S. Samuel
Young Money leader Lil Wayne is sticking to his guns by confirming his plans to hang up the microphone for good at the age of 35.
From Weezy’s perspective, another seven years in hip-hop is more than enough time for the 28-year-old burgeoning rap mogul to accomplish his goals.
“I would say me, I’ll be the first to retire,” Wayne told radio host Angie Martinez when asked who would be the first to retire in Young Money. “I’m gone at like 35. I promise, I’m retiring early. Nah, I’m serious… I have four kids and I would feel selfish not to at that age. At 35, I would feel selfish still going to the studio when it’s such a vital point in their lives, not to be there. That would be very selfish of me. This is a solid plan and I stick with my plans. I’m gonna be a dad, a full-time dad.” (Hot 97)
In 2009, Wayne hinted at rap retirement and his desire to own a sports team.
“I always said I ain’t wanna do this no more after 35, I ain’t wanna do it no more,” Wayne revealed in an interview withradio personality Tim Westwood. “So any time before 30 and 35, I might give it up. [But now] I gotta work as hard as I can so I ain’t gotta look back. [When I retire, I’ll] do something else, I’m gonna retire from this and probably jump into some ownership of some sports team or you know, I’m very heavy into sports. Any sport. [I’d want ownership] of the team. It doesn’t matter, it could be basketball, it could be baseball, of course it wouldn’t be baseball, there’s too much money to own that, but it could be basketball or football, it wouldn’t matter. I could buy into a baseball team with someone.” (“Tim Westwood TV”)
In a past interview. Jay-Z talked about still being able to compete with young artists like Lil Wayne despite being over 40.
“One of the reasons I wanted to make Blueprint 3 was because of the challenge,” Jay told the magazine in a cover story out this week. “We’ve seen people like LL [Cool J] have longevity, and we respect the heritage of what he’s done, but it’s not like, right now, he’s competing on the same level as Lil Wayne. So for me to still be able to compete at that level at my age, that’s rarefied air. It’s never been done. I think the problem with people, as they start to mature, they say, ‘Rap is a young man’s game,’ and they keep trying to make young songs. But you don’t know the slang — it changes every day. You can visit the topic, but these young kids live it every day, and you’re just visiting. So you’re trying to be something you’re not, and the audience doesn’t buy into that. And people wonder why. ‘I made a great Southern bounce song!’ You’re from New York, and you’re 70! Why are you bouncing?” (MTV)
In the meantime, Wayne recently hinted at having a Carter IV album track guaranteed to make rappers quit their day jobs.
Lil Wayne is so confident in his rapping abilities that he claims other rappers will want to hang up the mic after hearing one of his rhyme-heavy records on Tha Carter IV. The Young Money MC invited Rolling Stone to preview “Wayne’s World,” one of the songs expected to make his highly-anticipated album. “There’s a lot of rapping on this,” shared Weezy. “I want other rappers to hear it and say, ‘I quit. I better start making club songs.'” The magazine goes on to describe the track as “three machine-gunning minutes of adenoidal wordplay topped with a triumphant hook.” (Rolling Stone)
Check out a portion of Lil Wayne’s interview below:
