Young Money’s Nicki Minaj announced the nominations earlier today for the 39th Annual American Music Awards! Weezy picked up 3 nods including: “Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Music Artist“, “Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Music Album” and “Artist Of The Year“. The 2011 AMAs will air live from the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on November 20th at 8PM on ABC. You can view the full list of nominations over on Rap-Up.

During a radio interview with Hot 97′s Angie Martinez in March, Lil Wayne said he’s walking away at 35. Then Weezy switched up, telling XXL that he would be gone by 31. Now Lil Tunechi tells MTV that he isn’t sure when exactly he will walk away from rap.

“I’m not sure; I’m not gonna Brett Favre y’all,” Wayne said referring to the former Green Bay Packers quarterback who finally handed the NFL his walking papers in January after years of talking about it. “I’m not gonna draw it all the way out the whole year: ‘We wondering, is Wayne gonna do this?’ But the honest answer is I don’t know.”

“I’m so settled in my life right now,” he told us. “I have my kids; they’re wonderful. My daughter has her career ahead of her now. I have to focus on that, and I have to put the same focus that I put in my career. … I want to become a better father, I want to become a better man to my woman, and those things take time. and time takes away from this. So the honest answer to that retirement question is, I don’t know. Maybe so.”

Below, is an exclusive interview LilWayneHQ.com held with producer/music artist Detail, who has been working closely with Lil Wayne and the YMCMB crew recently. In the interview, Detail speaks on music, the first time he met Weezy, Tune‘s upcoming Tha Carter IV album, and more.

LWHQ: Tell us about yourself Detail? How long have you been a music artist and creating beats for? What made you get into this career?
Detail: I love Music! I’ve been doing this music and creating beats since I was 16, and I am now 26. What made me get into this game is the fact that I was told I couldn’t get in.

LWHQ: Do you have more fun spending time as a producer or as an actual artist?
Detail: I have more fun working people than working myself.

LWHQ: What other music artists have you never worked with, but you would love to one day?
Detail: John Mayor, and I would like to work with myself a lil’ more.

LWHQ: How did you meet Lil Wayne, and what’s the experience like in the studio with Wayne?
Detail: I did the single for Akon called “I’m So Paid” and I met Wayne on the video set of that… shout out my nigga Jeezy, he was on that song. The experience with Wayne in the studio is random, like you don’t know what to expect, but your gonna get there.

LWHQ: Have you been working with any artists from Young Money Entertainment or Cash Money Records?
Detail: Absolutely, yeah they all family

LWHQ: Tell us about Tha Carter IV; what can we expect? Carter 2 style? Rebirth style? lots of auto-tune? features?
Detail: First and foremost, there is no auto-tune on “How To Love”. I’ll give any producer or engineer 10k if they find any vocal sign of auto-tune on there. With features, I don’t want to spill the beans.

LWHQ: How many songs have you done for C4, and will Weezy or anyone from YMCMB be on any of your upcoming projects?
Detail: I’ve done a bunch songs with Wayne… he has a good ear, whatever he chooses he can have. Anybody else, of course any smashes they want to do lets get it, it’s family.

LWHQ: Do you feel that Tha Carter IV can live up to the hype, and do you feel it has the same potential and power as Tha Carter III did?
Detail: You got to think of it like this, when you got an icon that gets it like Lil Wayne, they get it. When LeBron left Cleveland and went to Miami, did he live up to the hype?… simple mathematics.

LWHQ: Any last words, websites or shouts outs you would like to leave the readers with?
Detail: Find me and see me at LilWayneHQ.com, and find me and see me exclusively at IAmDetail.com! Don’t follow me on twitter unless I follow you first hahaha… @DetaiL.

LWHQ: Thanks for your time Detail, we appreciate you giving us this interview. Everybody at LilWayneHQ.com and YoungMoneyHQ.com would like to wish you the best of luck in the future.
Detail: YMCMB Luv.

Shout out to Andy for setting up the interview, and don’t forget to like Detail on Facebook!

Detail shouts out LilWayneHQ.com

We’ve already posted a couple of excerpts from Paris Hilton and Dimitri Ehrlich‘s interview with Lil Wayne for Interview Magazine, but we now get the full interview that will appear in April’s issue. You can read the whole interview after the jump, and I think my favorite part has got to be when Weezy said he has two pet sharks and “those are my dudes” haha.

DIMITRI EHRLICH: How are you guys doing? This is Dimitri. You can just let the interview roll if you want, Paris, but I have one question for both of you to start. Paris, you first: When did you first meet Wayne or what was your first thought about him?

