Today marks the fifth anniversary of the release of Lil Wayne's album, Tha Carter III. The disc sold over 1 million copies it's first week out and is now certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry of America.
Some may argue this was Weezy's last great body of work. The project boasted the songs "A Milli," "Mr. Carter," "Tie My Hands," "Lollipop,""Got Money," "Let the Beat Build," "Mrs Officer" and "You Ain't Got Nuthin."
XXL tracked down some of the producers and featured rapper to get an oral history of the making of the album.
Bobby Valentino, featured artist on “Mrs. Officer”: “Wayne loves music. That’s our common interest. When he was working on Tha Carter III, he hit me and was like, ‘Yo, I’m in the A and I’m recording. Come through.’ And we already had that vibe, so I went by the studio.”
Deezle, producer of “Mrs. Officer”: “‘Mrs. Officer’ really came together in like 45 minutes. Bobby V came by and wanted to do a song, so Wayne stepped over to me and was like, ‘Deez, I need something for me and Bobby, you got something?’ I was like, ‘No, I don’t have anything, but I can make something.’ [Laughs] So I picked up the studio guitar and the studio bass and made that beat.”
Bobby Valentino: “I heard the beat and was like, ‘Can I get in the booth and put something on there?’ So I went in and kind of came up with the siren sound. I came up with that whole thing, and Wayne was like, ‘That’s dope. Keep playing with it.’”
Kidd Kidd, featured artist on “Mrs. Officer”: “Bobby is a really talented dude. Once he laid the hook, it wasn’t nothing. Once you have the hook, it’s nothing for the words to come, you know? But yeah, we wanted to talk about lady cops because, you know, everybody hates getting pulled over. There’s no question about that. But you know, there’s always that sexy ass lady cop, and you just be like, ‘Gracious! If you wasn’t taking me to jail, I’d get your number.’ 2 Chainz was actually supposed to be on the song. He was supposed to have my verse. This was when he was Tity Boi. But I guess I just did my verse and everything worked out.”
Deezle: “It was a No. 1 single 45 minutes later.”
Deezle, co-producer of “Let The Beat Build”: “For ‘Let The Beat Build,’ Wayne came to me and told me that Kanye sent him a really dope sample, and he wanted to see what I could do with it. So I was like, ‘Okay, cool.’ I got the sample, and I started foolin’ with it and cutting it up and sort of figuring out what it was going to be. Then Wayne came to me and said, ‘I have an idea. I want to do a song where over time the beat just progressively gets bigger and bigger until the hook drops.’ So I was like, ‘Alright cool.’ It was his concept, and we went through that whole song together because he knew how he wanted it to feel at certain points. So, I made adjustments, and he did what he does best. He made up all the vocals on the spot, man. The whole song. It was recorded in about 30 minutes.”
Jim Jonsin, co-producer of “Lollipop”: “I was working on ‘Lollipop’ for Danity Kane. I played it for their people, and they weren’t really feeling it, so I took it over to our studio on South Beach, and Static Major was over there. He was a buddy of mine, and he was with a kid named Pleasure P, from the group Pretty Ricky. So, I played the beat and Stat loved it, and right away he started writing to it. I sampled a couple of things from his vocals, like the ‘Call me,’ just rocking on the drum machine. He wrote the top-line melody, and Pleasure helped out with a couple of things. From there, either Static or Pleasure brought it to Wayne, and he cut it. I wasn’t there when he did it, but he put down the chorus and the verses because the B section and the bridge were already there.”
Deezle, co-producer of “Lollipop”: “Static and I were friends already, and another friend called me and said, ‘Hey, Static is in Atlanta and wants to come ride with you and Wayne. Can you introduce him to Wayne?’ I said yes because Static was a really accomplished writer, you know? So he came by, and he and Wayne hit it off immediately. You know, Static was like, ‘Hey man, I really wanna get you on my record that’s about to come out’ and Wayne just hit it immediately. Then Static was like, ‘I have one for you too,’ and that was ‘Lollipop.’ He had the hook, and the beat was done, but it wasn’t the version that you’ve heard. It had different drums and different bass. So they recorded the song, then I saw Wayne’s face and he didn’t look as excited as he should’ve been, because I knew this was going to be a really big song. So I told him, ‘Yo, I’ll take this and spend some time with it and make it what it needs to be.’ Then a couple days later I brought it back after working on it—I basically replaced all the drums—and when I played it for him he was like, ‘Yo, this is my next single.’”
Jim Jonsin: “[Deezle] added some drum programming, some snare rolls and stuff, and changed a few things on there. He also added some weird bass thing that we didn’t like, because we originally had this super-low 808 in there, so when we got to the mix we just put our own drums back in. The thing is, I gave them the demo two-track, and they took the two-track and just decided to add a bunch of stuff to it. I kind of felt disrespected, like, ‘Why the fuck would you do that? I’m an established guy, and you know what my drums sound like.’ But, Wayne decided to go another route and have Deezle add his stuff to it, and you know, that’s cool. Obviously, the record was a smash, so everyone’s contribution to it was great. I’m thankful for that.”
David Banner, producer of “La La”: “I’d been hearing that Wayne had been freestyling over my beats. I’d been hearing in the streets that he made compliments about them too, so I was like, ‘That’s definitely someone I’ve been a fan of since he was 12 years old, rapping on Cash Money,’ so I found a way to get to him. I was always amazed by how much of a student of the game he is and how serious he takes the art of rapping. He’s also such a fan of music that when he comes to the studio, he wants to hear all of my beats, not just the beat I have for him. So I’ll play him beats, and he’ll just stand by the speaker. Just stand there, bruh. When I played him ‘La La,’ I told him, ‘Dude, this is a beat I made for Shrek 3.’ Originally, Timbaland, Pharrell and will.i.am were supposed to make a beat for Shrek 3, and they were having a hard time putting those three guys together, so someone at the company called me and said, ‘David, we’re not sure we’re able to get these three people in a studio. We need you to do this beat.’ So, I made that beat for Shrek, then I happened to bump into Wayne. When he heard the beat, he said, ‘Shrek ain’t gonna get this one, buddy.’ He bought the beat on the spot. It was crazy, bruh. He literally snatched the beat from Shrek.”
Brisco, featured artist on “La La”: “When we recorded ‘La La,’ we were in the studio, and it was a packed house. Nicki Minaj was there; everybody was there. When I first heard the beat, it definitely wasn’t your typical Brisco gangsta-jump-out-with-the-choppa-with-no-shoes-on music. It wasn’t that. But, I always try to be innovative and come up with a new approach. So we were just vibing, having fun in the studio, and he came up with that first line, ‘Started out hustlin’, ended up ballin’.’ Then when I heard Wayne’s verse, I was like, ‘Okay, I gotta murder it too.’ Then Busta came in, and you know how animated he is, so he had to jump on it.”
To check out the rest of the oral history head over to XXL
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