Late on the day that Lil Wayne officially received his long-rumored pardon from former President Trump, he dropped a new song called “Ain’t Got Time.”
While the song’s lyrics don’t specifically address the pardon, he does reference the December 2019 federal weapons charges that were cleared by it. Waynepleaded guiltyto illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon, which carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years, and when photos of him posing with Trump were released after a private meeting between the two in October, just days before the election, many assumed that some kind of pardon deal was in the works.
“The feds, they hot on us, 100 on the thermometer / They raided my private plane, got one that’s more privater,” he raps, later adding, “FBI arrest me, why?”
The rapper also tweeted thanks to the former president as well as attorney Bradford Cohen on Thursday morning, writing: “I want to thank President Trump for recognizing that I have so much more to give to my family, my art, and my community. I also want to thank @bradfordcohen
for working so diligently to secure another chance for me. Love!”
I want to thank President Trump for recognizing that I have so much more to give to my family, my art, and my community.I also want to thank @bradfordcohen for working so diligently to secure another chance for me. Love!
– Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.
— Lil Wayne WEEZY F (@LilTunechi) January 21, 2021
Howard Srebnick, another attorney for Wayne, told Rolling Stone on Wednesday, “A pardon for [Lil Wayne] is consistent with the views of many jurists — including Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett — that prosecuting a non-violent citizen for merely possessing a firearm violates the Second Amendment to the U. S. Constitution,” adding that the gun confiscated in the raid was a “collector’s piece, given to him as a Father’s Day gift.”
In anofficial White House statementreleased late Tuesday night, Wayne, rapper Kodak Black, Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez and Death Row Records cofounder Michael “Harry O” Harris were among the 73 pardons and 70 sentence commutations granted by the outgoing president. Others included his former adviser Steve Bannon, former Republican National Committee chairman Elliott Broidy, former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Ken Kurson, the former editor of the New York Observer.
