Lil Wayne, the five-time Grammy Award-winning rap icon, has released Tha Carter VI his fourteenth studio album and the sixth installment in his Tha Carter album series, via Young Money and Republic Records. Tonight, Friday, June 6th, he’ll mark the album’s release with his debut headlining concert at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden before heading out on a national Tha Carter VI tour this summer [get tickets].
Although the album technically opens with “King Carter”, that track serves as more of an overture for the Tha Carter VI‘s true, tone-setting introduction, “Welcome to Tha Carter”, an old-soul, feel-good, gospel-rooted track that sets a tone of celebration that persists at least throughout the front half of the LP. “Welcome to Tha Carter,” a nurturing choir sings, “Where the mountains align, where the strong survive, where dreams never die.” A fine welcome, to be sure.
While we all dig into the first of what we’re sure will be many listens to Mr. Carter’s latest, here’s some pertinent info on the album and the Tha Carter series to get you started:
There wasn’t supposed to be a sixth Tha Carter album.
After winning critical and commercial acclaim with 2008’s Tha Carter III, the album that cemented him for a considerable stretch of time as the biggest rapper in the game, 2011’s Tha Carter IV managed to attain commercial success but was widely panned by critics. He began to tease Tha Carter V as far back as 2012, one year after the release of Tha Carter IV, but the release timeline dragged out over several years as Wayne battled Birdman in the board room over contract and legal disputes.
In a 2014 interview with MTV.com, Wayne explained, “I personally plan on [Tha Carter V] being my final solo album, yes, and it’s definitely the final [Tha] Carter album. It’s the final Carter album. It’s stopping at five. I didn’t smile when I said it… I plan on it being my final solo album.”
After a years-long delay, Tha Carter V arrived in 2018, but Weezy apparently still had more to say: A press release issued on Friday notes that Lil Wayne worked on the new LP for six years—meaning it took him less than a year to change his tune(chi) on the whole “final album” thing and start working on what would become Tha Carter VI.
Lil Wayne has been working on Tha Carter VI for six years.
Speaking of the six-year process of making Tha Carter VI, Wayne had this to say in an official statement: “Real art can’t be rushed — and y’all know I ain’t never been on nobody’s clock but mine. Been silent but not still. To the fans who’ve been waiting, I love you. This album is for the ones who’ve been riding with me through all Tha Carters. We takin’ it further than ever before with this one. Tunechi back. C6 is here. I’m just bein myself. Sorry for the wait.”
That’s not to say he’s been “silent,” exactly…
As always, Lil Wayne has continued to issue new music since the last volume of Tha Carter. He put out his thirteenth studio album, Funeral, in 2020—a year after he had reportedly started working on Tha Carter VI. In 2003, he teamed up with 2 Chainz for a collaborative album, Welcome 2 Collegrove. 2 Chainz also appears on one of Tha Carter VI‘s standout tracks, “Cotton Candy”.
That’s not to mention his continued stream of mixtapes (he’s put out three of them—2020’s No Ceilings 3, 2021’s Rich The Kid collab Trust Fund Babies, and 2023’s telling Tha Fix Before tha VI—since Tha Carter V) and his ever-present work as a feature-for-hire (Rolling Stone‘s feature noted that he recorded 17 features in 2024 alone).
He revealed its coming arrival during a Super Bowl ad for Cetaphil lotion.
After it was widely reported that Weezy was “hurt” that he was not offered the opportunity to headline the Super Bowl LIX halftime show in his native New Orleans (that honor went to Kendrick Lamar), Wayne rode the wave of intrigue surrounding the big game to announce that Tha Carter VI was arriving this summer via an appearance in an amusingly self-aware Cetaphil ad.
Wyclef Jean played a big role in producing the album.
In a lengthy spring 2025 Rolling Stone cover story on Lil Wayne, global superstar Wyclef Jean (Fugees) was referred to as a key collaborator on Tha Carter VI. They recorded more than 30 tracks together for what would eventually be a 19-track release.
Among his notable contributions outside the studio was flying to Italy to get famed tenor Andrea Bocelli involved in the album. Per Rolling Stone, “Wyclef flew to Italy to ask Bocelli’s permission to sample the song, and ended up telling Bocelli the story of Wayne surviving a self-inflicted gunshot at 12. The tenor was so moved that he decided to sing the opera standard himself. ‘It’s one of them records that I feel is going to stop time,’ Wyclef says. ”
“[Wyclef] thinks Wayne will be seen as an icon centuries from now,” Rolling Stone also wrote, “‘You got to think like how people study Bach and Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis and Shakespeare,’ he explains over Zoom from Paris. ‘He’s going to be regarded as one of the greatest renaissance wordsmith composers of our generation.'”
It also features a song produced by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Various different producers and songwriters are credited on Tha Carter VI—often many per song—but one that stands out starkly is Lin-Manuel Miranda, the musical theatre superstar/rap superfan behind Hamilton and In the Heights. He and Wayne are the only writers listed on the track, while he is listed as the sole producer.
In layman’s terms, that means Lin-Manuel Miranda made Weezy a beat and he actually used it on Tha Carter VI. The track, “Peanuts 2 N Elephant”, has the energy of a 2010s Da Drought mixtape, with a mischievous creep that allows wordsmith Wayne to get imaginative cadences and imagery on his verses. No word yet on whether Lin was in the room where the recording happened. Let us know when the Lil Wayne Broadway jukebox musical is out, we’re ready to buy tickets.
The list of features is stacked with stars and sons.
The album includes features from a diverse list of well-known artists including Andrea Bocelli, Bono, Jelly Roll, Big Sean, 2 Chainz, MGK, Wyclef Jean, and Kodak Black. It also features notable appearances by two of his sons, Kameron Carter (on sports car-themed 808 banger “Rari”) and Lil Novi on the leaned-out “Mula Komin In”.
Stream or download Tha Carter VI, the new album from Lil Wayne, on the platform of your choice here or listen via the player below. Scroll down to view the full list of tracks and features on the album and view a full list of upcoming Lil Wayne tour dates.
Lil Wayne – Tha Carter VI – Full Album