Aminé recently spoke with XXL about how Lil Wayne has inspired his music and performance style over the years.
In an interview, the Portland rapper discussed his 2024 “360.5” freestyle and compared its energy to Wayne‘s Da Drought 3 era.
He said the freestyle was a nod to when Weezy remixed “every hot beat on Earth” during that legendary mixtape run.
When asked about Tunechi‘s impact, Aminé called him the G.O.A.T. and praised how his personality shines through every record.
He explained that Tune‘s inflection and delivery make his words unforgettable, even beyond the lyrics themselves.
According to Aminé, delivery can completely change a song’s perception, which is something he learned by studying Mr. Carter.
He also shared that he often re-records verses with more attitude and dramatics, just as the Young Money CEO does.
You can read Aminé‘s full comments on Wayne below!
Aminé Interview About Lil Wayne
Last year, you put out the “360.5” freestyle. You killed it in your own way, but it was also giving Lil Wayne from over a decade ago in the best way possible.
That’s a compliment. That’s crazy. Yeah, I love that era of Wayne doing Da Drought 3, or whatever, and remixing every hot beat on Earth. That was the whole point for me when I did that.
I was just like: ‘I love this beat.’ A. G. Cook is a really, really good producer. And yeah, it was summertime, I had nothing to do. I was still working on my album, I was like: ‘let me just rap.’ I just felt like rapping.
So, you get some kind of inspiration from Lil Wayne. How has he been able to play a part in your career, when you’re thinking about rapping, bars, excellence, wordplay and songwriting?I’m trying to find the perfect words for it, but Wayne, growing up for me, I was on LimeWire, illegally downloading music all the time, you know what I mean? I had “A Milli” before “A Milli” came out years ago. He’s the G.O.A.T., everyone knows he’s one of the best ever. But for me, it was more so, he has this personality on records that can’t be ignored.
I think a lot of people are really good at lyrics and metaphors and bars, but something about the way Wayne says something has an inflection to it. He makes sure you remember the way he says something. And that part is really important to me in rap, where I think we focus a lot on lyrics. But delivery and the way you say a word is so important because it can change the perception of a song, completely.
I’ve done a verse, listened to it and thought: ‘oh, this is pretty good.’ And then, I re-cut the entire verse with way more attitude, way more inflection, way more dramatics to it. Just because, yeah, I’ve seen that in Wayne, and you learn that that’s the way to deliver a song.
