February 28, 2008

Lil Wayne Says He'll 'Never Forget' Post-Arrest Phone Call From Mary J. Blige

By Shaheem Reid (MTV.com)

At any given moment, Lil Wayne can get a call from one of his peers in the music industry - whether a well-known superstar or a new jack on the come-up - and he will gladly give that person a verse or two. Sometimes, given the dozens of cameos he's made over the past three years, it's difficult for him to remember them all. Last week, however, one was heavy on his brain. Weezy was literally screaming with excitement.

"I did joints with Mary J. Blige, my n----s!" he exulted, sitting on his infamous tour bus in New Orleans, mimicking Jay-Z's quotable lyric from 1998's "If I Should Die." Weezy F. Baby recently completed a remix for Mary's "Just Fine," which also features Swizz Beatz.

"And killed it. Killed it," Wayne said of his performance on the song (he also killed it at a New Jersey gig last weekend). "She called me back and was like, 'Oh my God. I love it. I wanna thank you, Wayne.' That meant so much to me."

While the kudos from the queen of hip-hop soul were a major boost to his ego, the Louisiana MC's heart was touched by a phone call he received during one of his darkest moments: his recent arrest for drug possession in Yuma, Arizona.

"You know what else meant so much to me, dawg?" Wayne asked. "When I went to jail and I'm going through all that, you know who called me? That woman! Everybody who had deals with me started pulling out on me, so I thought she was another person calling like, 'We had another idea, we're not gonna go with you on the song.' She called to tell me 'thank you again for the songs' and to make sure I was OK. 'I just wanna make sure you alright. Don't let that get to you. You killed the song, by the way. Thank you again.' I'll never forget her for that."

Weezy also noted that he has no hard feelings for any of his would-be business associates who decided to pull out in the wake of his recent legal difficulties.

"It's business with that," he explained. "The people that turned their backs on me, it's business anyway. If I made it bad for business, it wasn't nothing I can do about it. I wasn't expecting to be like no family, but a lot of them did pull out. It's all good.

"Tha Carter III is gonna be amazing," he added of his forthcoming LP. "No matter what happens to me, Tha Carter III is gonna be amazing."