Royce da 5’9″ Weighs in on Lil Wayne’s Racism Comments
Written by SOURCE on January 13, 2021
Lil Wayne has been famous for a very long time. His superstardom, however, has sometimes made the rapper seem out of touch with the everyday lives of his listeners. While speaking to Ebro Darden, Royce da 5’9″ touches on this concept when trying to explain systematic racism to Weezy.
“Cash Money, they signed their deal in 1997,” Royce stated. “So from then to now, they’ve walked billions of dollars into the Universal building. You can’t tell me that you feel like Universal has been protecting Lil Wayne.” The Detroit native went on to highlight Wayne’s legal issues as proof that the rapper is nothing more than a dispensable dollar sign to the label.
“Lil Wayne, I heard come out of his mouth in an interview that racism doesn’t exist. Being famous early for a Black person is crippling,” he continued. “My brother, you’re going to jail for the second time. The first time you went to prison, you went for a gun that wasn’t even on you. That’s racism, Lil Wayne.”
Lil Wayne sat down with ABC‘s “Nightline” in 2016 at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. When asked about the concept, Wayne burst into a now-infamous sound bite that denounced the existence of racism.
“I don’t know that you put a name on it. It’s not a name, it’s not ‘whatever, whatever,’ it’s somebody got shot by a policeman for a fucked up reason. … I’m a young, black, rich motherfucker. If that don’t let you know that America understand,” Wayne said. “I don’t feel connected to a damn thing that ain’t got nothing to do with me. … I’m connected to this flag. I’m a gangbanger ma’am.”
Wayne has also gone on record claiming that a white police officer saved his life when he was 12-years-old. That officer, Deputy Robert Hoobler of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff Office, was terminated in 2012 for illegally tasing a black man, Leron Anderson. He also hurled racist slurs at Anderson during the incident.
