00:00 I am naturally, organically amazing.
00:03 I'm one of a kind.
00:05 So actually I would love to see
00:07 that thing try to duplicate this motherfucker.
00:11 - You had a great vantage point,
00:24 starting at seven, signed at 11, 12, you're professional.
00:28 You've seen a lot of changes, so I was gonna ask you,
00:31 what's been the biggest changes you've seen in the genre
00:33 since you've been in it?
00:34 - There was no such thing as social media
00:36 when I was doing this.
00:38 Everything's changed because of social media.
00:40 So with that said, our genre of music
00:43 is no different than everything.
00:44 - One lesson learned that you still carry with you
00:47 since you started?
00:48 - That answer's always the same, is never stop.
00:51 Never stop learning.
00:52 Humble yourself.
00:54 Humility goes a long way, and it'll keep you learning.
00:57 And I try to get better and better and better
01:00 and better and better and better and better.
01:02 That's always my whatever rule or something I've learned
01:05 or lesson or whatever.
01:06 Always unforgettable moments.
01:08 Probably my first time grabbing a mic at a block party
01:12 and breaking my fear and rapping the stuff
01:15 that I had rapped in the mirror
01:17 for like thousands of hours that night before.
01:19 - Did you ever subscribe to the notion
01:21 that hip hop was only a young man's game?
01:23 That's what they used to say back in the day.
01:25 - No, because when I was growing up,
01:27 all the rappers were old.
01:28 I mean, I guess I'm just not from that narrative around
01:32 because when I started, people was way older than me.
01:36 So I started laughing.
01:37 So yeah, everybody was older than me.
01:39 So no, it was never a young man's game.
01:44 I've always felt when I was a young man,
01:46 I had to fight my way in.
01:47 ♪ What you have here is bought to you ♪
01:49 ♪ Courtesy of the young man young Carter ♪
01:51 ♪ I've been there, you've been there ♪
01:53 ♪ Drop a chop, drop a chop, drop a chop ♪
01:56 ♪ Drop a chop, drop a chop ♪
01:57 ♪ Hold me down ♪
01:59 ♪ 'Cause you're getting big like a flaming car ♪
02:02 - You've kind of been a blueprint.
02:03 - Thank God.
02:04 - For Label, other ventures.
02:06 What role do you feel that you've played in that evolution?
02:09 Because now a lot of rappers are doing the same thing.
02:12 - I get this from watching Jay-Z
02:15 and watching the way Reverend Run and Russ moving.
02:17 They never stop.
02:18 They just evolve.
02:20 Hopefully, these are someone, those under me,
02:22 or those like me, or whatever,
02:24 probably follow in my footsteps.
02:27 - Others might call you the first rock star.
02:29 I mean, the way you've used different genres
02:32 from rock to pop to R&B to soul
02:34 to everything else in between.
02:35 And you've got the younger artists,
02:37 like Lil Uzi Vert and Travis Scott, Young Thug,
02:40 and Trippie Redd have listed you as an influence.
02:43 So what do you think your influence has been
02:44 on this next generation of rappers coming up?
02:47 - Everybody got tattoos on their face.
02:48 Everybody got this buzzer, blah.
02:49 That's like seeing your kid come out the room
02:53 and looking just like you.
02:55 That feels amazing.
02:56 - Exactly.
02:57 - So yeah, so that part, I see that.
02:59 That's visible.
03:00 I see that influence right there
03:01 because I know for a fact I didn't get this look from,
03:04 I didn't, there was no one that inspired this look.
03:06 I just ran into looking like this.
03:08 Yeah, so they don't have to,
03:09 they can't lie and say they got it.
03:11 (laughing)
03:11 Yeah, but other than that, I hope that my work gets it.
03:15 (upbeat music)
03:19 (whooshing)
03:22 - All right, I know you've got Young Money.
03:24 You've got a roster that you're building.
03:26 ♪ We Young Money ♪
03:27 ♪ Ooh, I can make you feel like I ♪
03:30 What does it take to break hip hop artists now?
03:32 - You have to know the social media.
03:34 You don't, you have to have a team that does.
03:36 With that said, I think that the main thing today
03:39 is what has been yesterday and the day before yesterday.
03:43 You just have to have real talent.
03:45 - Okay.
03:46 - Yeah, because there's so many people
03:48 and so many people available to do this
03:50 and you have to have real, everlasting, undeniable talent.
03:55 These artists, a lot of the artists wanna be
03:58 exactly what they see on social media
04:00 and not knowing what they have inside them.
04:02 They just wanna be that.
04:03 And instead of being what they actually can be.
04:06 - We're talking authenticity.
04:08 - Exactly. - As well, too.
04:09 So is that hard to draw it out?
