Lil Wayne Says He Was Blessed with an ‘Amazing Mind’ but Not an ‘Amazing Memory’ — So He Forgets His Music

Lil Wayne, one of the most influential figures in hip-hop, has had numerous successful moments in his career, yet he remains remarkably nonchalant about them. The reason? He hardly remembers the details of his own achievements.

In a candid interview with Rolling Stone, the rapper revealed a surprising truth about his relationship with his music. “I’m going to be so honest with you: I don’t know Tha Carter III, Tha Carter II, Tha Carter One from Tha Carter IV,” Wayne confessed. “That’s just my God’s honest truth. You could ask me [about] such and such song, I wouldn’t even know what we talking about. So it holds no significance to me at all.”

When probed about the significance of his major success in 2008 with Tha Carter III, which propelled him to superstar status, Wayne’s response was characteristically indifferent. “Nah, I don’t even know if that’s when Tha Carter III came out. That’s how much I don’t know. I work every day, bro — every single day,” he said.

Wayne attributes this lack of memory to a peculiar balance of gifts. “I believe that [God] blessed me with this amazing mind, but would not give [me] an amazing memory to remember this amazing s—,” he explained.

This hazy recollection means that Wayne doesn’t have a favorite project or song from his extensive discography. “Not a favorite at all. My favorite song is the last one I record. And then I will forget it after the next one I record,” he said.

Despite his forgetfulness, Wayne’s drive to create remains undiminished. “Every single action, every single word, every single approach. The reason why I’m still only listening and working on my own s— is because I’m in it,” he stated. “I believe once you start trying to listen to everybody else, you ain’t in it no more. You just happy to be here. But not me. I’m in a gym working on my own game. I don’t care how high you jumping. I don’t care how fast you run. You can’t even stand next to me with that s—.”

Wayne’s commitment to his craft is unwavering, and he has no plans to retire anytime soon. “When you work the way I work, it gets strenuous, and it might flash. And even when you say it, I don’t think you actually mean stop working or doing music,” he remarked. “You probably just mean you want to retire from everything else but the music [laughs]. When you’re an artist — a real artist like myself, I was born this way. So I don’t think that the real true artists and pioneers, they never retire. They died doing this.”

However, this relentless work ethic sometimes leads to disappointment among fans. Last month, Wayne made headlines when he walked off stage at his show in Los Angeles after performing for only 30 minutes. According to HipHopDX, Wayne took the stage over an hour late, performed for half an hour, brought out surprise guest 2 Chainz, and then handed the stage over to his Young Money artists Lil Twist, Yaj Kader, and Allan Cubas.

The audience was reportedly displeased with Wayne’s brief performance. Before Cubas could perform his second song, Wayne returned to the stage and told him to stop. “We appreciate it, but we ain’t about to be bending over backwards for these folks. We work too hard for this s—. We work way too hard,” Wayne told Cubas, as seen in a video shared by an attendee on Twitter. He then addressed the crowd, saying, “This my motherf—er’ artist Allan, that was Twist, that was Yaj. We are Young Money. We appreciate y’all time.”

Wayne’s approach to his music and career is a testament to his unique mindset. While he may not remember his past successes, his focus remains firmly on creating and performing, ensuring that his legacy continues to grow with each new project.