Lil Wayne has worked with various talented producers to achieve several different sounds. From Swizz Beatz to Metroboomin and more, the Lousiana emcee (real name Dwayne Carter) has sonically evolved since he first arrived in the culture around the turn of the millennium.
When Carter first surfaced from the New Orleans Cash Money camp, he was joined at the hip to the legendary Southern producer Mannie Fresh. The beatmaker (real name Byron Thomas) executively produced his debut project, The Block Is Hot and handled various productions on 500 Degreez and Tha Carter.
As a Southern artist, during the early and mid-2000s, Lil Wayne also worked with legendary producers such as Jazze Pha from Mepmhis, Lil Jon and DJ Toomp. However, as his Young Money empire began to grow and artists from New York and Canada began to come into the fold, Carter started collaborating with some more exciting and diverse beatmakers.
As he began to expand in the 2010s, Carter worked with producers such as Bangladesh and, in 2010, when Lil Wayne tapped into his love for the old-school, he called upon the legendary Drew Money.
Drew Money has worked with the best of the best. From producing Jay-Z’s ‘Hello Brooklyn 2.0’ to ‘Down’ for Chris Brown, the West Detriot has an unfathomable amount of producer credits, and in 2010 he produced ‘Fix My Hat’ for Lil Wayne.
In an interview with Billboard magazine, he spoke about the influences behind the beat, explaining, “I wanted to give him something old school-sounding, but with new elements in it like synths and 808s, and I wanted raw energy.”
He concluded, “If you listen to Beastie Boys’ first album, Licensed To Ill, you’ll know what mind state I was in when creating it. I just wanted something simplistic but with a complex element in the hook.”
You can listen to ‘Fix My Hat’ in the video below.
