Lil Wayne Talks Signing Drake And Nicki Minaj

A Lil Wayne verse can make an already good song even better, as evidenced by his monstrous 16 bars on DJ Khaled's "We Takin' Over." And when Wayne was putting together the roster for his then-burgeoning Young Money empire, he knew he needed someone who could take his company to the next level in the same manner.

Enter Drake.

"The first thing I said was this kid's a superstar," Weezy told about his introduction to Drizzy. "I don't think you can remember, but I did some interviews back then when they were asking me about him and I said he's better than me. I can't sing. I can make a song, but this kid has the actual R&B presence. Then he's one of the dopest lyricists. That right there, he has a welcoming appearance. I knew he was something bigger than something I had envisioned for my company when I ran into this kid. I was thinking I'm going to put my people on and we're going to be all right, but then when I ran into this kid, I was like, this a superstar, he's got a chance to make my company something for real, something to be thought of, to be remembered."

Since that time, of course, Drake has skyrocketed to the top with a standout mixtape, So Far Gone, and a successful debut album, Thank Me Later.

What Lil Wayne didn't know at the time he assembled the YM crew, however, was that he'd have two franchise stars, the second being Nicki Minaj, who also ascended to superstardom in her own right.

As a result of signing both rappers, Wayne has managed to turn himself into a mogul on par with Diddy, Jay-Z and his boss, Cash Money's Birdman.

"I can't front, I just thought she was going to be the new female MC that none of these other female MCs can touch," Wayne said about Nicki. "But now, she's blossomed into a megastar with this new attitude and this style. Now when I talk to her, I just tell her, 'Do what you do, baby.' I used to be able to go into the studio and say, 'Nah, don't say that, don't say that.' You know, 'That was better.' Now, do what you do, baby. I don't have a clue about what you're doing right now, but it's working, do it."