04:10 - No, and even if it is a challenge,
04:12 that challenge has always been
04:14 one of the most funnest things ever to me, so.
04:17 - What do you listen for?
04:18 What two or three qualities you think artists today
04:20 need to have since, as you just said,
04:22 it's so hard to rise up above everything that's out there.
04:26 - The genre that you're attacking,
04:27 even if it's hip hop or not, you have to be great in that.
04:31 You have to be at least good, at least good,
04:34 only if you're willing to turn and work as hard as you can
04:38 to turn that good into great.
04:40 And then, you know, come out at me
04:42 and you'll be talking about the greatest.
04:44 Show me, think hard to challenge yourself.
04:47 - Is it hard for you to say to someone,
04:50 "It's not there yet"?
04:51 You've had to say that.
04:52 - Oh, not at all.
04:53 - Not at all, okay. - It's not hard at all.
04:54 Yeah, if they're my artists,
04:56 I can't tell no other artists that.
04:58 - Yeah. - Yeah, but if you're my artist,
04:59 all right, yeah, I'll let them know.
05:01 - All right. - You better go do
05:02 that shit again.
05:03 Yeah. (both laughing)
05:05 (upbeat music)
05:08 - What's been your secret to longevity?
05:14 - Me?
05:15 I don't have a secret.
05:16 I just work and I never stop.
05:18 I don't do nothing but my music.
05:21 In my mind, every single time I say the word work,
05:24 I ask God to forgive me
05:25 'cause I know this has never been a job.
05:27 So it's just a dream come true.
05:28 So that's why I've never stopped.
05:30 - I'm excited by the growing ranks
05:32 of female rappers right now.
05:34 I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
05:35 I started at Billboard in '99 and it was, you know,
05:37 you had your Roxanne Chantay's and Kim's and Queen's
05:42 and MC Lyte's and stuff and then there's nothing
05:45 and then Nicki pops up.
05:46 Why is this happening now?
05:47 What's your thoughts on that?
05:49 - I think that it just wasn't,
05:51 it wasn't interesting to women.
05:52 You know, it was as interesting, you know,
05:54 as the way Nicki and Meg and others have,
05:57 it looks like, you know, it's awesome.
05:59 And it was, I don't think it was as, you know,
06:01 I don't think they looked at it, viewed it as something
06:04 that they wanted to do and actually make a living from it.
06:07 - Right.
06:08 And it seems maybe the industry's
06:10 a little more open-minded.
06:12 - Oh, definitely.
06:12 Now?
06:13 Oh, what?
06:14 Yeah, definitely, yeah.
06:15 We gotta hear it for everything now.
06:17 (upbeat music)
06:19 - Technology, AI.
06:22 What are your thoughts on that
06:23 coming into the music industry?
06:25 - Someone asked me about that recently.
06:28 And so, you know, I was, they was trying to tell me,
06:30 they was like, you know, they got someone
06:31 could make your voice.
06:32 - Right.
06:33 - And like, and say, they could sound just like,
06:35 I was like, but if it's not me,
06:38 what, it's like, if it's not gonna,
06:40 but you know, it could say something like,
06:42 but if it's not me, it's like, I'm amazing.
06:47 Like, plain and simple.
06:49 That was the answer.
06:50 - Exactly.
06:51 I love that answer.
06:52 The whole thing too with holograms
06:54 has always bothered me too a little bit.
06:56 - Yeah, and also they cost a lot
06:57 'cause I tried to get one to perform.
06:59 - Yeah, okay.
07:00 - And they told me how much that was,
07:01 I was like, man.
07:02 (laughing)
07:03 Rest in peace, man.
07:04 - You were a big mixtape person.
07:06 In the wake of the technology,
07:07 is mixtape still a thing?
07:08 - The terminology, definition changed.
07:11 That's all, it just changes.
07:12 It changes up.
07:13 It had, 'cause it changed before I started too.
07:15 Mixtapes can mean an album.
07:16 It mean anything now,
07:17 but everybody know when it comes to Lil Wayne,
07:19 they know how I approach my mixtapes,
07:22 so my mixtapes won't ever change.
07:23 - Working on something now?
07:25 - I'm always working.
07:26 - Okay.
07:26 - I'm working on Carter Six though.
07:27 - Okay, all right.
07:29 So anything I haven't asked you
07:30 that you wanna share about Hip Hop 50?
07:32 I know you're on the bill there
07:34 for the Yankee Stadium event.
07:36 - Yeah.
07:37 - What's your plan?
07:38 What can we expect from that?
07:39 - Do not set expectations for me
07:42 because I will always exceed them,
07:44 so just go there with a clear mind
07:46 and expect the best,
07:47 and I'll be better than that.
07:49 (upbeat music)
07:52 (upbeat music)
07:54 (upbeat music)
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