The lead up to the third instalment of Lil Wayne’s legendary Hip Hop series was very chaotic. ‘Tha Carter II’ (2005) would perform well debuting at number two on the US Billboard 200 selling 240,000 copies first week. However when asked about the album, Wayne would say it didn’t do what he wanted it to do necessarily and was a disappointment because he put his all into it. The self proclaimed ‘Best Rapper Alive’ didn’t dwell on it, as he was about to prove the world that he is unstoppable and the biggest rapper in the game in the years following.
In 2007, Weezy was a workhorse, dropping so much music in this time period with features,mixtapes and constantly getting his music leaked. To the point Wayne was actually getting criticised for his music output.
In July 2007, a well known mixtape DJ ‘The Empire’ would put out ‘The Drought Is Over 2 The Carter 3 Sessions’. This was a big deal as many of these songs were originally recorded with the intentions of being on ‘TC3’. Wayne would discredit all DJs and the mixtape scene but later called in to DJ Drama’s radio show to explain his previous comments. Clarifying that he meant specifically DJ Empire who leaked his material periodically without his permission, consent or knowledge. Weezy also apologised for any misunderstanding between him and the numerous DJs who have assisted him in the mixtape industry. Making it clear, however, that he wished for any feeling of dislike or resentment to remain. After most of the album leaked on the internet, Lil Wayne used the leaked tracks, plus four new songs to make his own approved mixtape ‘The Leak’ which released December 18 2007. "My music got leaked this whole year. One thing I noticed, when another person's album gets leaked, it's a whole thing, they're distraught. When my song gets leaked, people call and say, It's the greatest song. Can I have it for this album?' Or, 'Can I put it on this soundtrack?’ ‘Can we get the ringtone?’ It's never, 'Damn, dude, your music leaked.' So what we feel, we're gonna give you what you want. We're gonna give you the leak. Every song that was leaked is coming out on December 18 - and we have four new songs.”
Hyping up ‘The Carter III’ even more, around this time the new album release date was expected to be February 2008 (which did not happen). In March 2008, Wayne released ‘Lollipop’ featuring Static Major. The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 charts for 5 consecutive weeks, peaking at Number One. ‘Lollipop’ would go on to be Wayne’s most successful single in his career. Sadly Static Major would pass away weeks before the song released - REST IN PEACE to the Louisville legend.
Next month, the second single ‘A Milli’ would release - becoming another top ten hit, this track would also go on to be one of Wayne’s most notorious songs. With the OG version leaking to YouTube, it was also rumoured that multiple versions of the song were to be included on the album as ”skit-like” tracks with artists such as Cory Gunz, Tyga, Lil Mama and Hurricane Chris having their own separate interludes. The third single ‘Got Money’ featuring T-Pain would release again in the following month May, peaking at Number 10.
After all the drama and anticipation building up, the album would finally release June 10 2008 with first day sales of approximately 423,000 copies. ‘Tha Carter III’ debuted at number one on the US billboard 200 chart, selling over a million copies going platinum in it’s first week. This would mark Wayne’s first US number one debut and his sixth top ten album - by the end of the year ‘TC3’ had sold approximately 2.88 million copies and was named the best selling album of the year in the United States by Billboard. At the 2009 Grammy Awards ‘Tha Carter III’ was nominated for ‘Album of the Year’ and won for ‘Best Rap Album’. As well as winning ‘Best Rap Song’ for ‘Lollipop’ & ‘Best Rap Solo Performance’ for ‘A Milli’.
See the story and read Facts about 'Tha Carter III' in RELOAD MAGAZINE ISSUE 3