Lil Wayne Opens Up About Mental Health, Childhood Suicide Attempt
Written by SOURCE on August 16, 2021
Lil Wayne has been vocal about his mental health in the past, sharing on both his track “Let It All Work Out” and Solange’s “Mad,” that he attempted suicide in the past.
Now, in a new interview with Emmanuel Acho on his mental health-focused Uncomfortable Conversations series, Wayne opened up about that attempt from when he was 12, sharing that it took place on a half day from school when he almost got in trouble with his mother.
“I picked up the phone, I called the police,” Wayne said, as reported by HipHop-N-More. “Yes I knew where she put her gun and it was in her bedroom. And so I went in her bedroom, grabbed the gun. I already made the phone call, looked in the mirror.”
Wayne then says that he pointed the gun to his head before he “got a little too scared.”
“Then I said ‘Fuck it,’” he explained, pointing a finger gun at his chest. “Biggie was on. I’m looking in the mirror, so you could look through the mirror and the television was behind me. So I was watching the video through the mirror. ‘One More Chance’ was on. And Biggie was already gone or something. So I was looking, I was like, ‘You know what?’ Start thinking I had to get myself mad and noticed that I didn’t have to. that’s what scared me. How I knew I had a mental health problem was when I pulled the trigger.”
The Grammy winner said that he aimed for his heart but “didn’t feel a thing.” As Wayne puts it, he wasn’t going through any pain, it was just shock. He then woke up to the police knocking as he was staring at his white walls.
The future rapper then slid across the floor to knock on his door, as officers began to approach the door and knock on it again. Once they kicked it down, Wayne says officers stepped over him looking for drugs and weapons, as one officer named “Uncle Bob” refused to step over him, picked him up and went with other officers to transport him to the hospital.
Wayne eventually tells Acho that God kept him alive that day.
He also talked about how his mental health issues have changed as he matured, and about his newfound happiness. You can watch the conversation below.
Listen to the conversation up top.
