5 Reasons Why Lil Wayne Should Retire After Releasing 'Tha Carter V'

November 29, 2012 - 4:19 pm by Chris Yuscavage

Recently, Lil Wayne sat down with MTV News to talk about his upcoming album, I Am Not A Human Being 2, as well as Tha Carter V, the album he plans to release after that. And, during the course of the interview, Weezy F. Baby made a somewhat startling announcement.

"I know y'all want me around for a little bit," he said, "[but] Tha Carter V is my last album. I've been rapping since I was 8 years old; I'm 30 now. That's a long time, and I like to do so many more things, and when I like to do something, I end up loving to do it real quickly. And, when I love to do something, I'm fully focused on it and it only, and music sometimes is not that 'it.'"

Our first reaction to hearing that was to say, "NOOOOOOO, WAYNE! DON'T LEAVE!" But, the more we thought about it, the more it began to make sense. Wayne has been rapping for a long time, and he does have other interests. So, why should he continue rapping just for the sake of rapping? With that in mind, we constructed a list of 5 Reasons Why Lil Wayne Wayne Should Retire After Releasing Tha Carter V. That's not to say we don't want to see him around anymore; we just don't want to see him at the studio.

Reason #1: Wayne needs to continue building his Young Money empire. While several YM artists—specifically Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Tyga—have already enjoyed their own success, Wayne has an entire roster of artists filled with untapped potential. Where's Lil Twist's album? Or, Lil Chuckee's album? Or, Cory Gunz's album? Okay, so we're not sitting here clamoring for any of those. But, the point here is that Wayne hasn't thoroughly developed a lot of the acts on his label yet. He's sort of just got a bunch of names signed to it. So, by retiring, he'd be giving himself the chance to take a more hands-on approach to getting those guys off the bench and into the game. If he wants Young Money to go down as one of hip-hop's greatest labels ever, he's going to have to make sure it happens by doing it himself.

Reason #2: Wayne has already conquered rap. He should try conquering another field, too. It would selfish for us to sit here and tell Wayne to keep rapping and forget all his other interests. And, from what we've seen, Wayne does have other interests. From skateboarding to fashion, Wayne has lots of interests. So, why doesn't he give himself the chance to fully immerse himself in some of those interests for awhile? Who knows? Maybe he'll be a huge success in one of those fields, too. Once upon a time, no one thought he'd ever be considered the "Best Rapper Alive," and look what he did when he put his mind to becoming that.

Reason #3: Wayne doesn't have a whole lot left to prove as far as music goes. Think about it: What has Wayne not done when it comes to music? He has hit songs, platinum plaques, and (arguably) a classic album or two. He's got thousands of tracks recorded, more mixtapes than your iPod can handle, and, well, he's done just about everything under the sun (he's even got a freakin' rock album!). So, unless he's just having a ton of fun recording music and wants to continue just for the sake of it, he shouldn't feel bad about stepping back and letting someone else take the baton off his hands. It's been a nice run. But, all runs have to come to an end eventually.

Reason #4: Wayne has already made—and will continue to make—millions and millions of dollars every year off rap. How's your 401(k) looking? If you're like the rest of America, probably not too good. Wayne's retirement plan is looking real good, though. Real good. The guy has a handful of platinum albums and singles. He's got enough hits for him to perform shows from now until the day he dies. And, oh yeah, he also gets a cut off of his artists. So, there's really no need for him to continue to drop guest verses and put out new singles. All of his old stuff is already generating more than enough to keep him afloat. So, from a financial perspective, he's good to go. And, by "go," we mean he can literally go and do something else and not have to worry about his bottom line.

Reason #5: Wayne probably has enough material recorded for him to continue releasing music well into the future even if he's technically "retired." Somewhere out there in the world, on a hard drive that's (hopefully!) sitting in a safe, there are hundreds of unheard Wayne songs. So, if he ever gets the urge to put out some new music or one of his business ventures falls through and he needs some cash, all he needs to do is open it up, drag 12 or 13 tracks off it, and put out a new album. We're sure they're not all hits. But, during his prime, Wayne was recording tons and tons of new material everyday. So, we're sure he has plenty of music in the stash just in case. But, in the meantime, he should enjoy his life away from the studio—right after we get that Carter V, of course.

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