The beat Lil Wayne hated rapping on: “I don’t like this beat”
Lil Wayne will rap over anything. For most of the 2000s, he happily released mixtapes on which he would unofficially cover other artists’ tracks, and occasionally, his version trumped the original song. From The Diplomats’ 2004 hit ‘Get From Round Me’ to Rick Ross’ 2006 anthem ‘Hustlin’, he has jumped on several beats in his time.
However, in 2012, for his mixtape Dedication 4, hosted by DJ Drama, Lil Wayne covered a track that he admitted he actually hated, but he didn’t confess his dislike for the instrumental in an unknown interview. Instead, in true Lil Wayne fashion, he decided to tell fans on the song itself.
Entitled ‘Green Ranger’ featuring J Cole, the EZ Elpee-produced beat was used in 2001 and was the backing track to the single ‘Special Delivery’ by failed Bad Boy act G Dep. In 2012, DJ Drama revived the instrumental, and Wayne did his best to try and make the somewhat repetitive beat interesting.
J Cole opens the track, but before Wayne dropped his verse, Wayne stated, “Yeah, yeah, yeah I don’t even like this beat but fuck it / I’ma only spit a few bars ’cause / I don’t like this beat, let’s go.”
Strangely, although Lil Wayne happily proclaimed that he hated the instrumental in 2012, only six years later, alongside master-producer Swizz Beatz, he sampled the beat again for Tha Carter V’s lead single ‘Uproar’.
Furthermore, the song that he had previously disliked so much managed to enter the Billboard Hot 100 at number seven. In fact, the beat that Lil Wayne loathed must have caused him quite a headache, as the instrumental’s creator, Ez Elpee, entered into a dispute with Swizz Beatz and Wayne about his inclusion in the credits.
That being his omission from the credits. In a 2018 interview with HipHopDX, Elpee pointed the finger at the pair, stating, “They stole my shit! Seventeen years, and now we’re having extra plays on the record…that was a hit record. It stood the test of time.”
Elpee commented on Lil Wayne’s supposed hatred for the beat and insinuated that his original comments on ‘Green Ranger’ were lies, as that is the only explanation as to why he would put the instrumental on his album.
Addressing Wayne’s ‘Green Ranger’ lyrics, Elpee told the online publication, “We’ve all made a lot of money… life goes on…I just find it unusual that Wayne said he hated the beat -on the beat- and now it’s on his album.”
He concluded by claiming that Lil Wayne’s disrespect was an act and suggested he knew the beat all along and liked the beat but wanted to assimilate with the new school, finishing, “I know you need a record. I understand that. I know you’re trying to reinvent yourself. That’s dope. There’s nothing wrong with that. But like damn my nigga, like you trying to act like you never heard ‘Special Delivery?’”