DJ Khaled has recalled witnessing the moment Lil Wayne and Birdman first met decades ago in New Orleans – but some fans are convinced he’s not telling the truth.
Sitting down with Shannon Sharpe for the latest episode of his Club Shay Shay podcast, the We The Best mogul explained that he’s able to collaborate with the biggest A-list artists in the game because he knew many of them way before the fame.
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“I was there when Lil Wayne met Birdman,” he began. “I used to work at a record store in New Orleans called Odyssey Records and Lil Wayne used to go to the record store and I used to DJ at the record store. That’s how much I loved — I worked at a record store and I found a way for the owner to let me DJ while customers come in. And Birdman and them used to pull up to the record store and out the trunk bring cassettes at that time. This was before they had their deal.
“And they would sell the tapes. And I remember it was a B.G. tape and like a Juvenile tape, and record companies used to call all the time at the time and say, ‘Is this really selling that much?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah!’ He would drop it off and it would sell in 5 seconds. Like, it would sell out. I’m just trying to show you how I worked with the biggest artists. I’ve known them for so long… Majority of the biggest artists that we all love out here, I came up with them at that time.”
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He continued: “I was either younger or we was grinding at the same time and we end up as building this relationship. So when you see a Ross or a Wayne or a Future – I remember me and Future before Future was Future. The beginning of my career, yeah I was around all the greats, but they were becoming the greats. You know that saying, ‘I was there’? I was there.”
You can watch the full interview below, with the Weezy-Birdman convo happening around the 56:30 mark.
When Akademiks reposted the clip to his page, some fans were quick to call cap on Khaled’s story in the comments.
“Cap Birdman & Weezy was already famous back in the day While Khaled was In Pakistan Sellin Street food,” one person wrote. Someone else said: “N-gga Birdman Knew Wayne Since He Was A Kid, thus Shit Cap.”
A third person added: “N-gga knew future before future would that make him Past Tense ? I’m curious.”
Not everyone was skeptical, however. One commenter said Khaled’s comments were “facts confirmed by Wayne,” while another added: “This facts tho. If you from da city [you know] dat.”
Another fan wrote: “The mf was in Shottas, of course he knew them before they blew, he been in the game since the late 90’s wit [Terror Squad].”
Just last month, Birdman opened up about the unique challenge of raising Lil Wayne and B.G. while he was still a young man himself.
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Wayne (then known as “Baby D”) and B.G. (who rhymed under the name “Lil Doogie”) were signed to Cash Money in the early 1990s as a group called the B.G.’z. (B.G. would later take the group name as his own moniker). When the group’s debut album True Story was released in 1995, B.G. was 14 and Wayne was only 12.
Birdman recalled that, at one point during that era, both B.G. and Wayne were living with him. “B.G. was already living with me,” he explained. “B.G.’s mom gave him to me.”
