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With his prison memoir, Gone Til November, in stores now, Lil Wayne sat down with The New York Times' Joe Coscarelli at a Manhattan book signing to talk about the book, Carter V label drama, and more. In the interview, Wayne is on the standoffish side, shrugging off questions with quotables that border on trolling.
For a few questions, the conversation leans political, and Coscarelli asks Wayne his opinion on Donald Trump, citing excerpts from the book where he remembers watching The Celebrity Apprentice while locked up. Wayne's response, punctuated by a laugh: "Who's that?"
On the question of Black Lives Matter and activism in general, Wayne is similarly evasive: "To even notice what’s going out there — I’m trying to make these words stop popping up in my head, I’m trying to make them rhyme. I’ve got all kind of color lives mattering up in here — green, all kinds of stuff mattering."
Soon after, he clarifies that political activism isn't necessarily something we should expect from him: "I'm not that. And honestly, I don’t care. I care what’s going on with me and my kids and my world and my mom and who’s going to pay this next bill. That’s what matters to me."
In regards to label drama, Wayne said Tha Carter V is "wrapped" but hanging in limbo, adding that on second listen, it's "better than everything I've ever heard."
He also had some complimentary words for collaborators Chance the Rapper and Solange ("these people are the trendsetters of tomorrow"), but drew a blank when asked about younger stars like Kodak Black, Lil Yachty, and Lil Uzi Vert ("I swear to God I didn’t know you were saying people’s names just now.")
Read the full interview here, via The New York Times.