After releasing "Da Drought 3" mixtape a few weeks ago, Lil Wayne unveiled a YouTube video last weekend, explaining that his upcoming "Tha Carter 3" album was leaked.
In response, the rapper plans to release the leaked tracks as a mixtape simply called "The Leak." A new and improved "Tha Carter 3," according to Wayne, will drop in 2008. Until then, Wayne and Juelz Satana's duet album, "I Can't Feel My Face" is being held up with "paperwork" but Wayne promised a single this month.
As for Wayne's Young Money Entertainment, the MC says the label will release a group album as well. "The group is going to be Bad Ass Grasshopper," he reports. "The first single is going to be called 'Rap, Rock, R&B.' You know what, I think we'll do a mixtape called 'Rap, Rock and R&B' to introduce what we're doing."
On top of everything else, Lil Wayne colleague Birdman is also releasing a solo album this year. Wayne also penned the video treatment for first single "Poppin' Bottles."
Updating an earlier story that concerned Wayne's participation in a new online reality series, "Making the Next Hit," organizers have now clarified that his role is not "set in stone." Wayne has "been invited to the show and he could possibly make an appearance," says David Swagga, radio host and spokesperson for TheNext.tv, which will air the show beginning in February.
"Making the Next Hit" aims to discover new producers, models, singers, comedians and rappers, and will be hosted by veteran MC Busy Bee and Pit, producer of the Shop Boyz' "Party Like a Rockstar."
The production crew will hold auditions in Philadelphia on Aug. 12, to be followed by events in Atlanta, New Jersey and New York. Once the show chooses a winner, Cash Money Records will have first right of refusal in signing that act.
