Story by Shaheem Reid
At the end of the day, the fans don’t care who Lil Wayne puts his music out through as long as it comes out. But over the weekend, he did make some comments onstage that created a heavy rumor buzz with fans and industry insiders. Wayne took to the stage as a headliner on Tyler, the Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Festival at LA’s Exposition Park. While performing “I’m Me,” not only did Weezy throw up the Roc Diamond sign synonymous with Jay Z, Roc Nation, and Roc-A-Fella records, Weezy also declared full allegiance to Hov saying “That ain’t fair, but I don’t care, I’m a muthaf-ckin R.O.C. millionaire / That ain’t fair, but I don’t care, I’m a muthaf-ckin Roc-A-Fella millionaire.”
Wayne’s representatives could not be reached for comment this morning, but Wayne’s words have sparked rumors that he and Jay Z may have worked out a deal other than Wayne’s arrangement with Tidal. As part of his Tidal deal, the tatted MC released an exclusive mixtape called F.W.A. last year (Cash Money records promptly filed a $50 million lawsuit in the wake of the project’s release last July that has yet to be reconciled) and has performed at various concerts that Tidal has exclusively broadcast including Wayne’s own 2015 and 2016 Lil WeezyAna Fest, both of which took place in Wayne’s hometown of New Orleans. But for now, everything is just speculation. The fans are hoping, however, that the turmoil Wayne has been going through for years is over and actual albums can be released, namely the long delayed The Carter V.
Wayne and his home of Cash Money records have been beefing in a highly publicized feud the past few years over money.
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Wayne went public just about two years ago in December of 2014 on Twitter lamenting, “To all my fans, I want u to know that my album won’t and hasn’t been released bekuz Baby & Cash Money Rec. refuse to release it. “I want off this label and nothing to do with these people but unfortunately it ain’t that easy … I am a prisoner and so is my creativity.”
In January of 2015, Wayne filed a $51 million lawsuit against Cash Money alleging breach of contract and millions owed to him for among other things, royalties and advances.
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Since then Wayne has publicly dissed Birdman and Cash Money in songs and on stage. Lil Tunechi has been very frustrated about not having a resolution in his case and when he recently talked to REVOLT, he said not being able to put out albums is more harrowing than being in jail.
“This is definitely worse,” Weezy told REVOLT just a few weeks ago in October. “[In jail] I had a reason and I knew what my wall was. I knew what my barrier was and the wall had a date to fall. Now every single day it feels like that muthaf-cka is getting higher and higher, but we gonna get over it.”
“I felt like ‘man, I’m kinda cheating them,’” he also said about his fans who have remained loyal to him. “I’m not giving them anything. Only thing they can get from me is me on somebody’s featured song.”
Ironically, over a decade ago, Wayne and Jay Z were in talks for a recording contract when Jay was president of Def Jam. Wayne was coming to the end of his terms with Cash Money/Universal at the time and considered the Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam move, but he jokes the legendary Brooklyn mogul low balled him in negotiations.
“You know when I went out to talk to him about being at Roc-A-Fella, and mind you this was years ago,” Wayne began to think back in a interview with DJ Drama in the spring of this year. “First of all, he was at the 40/40 in the daytime, and when I got up there he was talkin’, it was Denzel [Washington], it was Derek Jeter…I was like, ‘This is his clique?’ And they up there just laughin’ at jokes I just don’t get. He literally sat me down next to him, and this where all that is going on at, and he sat me right here. Like ‘You ain’t a part of this,’ you know? And he would talk to me on the side after every joke.
“That man offered me 175 [thousand dollars],” Wayne continued with a laugh. “I said, ‘Believe that…’ I was looking like…two teeth in my mouth is 175. My bottom teeth. So we laugh about that all the time.”