After months, even years of speculation on what Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III would sound like, many journalists and fans have previously inquired on personnel behind the milestone album. After telling one journalist that the whole album was produced by him and featuring only him, Lil Wayne ended up enlisting some superstar musical help, as well as some new names and sounds to his self-proclaimed masterpiece.
With the exception of Kanye West, who produced three of the album’s finals tracks, Rhapsody.com’s Toshitaka Kondo gathered the behind-the-scenes music makers to discuss the creative process over the last several months, and working with the often unpredictable, seemingly always controversial Wayne.
Bangladesh, the producer behind this year’s most infectious beat had some interesting comments about the direction Wayne ended up going over the track.
Bangladesh: This girl I produced for, Shanell, got it to him. But I never went to the lab with him. If I had my way, I would like it more. But I wasn’t around, so what he felt, he put on there. I just thought he would make more of a song out of it, honestly. He’s just rapping. If it was going on the mixtape, it’s cool, but not on no album or single. It’s saying, “A milli.” He needs to pop about being a millionaire. He switched it up and tried to make it “ill.” If that was somebody else, it wouldn’t be on the radio. They just f*ck with Wayne regardless. That right there makes me like that sh*t, because it’s against the grain and it’s working. That sh*t’s no format. A n*gg* went in, freestyled, and that sh*t’s all over the radio. And it’s the hottest beat in hip-hop right now. Every time I turn on Rap City, they in the booth rapping to the beat…
Swizz Beatz, who produced the David Axelrod-sampling “Dr. Carter” explains that the song was initially intended for Jay-Z, then Lil Wayne. After American Gangster [click to read] took a different musical direction, Wayne accepted the song, with initial hopes of featuring Hova.
While producers like The Alchemist, David Banner and Cool & Dre have participated in an assortment of legendary Hip Hop albums, this release is a first time feat for others. D. Smith, the producer behind spacey album cut “Shoot Me Down” explained how matter-of-factly he ended up on one of 2008’s most talked-about releases. After sharing a studio, Smith’s manager was able to slide Wayne’s camp some beats, with the album-maker included. “The first thing he said to me was, ‘Thank you,'” Smith told Rhapsody. “He hadn’t even heard the beat yet. So I played the beat and it was probably like 15 people in the room. He heard the beat and kicked everybody out except for like two people, the engineer, and myself. He smoked two blunts, asked for a cup of hot tea and just went in.”
Read Every Carter 3 Producer Comments Here
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