Lil Wayne credits Jay-Z with changing his writing style after he learned that Hov never writes down his lyrics.
The Young Money Entertainment founder revealed his inspiration to ditch the pen and paper during an appearance on The Pivot Podcast Tuesday (July 11). According to Weezy, once he heard Hov strictly raps freestyle, he never wrote a lyric down again.
“The moment I heard it I stopped,” Lil Wayne recalled before adding, “I heard that n#### Jay-Z don’t write, I don’t write no more.”
Furthermore, Wayne was so determined to abandon the notepad and pen that he dumped the last of his written material in one track.
“We went in the studio and we did ‘10,000 Bars’” he added. “That was the last time I rapped anything off of a paper.”
Check out a clip below and listen to the 35-minute-long 2002 track at the end of the page.
Later in the interview, Lil Wayne revealed that the Jay-Z-inspired switch led him to pen his prison memoir, Gone Til November, A Journal of Rikers Island. He wrote the book on the advice of a therapist during his 242-day stint behind bars for gun possession.
The therapist advised him to write his thoughts down as a “therapy escape” since he didn’t write down his raps. Lil Wayne recalled the exercise was something “to look forward to,” that he treated like “studio time.” He would draw the sheets on his bunk to close himself off at lock-in time.
Lil Wayne was behind bars at Rikers Island for 242 days. @LilTunechi knew nothing could take away his creativity but he needed an outlet during that time to express himself.
He penned letters each day that were eventually released in his original handwriting as a book titled,… pic.twitter.com/BJMNkg3oQD
— Ryan Clark (@Realrclark25) July 12, 2023
