Have you started classes at the University of Houston? Yes ma’am. I’m in my second semester. How does it feel to go from the rap game to a classroom? I’m not actually sitting in class every day. To tell the truth, it’s just like another job. I have a tutor, so I just go into the classes to take the exams. There are rumors that Mannie Fresh is leaving Cash Money. I think Mannie’s already gone. I think he’s already got a solo deal with someone. I don’t really wanna say who, because I’m not sure. Have you seen that coming for a while? You know, I’ve been the only child by my mother for twenty years. I’m 22 now and my brother is two. My momma always told me to worry about myself first. That’s all I ever did – focus on myself and what’s gonna better me. I guess that type of stuff would’ve been a blur to me, because I’m so focused on me. When it happened, I didn’t really see it coming, because I’m focused on me. Having interviewed Turk, B.G., and other people who have done business with Baby, everybody says the same thing: he’s greedy, doesn’t take care of his
people. Do you think it’s different in your situation because of the relationship? I mean, that has a lot to do with it, but that relationship just began. I mean, he’s been my father since day one, but the way the world is seeing the relationship now is new. They’re looking at it like I’m the one he really cares about, but it just became like that. No one else is around. At the end of the day when the smoke clears, he can see who’s still there. You never had the same type of money problems that Juvenile, Turk, and B.G. complained about? Like I said, I’m the youngest, so I can’t speak for a grown man. They probably had different issues than me. To me, $100,000 is like a million dollars. I could live off that for two years. I wouldn’t even ask for no money, and my mom, she’s a well-off woman. She’s a working woman. Even though I’m signed to Baby, still to this day, my momma will break her neck to get me anything. It was always that way. It’d be times when everybody had just got a new car. I’d come around with a new car three months later because my mom bought it for me.
So it wasn’t an issue because you weren’t hurting for money. Not at all. Do you think Mannie Fresh’s departure from Cash Money will affect your career? Any Lil Wayne fan knows that they bought Lil Wayne’s album not because of the single, but because Lil Wayne can spit. You don’t think Mannie leaving would have the same result as Beats By The Pound leaving No Limit? I never listened to No Limit so I don’t really know, but you know, music is changing and evolving. Back in the day, that music was what was up. It still is. You’ve got Young Jeezy’s hottest single with Mannie Fresh. But you’ve also got Swizz Beatz, Kanye West, and a lot of other producers. I’ve come to that point as an artist where I’ve got to grow. Any Lil Wayne fan can go back to my first round of spitting and they’ll know that I touched the mic to rap, not to make you move just to make you listen. So for me, as an artist, I’m progressing, so I need my music to also. Me sticking with Mannie Fresh would be the same sound.