Lil Wayne has been in the rap game for quite a while. He was 12 when he began to rap, and he has since released a staggering number of songs.
The experience that long has given him has shaped his artistic approach. In a recent interview with the I Am Athlete podcast featuring Brandon Marshall, Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson, Adam "Pac-Man" Jones, and Omar Kelly, Wayne was asked how long it takes for him to write lyrics. “It depends on what it is,” he said around the 35:50 minute mark. “When it’s my shit, on god, man, I could take seven weeks on two lines.”
He continued, “I’ve said so much that I don’t ever wanna say the same thing. Also, you have to understand your audience. There were certain things I could have said to my audience in 95 that you’re not trying to hear right now. But you know I mean I could figure it out and that’s the beauty of it.”
Also during the chat, he mentioned the potential he saw in a young Drake. “I was like, ‘This dude sounds different,’” Wayne also said. “What I loved about him was that he was sounding just as dope as we were.”
Wayne said he told Drake, “‘Don’t stop, don’t change,’” and “you got to be the ultimate artist.”