Lil Wayne Talks About Childhood Suicide Attempt And Owning Young Money
“Just being an adult, reaching a level of maturity and comfort where it’s like, ‘I want to talk about this because I know a lot of people out here might be going through that.’”
By: Omar Cook
Rapper Lil Wayne was only 12 years old when he shot himself in the chest with a handgun he got from his mother’s purse. He has always gone on record for saying it was an accident but in his recent interview with Billboard, he revealed that this was a suicide attempt. "In the past, he has called this an accident. But on the new verse he plays, Wayne admits this was a suicide attempt, undertaken after his mother told him he would no longer be allowed to rap," Billboard reports.
Young Money label president Mack Maine explained why Wayne came forward to speak about it after all this time. “He just told me one day that he was ready to address it now,” Maine said. “Just being an adult, reaching a level of maturity and comfort where it’s like, ‘I want to talk about this because I know a lot of people out here might be going through that.’”
On his album Free Weezy, he subliminally addressed the situation on the track “London Roads”: “Ms. Cita, I remember goin’ in your gun drawer/Puttin’ it to my chest and missin’ my heart by centimeters, oh Lord.” What’s crazy is that after he recovered from his injuries, his mother allowed him to join Cash Money with the agreement that he wouldn’t curse on his records. The result was his 1999 solo debut, Tha Block Is Hot which featured no curse words!
Wayne coming forward with this testimony speaks to the passion that he knew he had for rapping at an early age. It also tells us that people can hide hurtful truths about themselves and secretly go through things without anyone knowing. Wayne is one of the biggest artists in the world, and the world had no idea that it was a near death experience that propelled him into a rap career. His testimony also says that sometimes on the other side of pain, is glory and you just have to get through to receive what’s yours, no matter who’s in the way. Wayne’s maturity and growth on the situation should let people know that they too can get through what looks like the worst possible situation and come out on top.
Lil Wayne Opens Up About Childhood Suicide Attempt (CREDIT: Instagram.com/evanhernandez)
In the interview with Billboard, Wayne also addressed how he got through his long legal battles with Birdman and Cash Money Records saying, “Just the confidence in knowing that there’s always a tomorrow and I’m going to make sure that tomorrow is bright. Some people can’t go on [like] that, like, ‘OK, tomorrow will be better.’ They need it to be better right now. And thank God I didn’t, and I never did.”
Lil Wayne announced the production of his highly anticipated album, Tha Carter V, in late 2012 and was scheduled to release it on December 9, 2014. Just a few days before the scheduled release, Wayne took to twitter to express the issues he was dealing with regarding Birdman and Cash Money discussing how they refused to release the album. What followed was a $51 million lawsuit against Birdman and Cash Money, alleging breach of contract, failure to pay royalties and withholding advances, and requesting an audit of Cash Money’s books. Since then the album has been on halt.
The lawsuit has since been settled and Wayne has retained ownership of his label Young Money and recently announced that Tha Carter V would be released this fall. FINALLY. It’s about time because if you’re reading this i’m assuming you’re a Wayne fan and this is what we been waiting on. Since settling the lawsuit, Wayne and Birdman have repaired their relationship but he also revealed that it caused him to have some trust issues.
“Not even just with him, but my relationships with a lot of people have become different, just because of how different I work now,” he says. “I’m submerged in everything about myself, trying to be better at who I am. It’s something where you have to cut some things off.”
Sometimes you have to withstand a storm to receive the ultimate blessings. And sometimes you have to remove yourself from certain relationships to ultimately become who you need to be. Wayne opening up about his trials and tribulations should be a message to anyone going through something, that they can get through it and still come out on top.
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