PARIS HILTON: I actually met him when he had a Grammy party in L.A. They called me to host it, and I met him there. But I always thought he was such an incredible artist and so talented. He really has this charisma. When he walks into a room, he just has this power that’s exciting to be around.

EHRLICH: And what about you, Wayne? What was your first memory of meeting Paris?

LIL WAYNE: That was the first time-at that same party. I remember meeting her, and then I think it was, like, 10 minutes later, I looked up and she was deejaying. She was at the dance, she had the mic. It was really nice. She has fun, and I like that. I like people that enjoy life, ’cause I do the same.

HILTON: So what do you like to be called, Wayne or Lil Wayne?

WAYNE: Actually, Wayne is better.

HILTON: I know that you grew up in New Orleans. Did you always know you were going to be a rapper?

WAYNE: I starting rapping when I was 8 years old, so I think when you’re into something at such a young age like that . . . I mean, nobody in the world could have told me I wasn’t gonna be a rapper. So, yeah, I always knew I was gonna be one.

EHRLICH: Who did you look up to when you were 8 years old? Who inspired you to want to be a rapper?

WAYNE: The guys I’m with right now, Cash Money Records. They were pretty big locally in New Orleans and so I always just looked up to them. I mean, they were Cash Money Records way before everybody knew their name, and what I mean by that is that the power they have now, they had then, but just locally in the city. So they were always big. I listened to all their music. That’s probably why I wanted to be with them.

HILTON: And now you’re being called the new king of hip-hop. What do you think of that? Is it something that’s hard to live up to? Or is it exciting to have people say that?

WAYNE: It’s very exciting. I love pressure, so I guess if that brings forth pressure, then I’m up for it. But, you know, titles are titles, and names are names. As long as people remember me forever, that will be enough for me.

HILTON: Do you ever read your own press, or google yourself?

WAYNE: Um, never. I don’t think I’ve ever googled myself. [laughs] But I do read some things that . . . I mean, if I know that I was with an interviewer and I kind of figure that he or she got something bad or something good from the interview, then I’ll read the piece when it comes out. But other than that, I’d have to have a reason to read it-and, usually, I don’t have a reason. So, no, I don’t really read too much, because I know you know that they word things the way they want to word them when they put it on paper.

HILTON: What’s the most bizarre thing that you’ve ever read about yourself?

WAYNE: The most bizarre thing I’ve ever read about myself is that I was dead. That was kind of weird to read that I’m dead-mostly because I was reading it. [both laugh]

HILTON: I read that about myself once, too. It’s pretty bizarre. So what about paparazzi? Have they ever tried to get aggressive with you? Has there ever been an incident where one of them just set you off?

WAYNE: Because I don’t live in L.A., there’s not a lot of that. But when I’ve gone to L.A. and been in the hotel or wherever, I’ve seen how serious the paparazzi is out there-like, they park across the street from the hotel and as soon as you walk out the front door, they jump out and start snapping. I live in Miami, so I really don’t have to deal with that on the same level. The only time I ever really witnessed some crazy paparazzi was during my court experiences. Every time I rode up to court, as soon as I jumped out of the truck, they were there to snap, and all in our way to where we couldn’t walk. It’s nowhere near like that around here. But maybe I’m just not that caliber of person that they want to take pictures of me like that. [laughs]

EHRLICH: So you’re saying that you don’t get that hassled by paparazzi in Miami?

WAYNE: Well, obviously sometimes, because I go out. There’s this thing out here that publishes pictures of people out and about. So when I go out, I do see pictures of myself. I don’t know where those pictures come from-I mean, I don’t see the cameras. But I guess I’m just not looking for them.

HILTON: What’s your favorite club in Miami?

WAYNE: My favorite club in Miami is a club called LIV. It’s in the Fontainebleau Hotel.

HILTON: Oh, I love that club.

WAYNE: Mm-hmm.

HILTON: What else do you like to do for fun?

WAYNE: My main thing is to chill with my kids. My daughter loves to work, as well-she loves to record and stuff-so I like to work with her.

HILTON: How old is she?

WAYNE: My oldest daughter is 12.

HILTON: Oh, fun! How many kids do you have?

WAYNE: Four beautiful kids. Three boys and one beautiful angel.

EHRLICH: Do they live in Miami with you?

WAYNE: Nah. They live with their moms, but they’re always with me.

HILTON: So you said you’ve been rapping since you were 8 or 9. Do you remember your earliest rhyme?

WAYNE: I honestly don’t. I remember some parts of it. I remember the content of what I was rapping about, but I definitely don’t remember the first rap. But I remember where my head was at and what I was thinking about and things like that. I just wanted to be like Cash Money. That’s all it was. At the time, though, I think I was more fixated on groups like Another Bad Creation and Kris Kross and stuff like that.

