In the July/August issue of XXL, Lil Wayne didn’t bite his tongue when dishing on how he felt about today’s crop of producers. “These niggas beats been suckin,” he said. He seemingly put his beat selection where his mouth was on Tha Carter IV, his latest offering which dropped this past Monday, August 29. Instead of tapping brand name producers like he’s done on his previous releases (Tha Carter III had production from Kanye West, Swizz Beatz, Jim Jonsin, David Banner and The Alchemist), Weezy hooked up with some names that may not be as familiar to the average listener. XXL reached out to the beatmakers who set the soundscape for Tunechi’s latest opus to find out how their C4 records came about, their production history, and more.—Interviews by Ralph Bristout, Carl Chery, Mariel Concepcion, Adam Fleischer, Mark Lelinwalla and Amber McKenzie

GO TO THE NEXT PAGE TO READ WILLY WILL SPEAK ON PRODUCING THA CARTER IV‘s “INTRO,” “INTERLUDE” and “OUTRO”