DJ Drama, Dedication series compiler

After Dedication one, I was DJing for T.I. on the road. Tha Carter II had just dropped. Tip and Wayne had a show in, if I’m not mistaken, Detroit. We crossed paths. Wayne was walking out, I was walking in. We chopped it up for a minute, like, "What’s up? You ready? You wanna go again?" And he’s like, "Yeah, let’s do it. It’s time!"

I spent a lot of time in the next month or so just gathering beats and sending him ideas. It was interesting, the contrast to me between Dedication and Dedication 2: Wayne went in a lot of ways that people might not have expected. I remember how people had reacted to him rapping on the Little Brother beat for "This Is What I Call Her".

It was so much s*** on there. "Where The Cash At” originated on that tape, and later went on to be the single for Swizz Beats. Wayne rapped on “What You Know About That,” Tip’s biggest record.

I recorded Dedication 2 at 147 Walker Street — my old studio, the one that got raided. Wayne did his verses mostly in Miami. It was fun. He sent his stuff to me as a big chunk of music and I pieced it together the way I saw s*** best. That was a time when I was pretty much writing scripts out for the tapes. That was one of my jewels to my early mixtape formulas. I can pretty much give it away now: when I would do a tape, I would almost write out a script as if I was doing an interview with an artist.

I’d ask questions. As a fan of the culture, it was like, What do people wanna hear? Wayne has so many fans — wouldn’t they be interested to know what his favorite TV show was?

When I asked Wayne, he went, “Sports sports sports. All I do is watch sports. ESPN, SportsCenter. All I do is watch sports.” Hence, the title “Sportscenter.” I think Green Lantern made that beat, that tennis court beat. Note: Correct. The beat was originally from a Jay Z B-side called “The Game Is Mine.”

This was the time when Wayne really was in the bag as far as “best rapper alive.” And that was around the time where Jay Z had quote unquote “retired.” Seeing that Wayne was next in line when it came to top MCs, I asked him: “Do you ever plan on retiring?” And he answered like, “I’ll retire when I’m dead. This is what I do.”

Around that time, I was working on the Gangsta Grillz album. And Khaled was doing the video for “Holla At Me” in Miami at the time. So pretty much everybody in the rap world came to Miami for that video. Wayne was working at Circle House Studios there, and I went and played him the beat for “Cannon,” which at the time had T.I. and Busta on the record. That was probably one of the last records he did for Dedication 2. I was like, "This is probably gonna be my next single, tell me if you f*** with it." He bodied it in a night.

Before we dropped the first one, Wayne asked me, “What you wanna call the tape?” And, being creative, I came with Dedication. I can say that I didn’t even know how important the title would be to the series. It was a time after Katrina had struck, and so the name Dedication took on an even stronger meaning. As for as for myself, having been on the road with Tip around the same time — there was the incident in Cincinnati, where T.I.’s right hand man Philant had got killed. When you listen to the tape I say, “Rest in peace Philant.”

Wayne’s pretty specific a lot of time what he likes to rap to. I would send him a batch of stuff, and he had his own batch of s***. I definitely credit him 100 percent with “Georgia Bush.” That song was a definite moment within the culture. Those lyrics meant something to the city.

It’s kind of wild to watch how influential that project was. Everywhere I went, I heard it. There was no place I wouldn’t hear it. I think the highlight for me was sitting on my mom’s front step back where I grew up in Philadelphia and having a car drive by and hearing Dedication 2. I was just like, “Whoa.”

It starts off, “You are watching a master at work.” And it is just that.

thefader.com/2016/05/26/lil-wayne-dedication-mixtape-cover-art-dj-drama-interview

What are your favourite songs/verses on this?

how can u not say wayne is the goat

Carter II, Dedication 2 & Da Drought 3 all dropped within 15 months

THE MIXTAPES ARE BETTER THAN UR ALBUMS DAWG

UR SKRONG

BUT YOUR NOT WAYNE BUILT

WAYNE IS THE GOAT

IN DWAYNE WE TRUST

Damn. A whole teenager

I was raised by this and Drought 3

can you really call yourself a rap fan if you can't rap Wayne's Cannon verse word for word?

I’m not crying

PAY ATTENTION !

I'm sick, I don't spit, I vomit, got it?
One egg short of the omelet

I've never heard anyone rap like this before, this when I knew he was the greatest rapper alive

His best project

Greatest mixtape ever

GREATEST MIXTAPE ALL TIMES IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC

Still remember that summer man everybody was bumping this s***

Drought 3 is a lot better

Top 5 songs on this?

Legendary moment in rap history

dam was bumping yday and i didn’t even know it

SportsCenter and Walk It Off

no doubt Wayne is top 5 dead or alive, he went nuclear this whole project

Get em
They still like me
Cannon
Where the cash at
Welcome to the concrete jungle

Classic among classics

Cannon
Georgia Bush
Sportscenter
Spitter
Where the Cash At

Cover my tracks like butter so where the bread be? I see beef as dead meat

Got a b**** with me call her ms. without draws
and i’m at the bank you can call me
mr. with draws

Ground zero