HILTON: I know that you helped discover Drake, and now he has become one of hip-hop’s biggest names. What potential did you see in him and what have you been able to impart to him from your own experiences?

WAYNE: When I first heard Drake, I already knew that he had potential beyond my imagination, because the kid was singing and rapping-and he was rapping real well. So that’s kind of an odd mixture-like, you don’t get somebody very often who is real good at this and real good at that. So that’s when I already knew that he was gonna blow up, right there. He would’ve done it-with me or not-I just wanted to make sure it was with me. And the main thing I’ve told him, or taught him, for lack of better words, is just to stay humble and remember who you are throughout it all, because there’s gonna be moments in every single day when you’ll have to go back to that person and reflect on that person. You have to self-reflect. If you forget who you actually are, then what’s the use of even looking in the mirror.

HILTON: When you’re writing lyrics, do you ever worry about being offensive, or that you’ll kind of have to, like, edit them?

WAYNE: No. That’s one thing about me, and I think that’s what most of my fans enjoy about me, that I don’t hold nothing back. I do exactly what I want to do, and say exactly what I want to say. Sometimes I consider the fact that I have a daughter, but I also think about the realities of the world, and just let her know that this is the reality and this world is crazy and there are people out there that are a certain kind of way. I mean, once I get through that hump, then, like I said, I just say what’s on my mind.

EHRLICH: What are some of the things that you do to bring yourself back to Earth and remember who you are? I’m assuming that your kids are part of that.

WAYNE: It’s my family and my friends, plain and simple. My family and my friends-they keep me grounded. Especially my mom, because she would kick my ass if I was to change. So, flat out, that’s what it is.

HILTON: I think it’s good when your family keeps you humble. I’ve seen so many people gain a certain level of celebrity and just turn into different people.

WAYNE: Yeah, I have as well.

HILTON: It was kind of a controversial move when you released the album Rebirth last year, because it was sort of a rock album. How did you feel about the response to the album?

WAYNE: Oh, I was actually overwhelmed by it because I was surprised that record sold so well. It still went gold. So I was actually overwhelmed that people even got it because, if you’d asked me before, I thought it wasn’t gonna do shit. I thought it was gonna sell about 200,000 copies at the most. I really didn’t get to promote it well because I had to take my little eight-month vacation, but other than that, I think if I would have had more time to promote it, then it would have done better than it did.

HILTON: Well, I bought it and I loved it.

WAYNE: Thank you.

HILTON: So you’re branching out into different genres of music. Are you trying to integrate your audiences more?

WAYNE: Exactly. That’s exactly what it is, because when you go to my shows, there are a variety of people out there in the audience at my shows, and I like to please everybody.

HILTON: Who do you make music for?

WAYNE: I make it for my fans, honestly. I make it for my fans.

HILTON: One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of rappers, if you say to them, “Why are your lyrics about money, sex, and violence?” they’ll say, “Well, we’re telling it like it is. We’re being realistic.” But if you want to do something different and fresh, how do you do that?

WAYNE: You have to be an overall different type of person. Music is a reflection of who you are, and if those things that you mentioned are what your music is all about, then I guess that’s who you are. I mean, I think it’s just that simple. You have to be someone who is able to speak about different things. I speak about what I speak about, and I guess that’s because I’m a crazy-ass nigga. [Hilton laughs] Kanye [West] speaks about a lot of different things, but that’s because of who he is. You have Jay-Z, and he speaks about more corporate things, and I’m quite sure he’s a pretty corporate guy. But I guess it’s all who you are.

EHRLICH: Who do you like to listen to?

WAYNE: Honestly, I don’t listen to nobody else’s music but my own. It’s kind of like sports to me. You don’t see Kobe Bryant at a LeBron James game-he just works on his own game. And that’s what I do. I only listen to me, so I can criticize and analyze and all those things.

HILTON: While you were in prison you released another album, called I Am Not A Human Being. What does that title mean?

WAYNE: It’s just saying that I’m not the same as other people. I don’t think the same. I don’t do the same things. I just feel out of this world sometimes.

EHRLICH: I was reading that during your last month in prison, they put you in solitary confinement for having an iPod or something like that. I’ve heard that being in solitary is the most torturous thing in the world. What was that like for you?

WAYNE: For me it was okay, because it just meant that I was alone with my thoughts. There were times when it was pretty tough to be by yourself, and to have no television, no sort of nothing. That was kind of tough. But I didn’t have to be in there long. It was just a month. I was okay. I did fine.

