Notably absent from front pages early in his career, Lil Wayne has become urban publications’s (including XXL) favorite cover boy.

It wasn’t always love, though…Sort of. “I don’t fuck with XXL,” a pissed off Wayne declared during his first XXL Cover Story back in November 2005. To let him tell it, he resented cover snubs and lukewarm reviews, among other things. So much for not fuckin’ with us. Since then, Wayne has appeared on three more covers (in a ten-month span) and offered some of the funniest, most outrageous, philosophical quotes. We call it: Wayne’s Words & Wisdom. In celebration of his career-defining LP, Tha Carter III, hitting stores this week, XXL takes a look back at some of Wayne’s most monstrous quotes.

"Fuck XXL! Straight up! And you can put that in there. I’m from the hood! If they say Fuck me, forever it’s, Fuck you! You’re workin’ with a gangsta now! Matter fact, a nigga might wanna get off this bus right now.” XXL #75 (November 2005)


On whether he was concerned that people would question his manhood when photos of him and Baby kissing surfaced...

“I think people can tell from my attitude that I don’t even care about nothing like that. You cannot hurt me, slander me or slaughter me. I’m from New Orleans, dawg. This is the murder capital. We just beat Compton three weeks ago. Swear to God. Nobody don t say nothing to you. They kill you, and that’s that. You can talk all that shit, but I don’t be trippin’. Soon as we see each other, if you ain’t got your pistols out or you ain’t coming toward me, fuck you. I ran into plenty of niggas that you hear talkin’, ya dig? I know what’s real. That pussy shit, girl talk, he say she say. 'I done this.' 'He phony.' I don't do that. my game? Murder. Real life. You're phony. I saw you and you ain’t do nothing. You ain't even say what you saying when I saw you, ya dig? So words’ll never hurt me."--XXL #90 (April 2007)

On His Mother Citah...

“That’s my sistah. That’s my dawg. We ride and die together. We’ll strap up and come to your house and murder you together. Straight real talk. That’s my mama. Ms. Cita Carter. Don’t fuck with her. That’s my dawg." --XXL #90 (April 2007)

On being a rock star...

"I grew up…I loved fuckin’ Tommy Lee and all that, Kid Rock and all that. I love it, but I’m too intelligent, so, you know, I do what I do." --XXL #95 (September 2007)

On his mind-set with Tha Carter III coming out...

"My mind-set is always the same. I’m never there. That’s the mind-set I stay with: You’re never there until you’re there." --XXL #95 (January/February 2008)

On how the perception on Wayne has changed...

"If I thought about that, I’d be the craziest dude in the world. ‘Cause perception is from somebody else’s eyes. I can’t get in your head and see what you see, so why would I even care about what you see? Fuck what you see. I wish all you bitches was blind." --XXL #95 (January/February 2008)

On people thinking he has oversaturated the market...

"Listen. Darling, I don’t care what nobody think. Talk to me like you talking to Martin Luther King or Malcolm X. You’re not about to ask him about what he think about what somebody said about him. You ‘bout to ask him about his greatness, and his greatness only. I don’t care what nobody think. If I did, you wouldn’t be sitting on my muthafuckin’ million-dollar bus in my 15th year at the same muthafuckin’ company and business. I’m a role model. You should get like me. Get like you? No. Get like me. Ya understand me? I’m not hot. Hot dies out. Baby, I’m me. Who the fuck done this? Nobody. Compare me to people that’s not even living, baby. And they didn’t even do it-what they comparing me to. No disrespect to them. You found songs on those people after they died. I’m still living." --XXL #95 (January/February 2008)

On listening to other artists...

That’s how hard it is for me. You know, rappers, we like, if a nigga got his shit poppin’ right now, it be like you in jail to the world. ‘Cause a nigga could tell you some shit happened, like, 'You know such and such blew up?' You like, 'Word?' Like, 'Nigga, you know they only got eight planets, son?!' Like, 'Nigga, for real?!' That’s how shit be, so I ain’t saw them videos. I ain’t heard the songs."--XXL #95 (January/February 2008)

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