S. Samuel
As Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV continues to fly off store shelves, SOHH recently reached out to contributing producer Willy Will to see if there were any doubts about signing on for production in light of past Carter-related lawsuits issued toward Weezy.
While Willy realized Wayne has had legal issues in the past, he said having a team of lawyers and a manager helped him focus on contributing to C4 rather than courtroom woes.
“Just because I’m a creative person first, I try not to worry about all that stuff because I have lawyers and a manager in place to handle all of that,” Willy told SOHH when asked if he had any doubts considering the multiple Carter III lawsuits. “As a creative personality, there was no way i could say no to working on the album. This is what I’m here for. For everything else, you know that there’s always going to be some type of issue with any type of business you’re dealing with. So I try not to let it bother me or creep into my mind. Like I said, I do this to be creative and to be one of the best. You can’t do it unless you get on a Lil Wayne record and some of these other heavy weight tracks and show and prove who you are. If I let that kind of stuff enter my mind, it’ll keep me from getting that ultimate prize with what I want to do with my career. I try to let my lawyers and manager handle those things and focus on the creative side in the studio.” (SOHH)
Recently, Willy told SOHH he got his “Intro,” “Interlude” and “Outro” beat featured on Carter IV through a Young Money connect.
“A friend of mine used to be Lil Wayne’s everyday engineer and we are both from Kentucky. We always try to plug each other into what we got going on and kind of keep a circle around us. So he called me and was like, “Hey, Wayne needs some records. Send me some stuff.” It’s crazy because we did this “Intro” [beat] before he went to jail [in 2010]. It was one of those things where you didn’t know if Wayne was going to use the record because he does so many songs. He actually cut the record, let me hear it and everybody was excited. He came home [in November 2010] and [Young Money president] Mack Maine called me and was like, “We’re still going to use the ‘Intro’, so send us a file.” He kind of led me to believe there were going to be some heavyweights on there too. He told me to stay tuned and wouldn’t tell me who.” (SOHH Singled Out)
Last year, producer Jim Jonsin sued Weezy over his “Lollipop” smash hit.
The producer of Lil Wayne’s hit “Lollipop” is suing the rapper for $500,000 over the track. Weezy is currently serving a prison sentence for gun possession but that still hasn’t stopped him getting into trouble. Jim Jonsin claims he hasn’t earned any money from the smash single – which was released back in 2008 and went to number one in the US. Jonsin produced Lollipop and is credited as a co-writer. (MTV UK)
Prior to the lawsuit, Carter III producers Play-N-Skillz said they didn’t blame Wayne for late payments.
“First off, shout-out to Wayne and everybody because it’s really kinda a misunderstanding,” they explained. “There is no lawsuit as we speak, we working everything out. But the whole thing is we had not been compensated for it right now, we haven’t been paid but sometimes it takes time for paperwork to be done…The music business right now just don’t like to pay nobody…The Carter III has received lawsuits, prior to us there was another sample issue, there was another producer that jumped up and it’s kinda not fair to Wayne at the same time. And I’m not saying trying to take his side because homie’s doing his thing. I’m sure Wayne and them got their money up front but I ain’t got mine. It’s close to four million records, it’s one of the biggest selling albums in a long time. I just wanna get a little bit.” (K104)
Check out Lil Wayne’s “Intro” below:
