"I don't have no ideas for tracks. I don't wanna have no ideas," admits the New Orleans-based MC. "I'm a rapper, man. That's all I do."
Instead, Lil' Wayne is content to let Mannie Fresh--his in-house, in-demand producer at Cash Money Records--handle all the writing and production of the label's acts.
"That n-gga's a genius," Wayne says. "He been doin' this for years. Why should I come along and say anything?"
You can see why Wayne feels he's in good hands. The Hot Boys' debut, Get It How U Live!!, almost went gold in the South alone. The follow-up, 1999's Guerilla Warfare, has been riding high in the charts. And don't forget Hot Boy member Juvenile's huge-selling solo disc, 400 Degreez.
Now comes the Fresh-produced Tha Block Is Hot, which has attracted attention not only for its innovative music (like the salsa-flavored "Respect Us"), but also Wayne's potent lyrics. Delivered in his distinctive, high-pitched Southern drawl, Wayne covers everything from being a first-time father ("Up To Me") to unblinkingly lurid scenarios of ghetto life ("Keisha").
"A lotta n-ggas don't wanna break it down," Wayne says. "They wanna avoid reality, but that ain't me. I'm gonna speak what I've been through, cause that's all I know."
Before Wayne was 10, he was skipping school and hustling in his native Hollygrove, a crime-ridden Crescent City community. Nicknamed "Lil' Wheezy," he spent his days "gettin' into scandals. Tryin' to get money. And I was slick, man."
Maybe so: he managed to avoid any serious run-ins with the law. But after hearing rappers like Pimp Daddy, who recorded for a small local label called Cash Money, Wayne soon found another focus.
After badgering the label's co-founders, Brian "Baby" Williams and Ronald "Slim" Williams, Wayne got his chance. He first appeared on fellow Hot Boy B.G.'s 1993 album True Story. However, it wasn't until 1997--when he was teamed with B.G., Juvenile, and Young Turk to form the Hot Boys--that Wayne first tasted major success.
Now the four Boys regularly turn up on each other's records, and all four appear in Cash Money's upcoming direct-to-video movie, Baller Blockin'. But even though Wayne and the other Cash Money artists play themselves in the film, Wayne "ain't really into the movies."
So don't expect to soon see him on the silver screen--or back in the classroom. "Ain't no n-gga out the hood wanna go to school," he says defiantly. "I ain't tryin' to be no role model. If parents wanna get mad at me for sayin' that, feel where I'm comin' from. I'm from the streets.
"I might go back someday," he adds later. "But I ain't rushin'."
For the moment, Wayne has plenty of projects on his plate. And he's not worried about overexposure. "Naw, man. When you overexposed on somethin' that's hot," he says, "that just means everybody wants it."
