Lil Wayne‘s deep discography means he has plenty to choose from when it comes to building a setlist, but there’s one highly-requested song that he refuses to perform.
The reason for this decision was made clear during a recent show, where Weezy addressed calls from the audience for him to play “Mona Lisa,” his collaboration with Kendrick Lamar from 2018’s Tha Carter V.
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Despite speculation that K. Dot’s recent beef with Wayne’s former protégé Drake had something to do with it, the Young Money legend explained that it’s simply because the song is too hard to memorize.
“This is the second time I’ve seen this within my last three shows. Somebody had a sign that said, ‘Mona Lisa’ […] If y’all real Lil Wayne fans, you know I don’t know the lyrics to my shit.”
He added: “You know how hard that fucking song is, girl. [Mumbles lyrics from the song]. You know what I mean? I don’t like to rap the words, but I’m going to learn that shit. I’m going to learn it. I got you.”
This isn’t the first time that Lil Wayne has admitted to having a poor memory when it comes to his rhymes.
During a 2020 episode of his Young Money Radio show with special guest Eminem, the “A Milli” hitmaker revealed that he has to Google his own lyrics while writing songs to check he hasn’t rapped them before.
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“If you look in my phone history, with Google history, and you press the letter L, it comes up ‘Lil Wayne Lyrics.’ I literally have to Google my own lyrics to make sure I didn’t say certain stuff before,” he said.
Em admitted to doing the same thing, replying: “Oh my God! I swear to God I do that too! I just did that shit last night. Man, that’s funny as hell. I been doing that for the past five years! You be like, ‘Oh, I knew I flipped this before.’
“It’s crazy because when you’re really into the craft you gotta come up with a new pocket, a new cadence, melodies. You can’t do the same flows, none of that.”
This method isn’t exclusive to the studio as a video emerged two years later of Lil Wayne Googling the lyrics to “Shooter” while performing the song with Robin Thicke.
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Last year, the 41-year-old rapper shed more light on his songwriting fatigue and said he no longer writes down rhymes because he’s “too old and too tired” to read from a piece of paper in the booth.
“Thank God for the iPhone. Before, I would have to remind myself all day because I don’t write nothing down. They always be thinking that it’s some type of achievement,” he told co-hosts Michael Irvin and Skip Bayless on FOX Sports’ Undisputed.
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“No, I don’t write because I’m too old and too tired to be trying to read. You know, they got the iPhone now so I go ahead and record the voice memo.”
