The true story behind Lil Wayne song ‘Let It All Work Out’
In 2018, Lil Wayne finally released his highly anticipated album, Tha Carter V. The project had been held back multiple times due to legal issues as the New Orleans rapper faced disputes with his former mentor Birdman and his label Cash Money Records. However, in 2018, four years after the album’s initial release date, the New Orleans lyricist belatedly dropped the 23-track masterpiece.
As the tenth installment of his long-running album series, Tha Carter V marked a journey that dates back to 2004 and features some iconic songs. The chart-topping body of work boasted guest appearances from some of the best MCs in hip-hop. From Snoop Dogg to Raekwon and Kendrick Lamar, the project was an exciting listen.
That said, there were certain tracks that stood out to fans and critics alike, one of which was ‘Let It All Work Out’; a song based on a harrowing true story with introspective lyrics detailing Lil Wayne’s troubled childhood in Hollygrove.
In 1994, the year hip-hop was blessed with Illmatic, Ready To Die and Regulate… G Funk Era, Lil Wayne was merely a 12-year-old kid in New Orleans. However, as previously detailed by Tunechi before, he was battling demons at home and in an attempted suicide, he shot himself while at home alone.
During an appearance on Emmanuel Acho’s YouTube series, Uncomfortable Conversations, last year, Lil Wayne presented listeners with the nitty-gritty details of the day he attempted suicide, stating, “There was a buildup. … Thoughts everywhere. [My] main thought was, ‘I’m gonna show you.’ so I picked up the phone and I called the police. I knew where she kept her gun, and it was in her bedroom.”
He then shot himself in the chest. Recalling this, he stated, “Didn’t feel it, aimed for my heart. And didn’t feel a thing, though. So, I wasn’t going through any pain. It was the shock. I woke up to boom, boom, boom, to the police knocking. And that’s what woke me up.”
Although Wayne has told this story many times, he had never put it to music before ‘Let It All Work Out’ on the track, he raps about the moment he decided to go through with the attempt, rhyming, “I tried, compromising and went kamikaze / I found my momma’s pistol where she always hide it / I cry, put it to my head and thought about it / Nobody was home to stop me, so I called my auntie / Hung up, then put the gun up to my heart and pondered.”
Emotionally reliving the trauma, he continued, “Too much was on my conscience to be smart about it / Too torn apart about it, I aim where my heart was pounding / I shot it, and I woke up with blood all around me / It’s mine, I didn’t die, but as I was dying / God came to my side and we talked about it / He sold me another life and he made a prophet.”
During the track, he also paid tribute to his mother, who, according to Wayne, gave him a heads-up about people who would get in his way and block him from being his best self. Praising his mom, Jacida Carter, Tunechi rapped, “Cida, you a psychic / ‘Cause you said there be days like this / They want a piece of me, I ain’t the one that’s serving slices.”
Many believed this was a subtle dig at Birdman, who had been stopping the New Orleans native from releasing music and was determined to extract money from him as a label head.