Drake and Lil Wayne have raised eyebrows after it was revealed that they used a teleprompter during a recent performance.
Drizzy brought out Weezy as a special guest at his show in Sunrise, Florida on Saturday (March 23) as part of his It’s All a Blur — Big as the What? Tour.
After the concert, a video made the rounds online of Lil Wayne relying on a teleprompter attached to the stage while performing his “Right Above It” collaboration with Drake.
The user who shared the clip took issue with the autocue, comparing their performance to “karaoke.”
“I have a question about this video of Drake and Lil Wayne… Is it normal that rappers have teleprompters with their lyrics on it?” they wrote. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before. So it’s karaoke then?”
I have a question about this video of Drake and Lil Wayne…
Is it normal that rappers have teleprompters with their lyrics on it?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like this before. So it’s karaoke then? pic.twitter.com/U7Ku9qz0M5— Maha Sattva (@Maha_Sattva) March 25, 2024
Despite the current debate surrounding the quality of performances from rap acts, Wayne fans were quick to jump to his defense and point out the sheer number of songs and verses he’s written in his lengthy career.
“Lil Wayne has 3,051 songs on Genius. He has a song entitled 10,000 bars which has 7k words. If Weezy needs a teleprompter that’s ok,” the account Hip Hop By The Numbers argued.
Another user said: “A rapper like Wayne to have a LONG impressive discography in that case should be normalized to have a teleprompter.”
Lil Wayne himself has spoken about the challenge of remembering his lyrics. Back in 2020, he hosted Eminem on his Young Money Radio show where they admitted they both research their own rhymes in order to avoid repeating lines.
“When we first start out, it’s a blank canvas,” Em said. “We start painting on that canvas until that shit’s full. But when you’ve made so many song about everything, it gets a little tricky. The trick is to do the next one and keeping it going, do the next one with a little twist.”
Wayne added: “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.”
Em replied: “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.”
That approach was on full display in 2022 when Lil Wayne was caught Googling the lyrics to his song “Shooter” while dueting with Robin Thicke.
