Around 2007 and 2008, Lil Wayne reached the peak of his powers as a mainstream rapper. His 2008 studio album Tha Carter III, which landed on our recent “Top 10 Hip-Hop Albums of the 2000s” list, stayed atop the Billboard 200 chart for three straight weeks. But the year before that, Wayne was busy featuring on almost every popular 2007 song.
Videos by American Songwriter
In fact, Wayne offered his talents to more than 100 different songs as a featured artist. In a recent interview conducted by Missy Elliott, the Louisiana emcee spoke more in-depth on this.
“That’s unheard of,” Elliott first said when first bringing up Wayne’s 2007 feat. “You must have to have been raking in the dough.”
“I was only acknowledged for 77 of them,” Wayne responded, referring to being credited for 77 of his 100+ guest appearances.
“I don’t even think there was another artist playing on the radio,” Elliott replied.
Wayne agreed with this sentiment, continuing by saying that no matter what radio station he would put on, a song featuring him would play.
“That was real. That was an amazing moment and an amazing time,” Wayne said. “I remember being able to get into my car and turn on the radio. I don’t care if I got the station wrong, could’ve switched to a pop station by mistake, I’m still on that motherfucker!”
When actually examining Wayne’s run 16 years ago, he and Elliott did not do any embellishing. In 2007, he saw six songs he was featured on land on the Hot 100, which included top 15 hits like Wyclef Jean’s “Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)” (No. 12 peak) and Playaz Circle’s “Duffle Bag Boy” (No. 15 peak).
Along with the songs mentioned above, Wayne also delivered feature verses for tracks like Mya’s “Lock U Down” and DJ Khaled’s “We Takin Over” with Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, and Birdman.
Lil Wayne’s interview with Elliott aired on TVOne’s original series Uncensored on Sunday (May 7). The TYOne app is available for download on the Apple and GooglePlay stores.
Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images
