Lil Wayne Is Now the Sole Owner of Young Money
After a lengthy battle with Cash Money — his label home for his entire, decades long career — Lil Wayne is now the proud owner of Young Money, his longtime imprint. In a new Billboard cover story, Wayne reveals that he settled for an undisclosed sum, ownership of the imprint he founded and the retained its distribution deal with Republic. As a result, he will be releasing the long-awaited Tha Carter V. According to the Weezy, he didn’t let the legal drama phase him.
“I didn’t let it get to me too much,” Wayne shared. “Just the confidence in knowing that there’s always a tomorrow and I’m going to make sure that tomorrow is bright. Some people can’t go on [like] that, like, ‘OK, tomorrow will be better.’ They need it to be better right now. And thank God I didn’t, and I never did.”
Tha Carter V MC also described the status of his contentious relationship with father figure, Bryan “Birdman” Williams, after their years-long legal dispute.
“Not even just with him [Birdman], but my relationships with a lot of people have become different, just because of how different I work now,” he said. “I’m submerged in everything about myself, trying to be better at who I am. It’s something where you have to cut some things off.”
In 2015, Wayne sought to end his relationship with Cash Money and sued the company for $51 million, claiming he wasn’t compensated fairly for the fifth installment in Tha Carter series. That year the New Orleans rapper told Rolling Stone, “I’m super-numb to it, to tell you the truth,” when asked about the issues with Birdman and his label.
The Billboard interview also revealed that Wayne tried to commit suicide when he was 12-years-old after his mother forbid him from rapping. One of the upcoming Tha Carter V’s tracks, featuring a sample of Sampha’s “Indecision,” will detail the attempt, which was previously described as an accident.