EHRLICH: So literally a month without talking to any human beings except the guards. You’re totally isolated?

WAYNE: Nah. There were guys next to me and things like that. You could speak through the walls and stuff. It wasn’t totally silent like you would think it is.

EHRLICH: Can you still work out when you’re in solitary? Do you get time in the yard?

WAYNE: Yeah, yeah. I got an hour in the yard every day, so I was able to do all those things.

HILTON: I had to do 24 nights in solitary. [Hilton was held in a separate cell as a safety precaution.]

WAYNE: Oh, so you know how it is.

HILTON: Yeah, I know how it is.

EHRLICH: Wayne, did anybody try to fight with you at all in prison? Or did everyone just kind of respect you?

WAYNE: You know, we are men and we argue about things. That’s the aggression in us. So, yeah, I got into arguments. But there wasn’t ever anything too bad.

HILTON: How happy are you to have your freedom now?

WAYNE: Words cannot explain.

HILTON: Yeah, I know how you feel. [laughs] It’s the best feeling in the world when you come out.

EHRLICH: Does it make you feel almost like you appreciate every little thing in a different way now-like you have a new lease on life?

WAYNE: Exactly. You’re definitely more in tune to what you’re doing. You’re definitely more humble. I think that most people who come out of that situation just want to make the most of life afterwards. Honestly it was just one big humbling experience.

HILTON: I agree. So you’ve been all around the world. What is your favorite place in the world to go?

WAYNE: I’ve been to the Dominican Republic a few times and I like that. But Amsterdam would be my favorite place.

HILTON: I love Amsterdam! It’s so dope there. You can just ride a bike around. Do you ever dream? What are your dreams about?

WAYNE: I don’t dream a lot. But whenever I dream, I just dream about the day I just had or something like that. Mostly that’s what I dream about. I dream about that current day. Other than that, I don’t dream a lot.

EHRLICH: Do you think that your ambitions have changed at all now because you’ve achieved so much? Or do you still feel hungry in the same way that you did when you were a kid?

WAYNE: Honestly, it makes me want more because I’m nowhere near satisfied and I’m always hungry for more. I’m a very creative person, and the best part about creation is creating. So I always love to come up with new things, new ideas, new thoughts. I cherish things like that. So I’m always wanting more.

HILTON: What sign are you, Wayne?

WAYNE: I’m a Libra.

HILTON: Do you believe in horoscopes?

WAYNE: I’ve read horoscopes before and what they say about Libras. But I would actually love to not be what somebody writes down-I don’t want to be described. I don’t want you to be able to read something and say, “This is how Wayne is.” I’d rather you meet me and decide. I’d rather be different, basically. So, yes, I’ve read the horoscopes, and I see what they say. But I’d rather be something else.

HILTON: Do you have any pets?

WAYNE: I like animals, but I only have a few pets. I have a bunch of fish, and I have two sharks. Those are my dudes.

HILTON: Wow. Sharks? Nice.

EHRLICH: How big are the sharks?

WAYNE: One is a little baby, so he’s about a foot or two, or something like that. Then the other one is a good two, two and a half feet, or almost three feet.

EHRLICH: So do you have a huge pool for them? Or do they stay in a tank?

WAYNE: They live in a crib. I have this little water thing. It’s like a little pond under the stairwell in my house. So they swim under there.

HILTON: That’s dope . . . Do you go on Twitter?

WAYNE: I just shut my Twitter account down because it got hacked. Once it got hacked I had Twitter fix it. They changed it. And then it got hacked again so I just shut it down. As of right now, I’m on Twitter strike.

EHRLICH: Here’s a question for both of you: Do either of you have any goals that you’d like to accomplish in the near future? What would you like to have done by the end of this year?

WAYNE: Ladies first.

HILTON: Me? I’d really love to finish my album, because I’ve been working on it for so long, but I’ve had so many other projects that it’s hard to focus on one thing. I’d also love to just continue doing my businesses, and be more confrontational with people, because I let a lot of people get away with stuff because I don’t say anything. So, personally, I wish that I would be stronger with people.

EHRLICH: Wayne, what about you?

WAYNE: I want to bank a cool $50 million at least. At the end of this year, I want to be able to say that I banked $50 million. Not generated $50 million, but actually banked $50 million.

EHRLICH: After taxes you mean?

WAYNE: [laughs] Exactly.

HILTON: That’s a good goal to have.

In the April issue of Interview Magazine, the bad boy rapper and party-girl hotel heiress bonded over their love for music, Miami clubs, and freedom (both served time behind bars in recent years).

