It’s been a long wait for Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter V. After years of legal battles between Weezy and Birdman, we’re literally counting down the hours until the New Orleans native drops his newest album.
Just days ago, Lil Wayne shared a video on YouTube talking about the long wait for his latest album. In it, he thanked his fans and admitted that without them he would be nothing. He also took a moment to clear up a few rumors about the supposed release of his latest album.
It had been thought that Tha Carter V was coming out last week, but Lil Wayne confirmed he is releasing the album on his birthday, which is September 27.
There’s also a website for Tha Carter V and right on top is a big timer counting down the hours, minutes and seconds until Lil Wayne’s new album is released.
It’s been nearly six years since his last album, Tha Carter IV, was released. That’s an eternity for a follow-up album and many artists’ careers would be over after such a long wait.
The delayed release of Tha Carter V comes after years of legal battles with Lil Wayne’s mentor and owner of the Cash Money Record label, Birdman, with whom Wayne had a close relationship for years.
Initially, Lil Wayne’s new album was scheduled to release on May 5, 2014. The news came via a Drake tweet that announced the new album release, but obviously that didn’t happen.
Instead, May 6 rolled around and a single, Believe Me featuring Drake, from Wayne’s still-unreleased album was released and started receiving airplay. But that was it, there was no actual album even though other artists including Justin Bieber and Soulja Boy had been working on it.
The summer of 2014 was a busy one for those associated with Lil Wayne. The buzz surrounding Tha Carter V was growing as new artists and producers talked about their contributions to the upcoming album. Everyone wanted to get their hands on it and to take a listen.
The release date was changed again, with Lil Wayne saying that it would be out around August 25. That date came and went, and still there was no Weezy album.
In October of that year, Lil Wayne told Karen Civil that he was working on a release date and was still working on the album. In November, he released the fourth single from Tha Carter V and fans wondered why the entire album wasn’t out yet.
It wasn’t until December 2014 that Lil Wayne blamed the delay on his boss and Cash Money Records founder Bryan “Birdman” Williams.
To all my fans, I want u to know that my album won't and hasn't been released bekuz Baby & Cash Money Rec. refuse to release it.
— Lil Wayne WEEZY F (@LilTunechi) December 4, 2014
The following month, Lil Wayne sued Birdman and Cash Money Records, claiming that they were refusing to release his album. He asked for $51 million, claiming that he was owed money for his work on Tha Carter V among other complaints.
Over a year later, in an interview with Hot 97, Birdman denied delaying Lil Wayne’s new album, claiming that he has a lot of money invested in it that he wanted to get back too. While he said that he could stop Wayne from putting an album out if he wanted to, he made it clear that the delay had nothing to do with him.
This was in May of 2016, two years after the first single from Tha Carter V was released, and still there was no album though Lil Wayne said it was done.
Months later, Birdman spoke about the upcoming Lil Wayne album again, saying that he didn’t have it. So what was the problem and why was Tha Carter V still unreleased?
Like the years prior, 2017 was littered with clues and claims about when Tha Carter V might be released. The now-imprisoned Martin Skreli even earned Lil Wayne’s ire and a lawsuit threat when he reportedly played a couple of songs that he claimed were from the still-unreleased album.
In July 2017, Lil Wayne dropped a four-song EP titled In Tune We Trust to hold fans over until he could get his bigger album released. Just one month later, Wayne admitted that he can do what he wants “at any time” during an interview with Wild Wayne of Q93, a New Orleans radio station.
Again, nearly a year went by as fans waited and hoped that Tha Carter V was still coming. Then, in June 2018, we learned that Lil Wayne and Birdman settled their legal beef, and now the highly-anticipated album just might see the light of day.
After one false alarm on September 12 that had fans thinking Tha Carter V was coming out any day now, Lil Wayne has finally cleared it all up. He says that the album will release on the evening of September 27, his birthday.
On a website dedicated to Tha Carter V, there is even a countdown timer to let Lil Wayne fans know exactly when the album drops. Anticipation is high and this looks like the closest we’ve ever been to actually getting the album.
Will it be tonight? Will Tha Carter V really, finally be released? The clock is ticking but it looks like the Lil Wayne album really is coming this time.