14 DAY TRIAL // Much like many other artists before him, Lil Wayne is also promoting his upcoming album by announcing it’s his last. Indeed, the 30-year-old rapper is planning to retire, he says in a new interview with MTV News.
Speaking of “I Am Not a Human Being II,” which comes out in February, Lil Wayne says the album might as well have been called “Carter V,” the fifth installment in his musical franchise, because it feels like an integral part of it.
Asked why he doesn’t just opt for a name change then (that is, rename the album to “Tha Carter V”), Lil Wayne says that, if he did, everyone would know it would be his last.
“Because I know y’all want me around for a little bit, and Carter V is my last album. Man, I've been rappin’ since I was 8 years old. I’m 30 now, man. That’s a long time, man,” he says.
It’s not like he’s set a deadline for himself, by which time he should be retired, but it feels like he’s been in the game long enough to know when the time comes to stop. It’s come, apparently.
Then there’s also the thought of going out with a bang, before he gets to put out an album that disappoints. The saying quit while you’re ahead seems to apply in his case.
“I signed my contract at 11, I went platinum at 14. I’m 30 now. Thank God I haven’t put out an album that hasn’t went platinum,” the rapper says.
“To just keep it goin’ like that, I think not only am I being greedy, I’m fooling myself to think that it will continue to be that great,” Wayne muses.
Then again, he’s also focused on other things than music and, as it so happens, they’re also things that he’s very passionate about.
“When I love to do something, I’m fully focused on it and it only. And music sometimes is not that ‘it’,” Lil Wayne says.
All in all, it certainly looks like Lil Wayne, one of the most prolific and successful rappers of our times, has made up his mind. Are you sorry he decided to retire? Let us know in the comments section below.