Hilton took a break from filming her upcoming reality show in L.A. to interview Wayne in Miami, via phone. What broke the ice for the two fast-living mega-stars? Chatting about jail, of course.

“For me it was okay because it just meant that I was alone with my thoughts,” said Wayne of his one-month stint in solitary confinement, after being caught with an iPod at Rikers Island last year.

“There were times when it was pretty tough to be by yourself, and to have no television, no sort of nothing…I was okay. I did fine,” said Wayne, who released an album in jail.

Hilton, who served 23 days in prison in 2007 after violating her probation for repeatedly driving on a suspended license and ignoring court orders, empathized.

“I know how you feel,” said the 30-year-old socialite. “It’s the best feeling in the world when you come out.”

Hilton and Wayne are currently each working on their music careers. They even exchanged phone numbers for a future collaboration.

“That would be the sickest thing,” said Hilton, who said she hopes to release her second album this summer.

But Wayne’s got more on his mind than mere music. Show him the money!

“At the end of this year, I want to be able to say that I banked $50 million,” he said. “Not generated $50 million, but actually banked $50 million.”

Via NYDN

While having dinner, Lil Wayne announces Cory Gunz as the next member to be signed to the Young Money team in the video above. If you remember back, the very first “A Milli” that got released had Cory Gunz featured on it. Leave a comment below with your thoughts on this, like do you think it was a good move or not

Hit the jump to see Lil Wayne and his Twap Team (Lil Za and Lil Twist) do a freestyle live on uStream in his mansion. Weezy also plays the piano and has a “Fuck Em!” carpet underneath it which was pretty cool. You can also see part two of Tim Westwood’s interview with Birdman on Baby‘s tour bus.

Lil Wayne freestyling with his Twap Team:

Tim Westwood interview with Birdman were they talk about jewelry, tattoos, Jay Sean, UK and their music:

QD3‘s Lil Wayne “The Carter” Documentary has finally been released, and if you didn’t order a copy yet, you can order one from TheCarterDoc.com. In the above video, you can see the first 10 minutes of the documentary were Weezy and Cortez Bryant speak about shooting himself, Hollygrove New Orleans, The Carter III bootleg, and much more.

Hit the jump to see an unreleased studio session of Lil Wayne recording a song (the “Flower” one) for “The Carter” documentary. He then later talks about expanding and improving his music:

Later this month, “The Simpsons” will jump into its 21st season with yet another entry in the fantastic “Treehouse of Horror” franchise. To celebrate the upcoming milestone and to pay respects to some great hip-hop icons, Format and Moxy Creative have teamed up to produce a series of limited-edition posters that depict 10 famous rappers “Simpsonized.” The results are pretty great. As you can see in the posse shot below, some real heavy hitters are represented: Biggie Smalls, Tupac, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Flavor Flav, Andre 3000, Eminem, Eazy-E and Fat Joe have all been converted into cartoon versions of their former selves.

In addition to the posse poster, each MC gets his own individual poster, complete with a customized “O” in the “No Homer” logo (a clever play on the hip-hop catchphrase “No homo”). Kanye gets the shriveled heart from the 808s & Heartbreak cover, while Flav gets a giant clock and Slim Shady gets a pill.

Via: MTV and hit the jump to see Lil Wayne‘s individual poster:

Ok, yesterday we posted ‘Lil Wayne: Behind The Music [Sneak Peak]‘ and ‘Lil Wayne Explains Why He Stopped Writing Down Music In ‘Behind The Music’‘, but for our non-US visitors, the video would not play, and a lot of you left a comment saying can you post another video.

So thanks to Yardie, you can now watch the video above from wherever you are and also see the preview for 50 Cent’s “Behind The Music”

Also, as a bonus hit the jump below to see the official front cover for Birdman‘s upcoming album, Priceless:

All red everything

In the rapper’s upcoming “Behind the Music” special, set to air September 10 on VH1, he talks openly about scrapping his rhyme books during a furious recording session, where he transformed from Cash Money‘s young sidekick to the label’s heavyweight superstar.

“The only way I won’t be able to rap anything I’ve written again is to record everything I’ve ever written before once,” he explained of what led to his now notebook-free style.

The result was a 35-minute freestyle called “10,000 Bars,” on which Wayne‘s disjointed rhymes, parts of various working songs, become a cathartic release and set the tone for his memorable mixtape run and a series of Carter albums.

“That changed Wayne as an artist,” his longtime manager, Cortez Bryant, said.

I think this is crazy how Wayne doesn’t write nothing down anymore and it just shows how great of an artist he actually is. Also, I can’t wait for this “Behind the Music” to air on 10th September.

Shouts to MTV