Drake and Nicki Minaj, once just Wayne’s protégés, incorporated parts of his effusive style into their music. His influence is audible in many of the most unusual voices of the past half-decade, from Kendrick Lamar to Chance the Rapper to Danny Brown to (most infamously) Lil B. Today, he is 32, not 28, and the work he did on the first three Carter installments and the mixtapes surrounding them still casts a shadow across rap. One might argue that Wayne’s sketchy vision has come to pass. We can have a world full of just rappers and just singers … but in order to be an ultimate artist, I believe you have to be like me.” At the time of this interview - early 2008 - Wayne was on his way to becoming the most popular rapper in the world. And I don’t want that to only be for me I’m creating the face of music, period.
Taking a break, he outlines a vision of his future, and of music in general: “My past is a lie … when I’m about 28, 29, you’ll be looking for a Lil Wayne album, you’ll be looking for it to be full of rap - the best rap - full of singing - the best songs. A true-crime show with Dutch subtitles plays on a muted television, which he watches while he records. He drags out the mic, stands, and a pop filter from an oblong gym bag. Throughout the 2009 documentary The Carter, we see Lil Wayne recording mixtape freestyles in an Amsterdam hotel room.