Lil Wayne has reflected on how his colossal Tha Carter III album changed the course of his decorated career.
Weezy sat down with Missy Elliott for an interview as part of TV One’s upcoming UNCENSORED series and HipHopDX obtained a clip on Friday (May 5) finding the New Orleans icon detailing the timeframe at the height of his rap fame.
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“I think that was the first time for me I started really getting that praise,” Wayne said. “I started really loving it, embracing it, at that time around that album was when I was seeing people in the street or hearing from other artists, so the confidence was strong.”
He also reminisced on seeing Tha Carter III live up to titanic commercial expectations as the 2008 album became the fourth project in rap history to sell over a million units in the first week.
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“I come from the days we as in artists — we as in Juvenile and B.G. we checking the Billboard magazine to see where this and that. That don’t exist now,” Wayne continued.
“When we dropped Tha Block Is Hot it sold like 114,000 or 95,000 the first week and that was the equivalent or the impact of selling a million and I remember I was like, ‘I can’t do nothing but thank God.'”
Lil Wayne tells Missy Elliott how "Tha Carter III" changed his career 🙏 @LilTunechi@MissyElliotthttps://t.co/52WCdDsvQrpic.twitter.com/nEM6Ld3Iez
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) May 5, 2023
Tha Carter III survived an early leak and still went on to sell over one million album units in its first week (1,005,545) and debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
C3 features guest appearances from JAY-Z, Kanye West (production), Fabolous, Juelz Santana, T-Pain, Babyface, the late Static Major, Bobby Valentino and Robin Thicke.
The 2008 album was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2009 Grammy Awards and took home Best Rap Album honors. Tha Carter III lead single “Lollipop” also won “Best Rap Song” while “A Milli” notched Lil Wayne a victory for Best Rap Solo Performance.
Fans can tune into the entire episode of UNCENSORED: Lil Wayne on Sunday (May 7) at 10 p.m. ET on TV One, which will find Weezy delving into growing up in New Orleans, signing a record deal as a minor, launching Young Money and much more.
