Juelz Santana has defended his friend and collaborator Lil Wayne against those who still claim he stole Dipset’s style in the mid 2000s.
During a recent Twitter Spaces celebrating Weezy’s 40th birthday and hosted by Hip Hop journalist Rob Markman, the Harlem native addressed the critics who believe Lil Wayne was a swagger jacker. According to Juelz, Weezy is simply a student of the game.
“N-ggas love to, you know, especially these blogs … they love to always hit me with the, ‘Oh, Wayne took all this from you,'” he said. “I’m like, ‘Man, Wayne is a student of the game just like we’ve all been students of the game.’ So Wayne did exactly what he was supposed to do. Wayne studied every artist.”
He added: “He took what he needed to take, and he incorporated it into his style and what he needed to do and became the best artist that he needed to be for himself, which is ultimately the best rapper in the world. Wayne did what he was supposed to do. We all took shit from each other. That’s my brother at the end of the day.”
In the mid 2000s, Lil Wayne went through an identity shift that saw him wearing more name-brand clothing and revamp his overall swagger and even his music. Around this time, Tunechi was often seen hanging out with Dipset and was even supposed to release a joint project with Juelz Santana called I Can’t Feel My Face.
Fellow Diplomat Jim Jones revisited that time during an interview with HipHopDX last year when he reflected on Wayne spending the summer with the Harlem collective and soaking up their influence.
“Wayne spent the whole summer with us,” he said. “We spent the whole summer with Juelz pretty much. He just adopted all the styles. He pretty much knew what he was doing. He knew what he needed to persevere in this game. And that was to be able to get an identity shift.”
He added: “They had a different way of moving and dressing coming from the South. Him being blood to correlation affiliation, us being very drippy and shit like that — it was natural.”
Juelz Santana Reveals He & Jeezy Were Planning Joint Mixtape
Last month, Juelz Santana and Lil Wayne reunited in the studio together, fueling rumors the two may have a collaboration on the New Orleans native’s upcoming album Tha Carter VI.
Some also believed the studio session had something to do with the duo’s near-mythical I Can’t Feel My Face, which Juelz still has hope will see the light of day.
HE DEFINITELY RODE THAT DIPSET WAVE IN 2005 AND 2006.
Never been a fan of of Wayne, I did like his first 2 solos before the carter and also liked the carter 2. I don’t think some people
understand wayne has been rapping way longer than what most people realize and has been known throughout regionally in the south since like 96-97, Imo wayne established himself before the first carter even dropped, I didn’t see the swagger jacking of Juelz. I will say that wayne and birdman swagger jack or adopted all of that bloods,red stuff,but to me that came from when Mack 10 was on Cash Money. I think some of Juelz fans might feel like this, mostly do to Juelz having heavy buzz and expectations and never reaching them compared to wayne who exceeded his
This boy Juelz lost his teeth to cr4ck. It’s funny go lookup dude interviews he makes a whistling sound when he speaks because of the fake teeth. You could notice it on Drink Champs episode as well. He was on drugs on that interview as well. Cam’ron spoke out against his drug use like 15 years ago or something when they had their little issues in Dipset.
I thought it was Gillie? Then it was he was trying to be Jay-Z. East Coast people are funny how they try to attribute Wayne’s career to anybody from the East Coast because he’s nicer than their favorite East Coast rappers.
It’s True, don’t get mad cos its your favorite Gargoyle looking Rapper. A blood from the N.O? Skate boarding painting nails and chains hangin from wallets. LMFAOOO
Also, I love how people always bring up how he changed how he dressed. He was fucking 18 or 19 years old at the time, lol. Do you realize how stupid that sounds? So he literally was going from a teenager into being a man, something we all can relate to. That’s why I always get secondhand embarrassment for Gillie when he’s like this guy copied how I was dressing. So you were the older guy and are bragging that a younger guy might have looked at your dress style and picked some shit up. That’s a badge of honor for you 20 years later? That would be like my big brother talking about how I tried to pick up some dress tips from him when I got older and stopped dressing like a kid.
He did take it. The Rockstar, biker shit was Jim and Juelz, it is what it is.
That was a very ‘grown man’ response from Juelz. It’s the absolute truth, EVERY SINGLE RAPPER learned and used/uses some styles of other artists. Wayne obviously made it his own style because he was able to make a ton of commercial hits on top of the lyrical punchlines. Big fan of Juelz thou, a shame he never was able to reach his potential