As a result, a throw-away track titled "Pussy Monster" was replaced in all modern prints, meaning that the original 2008 version on CD and unofficial uploads on YouTube are the only places to still listen to the track.

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