Lil Wayne Is So ‘Ready’ To Release ‘Tha Carter V,’ His First Album Not On Cash Money

Lil Wayne’s long-awaited, long-anticipated Tha Carter V is finally on the way this September — and Tunechi is talking about it. In an enlightening full-length piece with Billboard, the New Orleans rapper talks about how much he wanted to release the album, his intrigued anticipation of what the album could mean for his career, and how he dealt with the legal wrangling with his father figure Birdman that has held up the album’s release since 2014.

He told Billboard he didn’t let the tough legal proceedings get to him “too much,” relying on his kids and “the confidence in knowing that there’s always a tomorrow and I’m going to make sure that tomorrow is bright.” He finally reached that brightest of tomorrows earlier this year when he received a settlement from Universal Records and the greenlight to release the fifth entry in his iconic Tha Carter series, but he’s still thinking on what’s in store for him. “I don’t know what [Tha Carter V] is setting me up for — some big comeback, or maybe some big fall back or whatever — but it’s setting me up for something, and I’m ready,” he explained.

So are his fans, who are anticipating the project on September 21 based on Floyd Mayweather and French soccer star Benjamin Mendy posting pictures of a “V” and a “#21” caption. Wayne, who patched things up with Birdman this year, used a similar promotional strategy in 2014, getting Kobe Bryant to post about it’s then-impending release. Wayne’s approach to making his music is similar to Kobe’s on the court, in that he’s a self-admitted “perfectionist.”

An air of perfection may be hard to achieve for the highly anticipated project — that’s his first as a non-Cash Money artist — but there will be hoards of fans who are just happy that they’ll finally get to hear it.