" a xxl interview with lil wayne` "

You're sort of famous for your productivity and your cameos and your mixtape output. Why do you think it took so long for an official release of "The Carter III" to come out?
I don't know. I guess perfect timing. It was nothing like they didn't want to put it out. I wasn't worried about it. They wasn't worrying me about it.

Are you happy with the way it turned out?
Oh man, elated.

The record leaked a couple of days ago. This DJ, Chuck T, is claiming that he leaked it. This album was delayed a year because of another leak. What goes through your mind after all this, that the week before the official release there's this leak?
Nothing goes through my mind. It harms me in no way because, first of all, I am good music. Bootlegged or not, what you just heard, or what you will hear, is great. And that's the point I'm trying to get across at the end of the day and the beginning of the morning: that I'm great. Things I say have value and I would love for you to value them, however you get it. I don't really care about the leak or the DJs that's leaking it. I'm glad that people even care enough about it to make this situation a topic.

It wouldn't bother you if people decided to download it instead of going out and buying it?
This is my 15th year. This is what I do and I'm very, very straight. I don't need anything. With my fanbase, I know—whether it's downloaded, leaked or not—I know when I step on stage, I'm going to get the same reaction that I always get. That's what matters to me.

The guy who claimed to leak it said the reason he did it was because of some of the things you said about mixtape DJs. Do you want to talk about what you feel about mixtape DJs?
No because I don't feel nothin' about nobody but myself or my family. I'm cool with the majority of them but just a few of them that, you know, I'd rather not put no more light on their heads.

You mentioned your family. You had your daughter young and you've rapped about her. How has fatherhood changed you?
My daughter's 9 now. So it changed me then. Right now I'm going through a different state of change. Now she's older, she's no longer a baby. She's a kid. It's a difference that I can't explain. I think the best explanation is that it's showing improvement.

Your improvement or her improvement?
Me, myself and her. Most importantly her though.

You've been candid on the record with other people, though, about smoking weed and drinking [cough] syrup. Can we talk about syrup?
No.

Well, what was your reaction to Pimp C's death earlier this year [of possible complications from drinking prescription-strength syrup]? Did that scare you at all?
Nothing scares me but God.

One of the rumors that went around last week was that you checked into rehab.
Yeah, I heard about that.

What does that make you think?
It don't.

Getting back to your cameos, then. Who's your favorite cameo that you've done?
I wouldn't say I have a favorite. All of them, of course.

Is there anyone you've never worked with that you'd like to?
Eminem.

Why Eminem?
Is that a real question?

Yeah.
He's great, man. His lyrical skills. That boy can spit.

You say you're the greatest rapper alive. Kanye West claims to be the biggest star in the universe. Who's bigger?