Chedo from The Come Up Show caught up with Mannie Fresh earlier this month and chopped it up with him for over an hour on the latest episode of their weekly podcast.
Throughout the interview, Mannie spoke on Lil Wayne a numerous amount of times including why he always thought Wayne was a genius from a very young age, how Weezy felt at 17-years-old when Missy Elliott told him she enjoyed his music, trying to please Tunechi‘s mother with their music, Tune‘s childhood, Cash Money Records, “Bling Bling“, and plenty more.
You can listen to the full conversation after the jump below. Enjoy!
Mannie on Lil Wayne:
“He still, to me, is that kid genius. His work ethic and how he attacked it… this was a kid who was three grades above where he was supposed to be. When I met him he told me he just see’s things differently, and that it’s not really hard for him. But rap was the balance to his life. Wayne said he didn’t fit in with his peers because everyone thought he was smarter than them. But it just came easy to him and it put him in an uncomfortable place. He was looking for a balance and trying to figure out how to fit in with society. For him, it was hip-hop, and he wanted to show off his wordplay because it came easy to him and it was a filter for him to go nuts. He was always the first one at the studio and the last one to leave, and if you didn’t have your lyrics together, Wayne always had something. Or if you left the studio and he felt like your rap was better than his, then he would want to do it over. And he’ll wait around quietly for them to leave, and he’ll come up to me and say: ‘Fresh, can I go do my rhyme over… they killed me on that.’ He was very competitive and it was constant every day. What was super genius of him, for a long time, was that Wayne did not curse. How can you fit in with the streets and the hood, which was what we represented, when you can’t say one raunchy curse word? But the genius of his verses, he didn’t need to curse. This was a cool lesson in hip-hop, that you can come across as super cool without cursing.”
