Drake’s favourite Lil Wayne verse that made him “reassess” himself as a rapper
It’s impossible to pick the best Lil Wayne verse of all time due to the sheer amount of music he’s released in his career. However, everyone has their favourites, and one of Weezy’s verses impresses Drake so much that it makes him reassess himself as a rapper.
Drake signed to Lil Wayne’s Young Money label in 2009 for the release of his debut album Thank Me Later. A couple of years before that, Wayne joined singer Mario on a remix of his single ‘Crying Out for Me‘, which Drizzy has cited as his favourite verse of his.
“When I heard that, and still to this day, I don’t understand how he pieced that together, how he came up with that,“ he told VEVO about the 2007 song. “If I could take any verse from anyone, it would be that verse … Wayne’s verse on the Mario remix, like what the fuck? You really just rapped about an awkward, confusing conversation with a girl that actually would happen? It was just the most mind-blowing verse I’ve ever heard in my life.”
The song finds Lil Wayne rapping over production from Polow da Don on one of two remixes of ‘Crying Out for Me’ that were released at the time, with the other version featuring Busta Rhymes.
Drake recited the lyrics to half of his verse, rapping, “So I met this shawty the other day, I got her number/ Called her up like, ‘What you doin’?’ She say, ‘Nothin’/ I say, ‘What’s good?’ She say, ‘Not much,’ I say, ‘Guess what?’ She say, ‘What’s up?’/ I say, ‘I think we should hook up,’ she say, ‘Uh’/ I say, ‘What?’ She say, ‘But,’ I say, ‘But, why you stuck?'”
The Toronto rapper gasped over the verse even more, admitting he wished he had thought of the concept and wondered what possessed Lil Wayne to ever write those lines. “That’s one of the best verses ever,” he said. “Just because I’m a conversational artist so to get that verse off and tie it all together at the end. I remember, I had to reassess myself as a rapper after I heard that, for sure.”
Drake is lucky enough to call Lil Wayne a mentor and has received advice from the hip-hop legend over the past 15 years. On one occasion, Drizzy felt like Wayne gave him a “cheat code,” which he used to make his classic So Far Gone mixtape.
“Wayne told me to just remember it’s about your thoughts, you got to think about what you want to say beforehand,” he told Rolling Stone. “And then from there, you make it rhyme or you make it connect. But the more important thing is, what’s your message? What’s your point? And that should be the bare essentials of a line or a verse – what do you really want to say and what do you want to say about yourself?”
He added, “I think he gave me that advice truly for me to set myself apart as a rapper, because I know Wayne sometimes raps for the sake of being a phenomenal rapper. And other times you’ll get a song where he tells a story and gets personal.”