Lil Wayne Says He's Become A Better Lyricist

While Lil Wayne was away in prison,as one would expect, he had a lot of time to pull out his pen and put rhymes down on paper until his release. That process is much more formal than Weezy's normal recording routine, of course, as the rapper is more apt to spit lyrics from memory — a practice also used by Jay-Z, Fabolous and T.I., among others.

And in fact, during Wayne's eight months behind bars, the Cash Money superstar says he did put his thoughts down in writing, but he didn't continue the habit once he was released.

"I don't have a second to sit down and write something down now. I'm not writing at all," Wayne told about his current creative process.

"There was just a lot of material that I wrote in there and I came home and transformed it into something better. A lot of it, when I came home I thought I would perform it the way I wrote it, but it wasn't possible, so I took bits and pieces and rejuvenated it."

According to the "6 Foot 7 Foot" rapper explained that, like an athlete, he feels his skills declining, although he maintains that the loss is offset by a greater aptitude in his lyrics.

"When I listen to the old stuff of mine, I be mad because I'm like, I can't even do that no more, man. I feel like I'm getting old — how did I even think about that then?" he said. "But you know, the difference is, it's not about what you were saying, it was about how you said it back then. What I mean by that is, if you had a flow and you're just like, 'Dun, dun, dun, dun,' you know, you rhyming all these words — it was about how you said it. Even a person who doesn't listen to rap can say, 'I don't know what he saying, but he saying it.' But nowadays, for me, it's about what I'm saying. So now, if you don't listen to rap and you hear it, you're like, 'I don't know if I like what he's saying, but I damn sure understand what he saying and it was very clever what he said.' "

The New Orleans rapper is putting the final touches on his next studio album — and his first project since his release from prison this past November — Tha Carter IV. But first, Wayne is set for the television premiere of his "6 Foot 7 Foot" video, which will take place on MTV on Thursday (March 3) at 7:54 p.m. ET.