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Lil Wayne recently sat down for an exclusive cover story with Rolling Stone, where he explored the 2024 Rap Beef and spoke on his upcoming album THA CARTER VI.
The 42-year-old New Orleans rapper, who is now 30 years into his career, met with Rolling Stone's Andre Gee to discuss Wayne's influence on hip-hop and his quest to be the "Best Rapper Alive".
The interview was seemingly conducted in January 2025 and was later posted to Rolling Stone's official website on April 17.
Andre cited that he initially met up with Mr. Carter two days before the College Football Playoff Championship game, in State Farm Arena, where Wayne performed during the AT&T Playlist Live concert.
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The cover story was held a day later at Tree Studios, a music studio in Atlanta, and was also attended by artist manager Fabian Marasciullo, Lil Wayne's 15-year-old son Kameron, and rapper Lil Twist.
Major highlights from Lil Wayne's Rolling Stone cover story
In Lil Wayne's latest cover story for Rolling Stone, journalist Andre Gee directs the conversation across various topics.
At one point during the interview, Lil Wayne seemingly highlighted his disappointment with being snubbed at the 2025 New Orleans Super Bowl Halftime Show, which was headlined by Compton native Kendrick Lamar.
His new cover story included interesting discussions, from sharing new information on his upcoming THA CARTER VI album, which will reportedly sample various artists, like Miley Cyrus, to claiming he never knew Jay-Z and Kanye West had made an album in 2011.
1) Lil Wayne claims he's the "Best Rapper" in the game
Wayne appears to use a basketball metaphor when explaining how he deals with conversations surrounding him being an international recording artist and entrepreneur.
"Imagine you’re a player-coach still averaging 30 a night and a ni**a asking, ‘Hey, do you feel slighted that they don’t put you in the coach-type of conversations?’ . No. I’m still dropping 30 [points] a night. I’m fine being the best rapper, and then you just found out, ‘Oh sh*t, he owns [Young Money]? Oh, he put Drake out? Oh, my God.’ ,” he stated.
2) Lil Wayne speaks on THA CARTER VI and fatherhood
Wayne played his upcoming THA CARTER VI album in full during his interview with Andre. The journalist reported that a few tracks on the LP appeared to draw inspiration from Biggie’s One More Chance and Tupac’s Hit ’Em Up.
The project is reportedly scheduled to be released on all major streaming platforms on June 6, acting as the sixth installment in his canonical THA CARTER series. While the rapper continued to highlight his excitement for the upcoming LP, he shared that he's been focusing more on fatherhood.
"Now, it’s ‘Make sure you watch over those kids and make sure you’re there at those vital ages.’ That’s coming first now. Make sure these ni**as ain’t going to jail. Making sure nobody playin’ with my princess," Wayne explained.
3) Lil Wayne features Miley Cyrus, Andrea Bocelli, and more on THA CARTER VI
During their listening session, Wayne reportedly played records that featured an "uncleared sample" of a Billie Eilish record and also included guest appearances from Italian opera star Andrea Bocelli singing Ave Maria on the album as well as Miley Cyrus.
The rapper and his record producer Wyclef Jean seemingly recorded close to 30 tracks for THA CARTER VI, with Wyclef highlighting how he and Lil Wayne being left alone is a "dangerous thing".
"You don’t know what’s going to pop out. You going to probably do like eight songs [with Wyclef] because he’s going to keep flipping what you did on one [song] and make a whole [new] song out of that sh*t," Wayne stated.
4) Lil Wayne revisits the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show
While listening to a song included on THA CARTER VI, Wayne seemingly addresses the NFL choosing Kendrick Lamar to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans.
"They coulda had some music. But instead they got rappin’. They f*cked up," he said.
During a 2023 Rolling Stone cover story, Lil Wayne explained his desire to perform at the 2025 Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show given the NFL was hosting the event in his hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana.
However, last September the NFL confirmed Kendrick Lamar would be headlining the Halftime Show, which Wayne claimed "broke him" in a video uploaded to social media last year.
The rapper suggested the football league had seemingly encouraged him to be more public-facing, with him believing that he would be the "inevitable" choice to perform at the 2025 Super Bowl.
"To perform, it’s a bunch of things they’re going to tell you to do and not do, asses to kiss and not kiss. If you notice, I was a part of things I’ve never been a part of. Like [Michael] Rubin’s all-white parties. I’m doing sh*t with Tom Brady. That was all for that. You ain’t never seen me in them types of venues. I ain’t Drake. I ain’t out there smiling like that everywhere. I’m in the stu’, smokin’ and recording,” he said.
5) Lil Wayne speaks on his relationship with Kendrick Lamar
Wayne also spoke on his relationship with Kendrick Lamar, claiming he called the Compton native before the 2025 Super Bowl to "clear the air." Lamar addressed this situation in his recently released sixth studio album, GNX. The lyrics of his song wacced out murals reads:
"Used to bump Tha Carter III, I held my Rollie chain proud / Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down"
Wayne also suggested that he wasn't paying attention to Drake and Kendrick's historic rap beef last year, even though he maintains close ties with the ex-Young Money label signee.
"I’m going to give you the perfect example. I went onstage and I was singing [Not Like Us], and they thought I was dissing. I ain’t want my dude to be mad at me. I didn’t even know it was Kendrick!” Wayne stated.
During his exclusive Rolling Stone cover story, Lil Wayne also claimed he didn't watch Kendrick Lamar's Halftime performance and vows that he'll "no longer consider" headlining the NFL's Super Bowl.
