2 Chainz sought to honor Lil Wayne with the release of Collegrove and, in a recent interview with Genius, the New Orleans rapper says his friend did his due diligence. He says he got emotional upon first hearing “Dedication,” which turned out to be the album’s opening track.
He says 2 Chainz sent the tribute track to his phone out of the blue and he had to process the song, which says “If it wasn’t for Wayne, it wouldn’t be / A lot of dudes in the game, including me.”
“I remember the song came on and the driver and my security was in the front seat,” Lil Wayne says. “They had to get out. I had to make them get out the car. We were parked. I had to make them get out after I started listen to it, the lyrics was about. Obviously I already tattooed some of ‘em on my face, but that song made a few more drops. I had to text him right then and there.”
He says a lady friend was in the car with him and allowed him to have the emotional moment.
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“She was listening as well,” he says, “and she was reacting to what he was saying on the song and she was making a comment and she looked and she looked and saw that I had a few tears dropping and she was like, ‘Woah.’ I remember her rubbing my back. I remember hitting him up like, ‘Man, this one right here, I don’t even know where this came from. This is amazing.’”
The song drew its inspiration from Lil Wayne’s Dedication mixtape series, the sixth installment of which is reportedly on its way. Weezy also had the “Dedication Tour” to commemorate his two decades in the rap game.
Elsewhere in the interview, 2 Chainz emphasizes how Lil Wayne’s work ethic forced him to step his own game up. He recalls touring with the Young Money leader on the I Am Music tour to perform the Playaz Circle hit “Duffle Bag Boy.” He had connected with Lil Wayne before, but it was his first time meeting Drake and seeing Lil Wayne’s daily hustle.
“I just start picking up a lot on tour,” the rapper, who was known as Tity Boi at the time, says. “I’m very observant, so I start picking up on kind of his work ethic ‘cause at the time, I have a studio, but I’m not using it every day. We damn near was just trapping, our studio wasn’t making sense. It wasn’t adding up, so homie, doing a whole show, he getting off, whatever his routine is, he’s going to the studio after the show to basically I might go to sleep, wake up, bruh’s still in the studio. I remember, it hit me like I can not have a studio and not use it every day. So since ’07, ’08, I’ve been doing something musically every fucking day and it changed my life.”
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Watch the video of Lil Wayne detailing tearing up upon hearing 2 Chainz’s “Dedication” below:
