Lil Wayne Says Eminem's "Forever" Verse Made Him Scrap His Own: "What Is Wrong With This White Boy?"

Seventeen years after "Forever," Wayne finally told the story in his own words, and he still sounds a little shook.

Lil Wayne sat down with NFL safety Tyrann Mathieu on his podcast In The Bayou for a full episode published on October 20. About 41 minutes in, the conversation turned to the 2009 posse cut "Forever" with Drake, Kanye West and Eminem, and one of the hosts put the long-running rumor to him directly: did you redo your verse after you heard Eminem's?

Wayne said yes, and explained exactly why.

Lil Wayne: "I'm sure my original verse that I had on there, I'm sure there wasn't a damn thing wrong with it. But I think I approached it... I felt like I wasn't going hard on them. I felt like I was just talking about general topics. I wasn't talking about knocking your [expletive] head off and I'm the best out."

Then he heard what Eminem had sent in.

Lil Wayne: "Once I heard Em's verse I was like, Jesus Christ. I was like, what is this dude? What is wrong with this white boy, man? He make it so [expletive] difficult, bro. Take my verse off, bro. Give me a minute. I got to redo my [expletive]."

In The Bayou With Tyrann Mathieu, full episode, cued to the "Forever" question at 41:39.

He was clear it was not a sore spot. Wayne called it motivation, said he "got hype," and said he enjoyed every second of the moment, adding that he couldn't wait to do a new version and hoped Eminem would love it.

The clip that took off

The episode itself has been up since Tuesday, but the "Forever" exchange is what spread. A clip posted by fan account @SonaShady8 on October 21 passed 130,000 views in under a day, and the podcast's own account jumped into the replies to point people to the full interview.

Why it still matters

The story has floated around for years, mostly secondhand. Kanye West has long been quoted saying he went back and rewrote his own "Forever" verse after hearing Eminem's, and Eminem's explanation at the time was simply that he heard the Boi-1da beat as a double-time beat and rapped faster. What was missing was Wayne saying it himself, on camera, with the reasoning attached. Now it is on the record: Wayne's first draft was fine, but it was "general topics," and Eminem's verse turned the song into a competition he had not realized he was in.

It also lands two weeks after Wayne admitted on The Joint Venture Show that Eminem is the rapper whose lines make him think, "how did I not think of that?" Two separate podcasts, the same message from one of the few rappers who can call himself Eminem's peer. The respect runs both ways, too: Wayne and Eminem went on to make "Drop the World" and "No Love" soon after.

Neither Eminem nor his camp has commented on the clip.