Legendary F*** Ups: Here’s Why Lil Wayne Almost Changed His Iconic ‘F is for Phenomenal’ Lyric
If you’re a Lil Wayne fan–or even if you’re not–you probably already know that one of his most iconic (and hilarious) lines is, “Weezy F. Baby, and the F is for phenomenal.” It’s a fan favorite both because of Wayne’s history rapping what the “F” in”Weezy F Baby” stands for…and because of that fact that “phenomenal” clearly doesn’t start with an F.
Most people assumed that Wayne did this purposely, knowing how to spell phenomenal but saying the line anyway for comedic purposes. But as it turns out, it wasn’t intentional.
During a recent conversation on Andrew Barber’s Fake Shore Drive show, Lil Wayne’s longtime associate Cortez Bryant revealed that the famous line off of his 2009 song, “Yes,” was actually a mistake.
“The word starts with ‘ph,’ but he said ‘f,’ right?” Bryant says at the 19:11-mark. “He was like, ‘Oh sh-t, I gotta change that.’ We released it. We had an argument about that. He not understanding the concept about digital, and it’s gone now…We had pressed tons of CDs, but he didn’t realize he spelled it wrong, and I didn’t catch it.”
Bryant continued, explaining that Weezy was so serious about wanting to fix the error because he’s so passionate about his craft.
“Wayne is a perfectionist about that, using his words and prepositions in [the] correct way,” he continued. “He might misspell something on purpose for lyrical exercise and wordplay, but he’s really precise about his wordplay. He was really down, pissed, ‘F**k the whole mixtape’ just because of that one damn line.”
Check out the story for yourself down below:
