Lil Wayne's Mother Refused to Accept His First Big Check: 'It's Just Paper'

Lil Wayne's mother taught him an important lesson about money when she turned down the first check he made in the music industry.

During his visit to The Pivot podcast, Weezy took the time to reflect on the valuable lesson his mother, Jacinda Carter, taught him by turning down the check. According to the multi-platinum-selling artist, his mother showed him that money isn't everything.

"First big check, though?" Lil Wayne remarked. "I just gave it straight to her. Gave it straight to my mom, and the first thing she did was give it straight back. You know, with this check, we got three digits before the other three digits. We had never seen that in our lives, you know what I mean? She was like, 'Boy that's yours. You made that.'"

He continued, "Goes to show you how we are. Just that right there, I mean, that just taught me how to be with money right there at that moment. It taught me that it doesn't mean nothing. I'm like, 'You don't need nothing out of this?' She was like, 'I don't need nothing.' I was like, 'I'm going to build you a house.' And she took, like, the least she could take to build the house. But that taught me from that moment that it's just paper. That don't mean too much."

In an interview with ESPN in 2014, Wayne revealed after his mother turned down his first-ever artist check which totaled $6,500, he went to a Nissan dealership and bought a Pathfinder.

Elsewhere in his conversation with The Pivot, Lil Wayne revealed he stopped writing down his rhymes after finding out JAY-Z didn't write his bars down. The last song where Wayne wrote down his lyrics was the 2002 song "10,000 Bars."

"Love Biggie, love Jadakiss — I love all that shit, but Jay. The moment I heard it I stopped," Wayne said. "You could ask my boy. 'I heard that n***a Jay-Z don't write no more.'"

He continued, "We went in the studio, and we did '10,000 Bars,' and that was the last time I rapped anything off of a paper."