In 2007 Lil Wayne put out more music than most artists could dream of releasing over the span of their careers. In addition to releasing countless mix tapes, he also laid verses for a number of artists, which ranged from current Hip-Hop mainstay DJ Khaled to multi-platinum singer Enrique Iglesias.
Wayne’s apparent willingness to put out (music) and jump on just about any track even had some comparing him to a prostitute. Rapper 50-Cent called him a “Whore” during an interview with Hot 97 last year. But not even a prostitute works for free.
So don’t think of calling Wayne for a guest appearance unless you are willing to pay $100,000 (no discounts for former governors of New York, regardless of how much Wayne loves Brooklyn.) That’s how much Wayne claims he charges for the average cameo. He even told Rolling Stone, “I wouldn’t do a song for my sister for less than $75,000.”
Presuming he does charge that much, Wayne could have earned nearly $3 million in 2007 from his features alone. To put his earnings into greater perspective, industry powerhouse Jay-Z has only made $2 million in royalties from the 2006 release of Kingdom Come.
Here is a list of features Wayne made in 2007, and how much we estimate he charged each artist:
1.DJ Khaled feat. Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Baby & Lil Wayne - “We Takin’ Over”: $75,000 (After all the cameos, we’re gonna presume he loves Khaled like a sister)
2. DJ Khaled feat. Lil Wayne & Baby - “‘S’ On My Chest”: $75,000
3. DJ Khaled feat. Young Jeezy, Juelz Santana, Rick Ross, Fat Joe & Lil Wayne - “Brown Paper Bag”: $75,000
4. Lloyd feat. Lil Wayne - “You”: $100,000
5. Birdman feat. Lil Wayne - “Championship (Pop Bottles)”: $75,000 (He loves his daddy)
6. Birdman Feat. Rick Ross, Jeezy, and Lil Wayne – “$100 Million”: $75,000
7. Jay-Z feat. Lil Wayne - “Hello Brooklyn 2.0″: $100,000
8. Kanye West feat. Lil Wayne - “Barry Bonds”: $100,000
9. Gym Class Heroes feat. Lil Wayne - “Viva La White Girl (Remix)”: $100,000
10. Ja Rule feat. Lil Wayne - “Uh Oh”: $100,000
11. Fall Out Boy feat. Gym Class Heroes, Tyga, Paul Wall, Skinhead Rob, Kanye West, & Lil Wayne - “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s An Arms Race (Remix): $100,000
12. Enrique Iglesias feat. Lil Wayne - “Push”: $100,000
13. Wyclef Jean feat. Akon & Lil Wayne - “Sweetest Girl”: $100,000
14. Twista feat. Lil Wayne - “Whip Game Proper”: $100,000
15. Cool Kids feat. Lil Wayne - “Getting It”: $100,000
16. Playaz Circle feat. Lil Wayne - “Duffle Bag Boyz”: $100,000
17. Timbaland feat. One Republic, Bun B & Lil Wayne - “Apologize (Remix)”: $100,000
18. Nelly Furtado – Man Eater (Remix): $100,000
19. Nicole Scherzinger feat. Lil Wayne - Whatever U Like (MTV VMA performance): $100,000
20. Fabolous feat. Lil Wayne - “Diamonds”: $100,000 (Song was never officially released)
21. Shop Boyz feat. Lil Wayne - “Party Like a Rockstar (Remix): $100,000
22. Fonzworth Bentley feat. Pimp C, & Lil Wayne - “C.O.L.O.U.R.S.” : $100,000
23. Chris Brown feat. Lil Wayne, & Juelz Santana - “Poppin’ (Remix)”: $100,000
24. Devin the Dude feat. Lil Wayne, Bun B - “Lil Girl Gone”: $100,000
25. Mya feat. Lil Wayne - “Lock You Down”: $100,000
26. Little Brother feat. Lil Wayne - “Breakin My Heart”: $100,000
27. Dj Khaled feat. Lil Wayne - “I’m So Hood (Remix)”: $75,000
28. Chamillionaire feat. Lil Wayne - “Rock Star”: $100,000
29. Robin Thicke feat. Lil Wayne - “All Night Long”: $100,000
30. Robin Thicke feat. Lil Wayne – “Shooter”: $100,000
TOTAL: $2,850,000.00 (give or take)
Props to Adam for helping out with this
That’s cool and all but that doesn’t change the fact that he still sucks. I’m tired of hearing people say he’s the best doing it too just because he’s on everyone’s track. Carter III will be even more garbage because he has nothing to rap about.
Sorry for the negativity, Jay. Love the site, keep it up.
Most of his features have been hit or miss. He claims he charges 100K though.
What about back end money via publishing? I wonder if the deal the other parties’ lawyers strike doesn’t involve him either relinquishing all his possible points or a smaller percentage than normal..
Peso you got any clue into that?
30 mediocre verse that he caked on. He prolly spent at least half of that on lean and weed tho.
Thanks for the Props man…
Good stuff .
What does kingdom come have to do with that sorry guys help me out.
i dont buy the 100k a feature claim at all. and i think its naive to add all these cameos up based on what a syrup sipper says.
Of course the Birdman work was pro-bono. Khaled play all his records in MIA so that was worth the 75k in payola no need to charge
Hov feature might have been on the strength too given his relationship with Gee and Hop now.
Sad you fell for the okie doke on this one jay peso…throwing out the 100k rate is good though b/c now the d boyz looking for a weezy feature now what to hand in him in the duffle bag.
I don’t think Peso ever said he believes Wayne, he just did a calculation based on what he said. I know I don’t believe him. What he probably meant to say was, “I charge 75k-100k to collaborate with a MAJOR label artist.”
Half that list is independent artists.
Yeah like they said, some of those features I highly doubt he charged anything if more than 2 cents on (thats the code-charge for free in the industry), and i’ve watched some of the most wildest collabos put together for basically nothing or if anything else, per diem.
if anything else, he might not charge up front for most of those indy and first album artists (some of their entire budget is that amount, and in the case of Tru Life the rapper, his entire deal is $350k), but like other dude says, probably commands album points, which is kinda more valuable than the upfront charge, because if for some odd reason in 2015 duffle bag boyz all of a sudden comes back in a nostalgic sense (like Tone Loc’s Wild Thing is right now in pop clubs/radio), he still collects a check if he has points.
Pete Rock used to cake the hell out doing this method, back in the 90’s he commanded so many points off peoples albums, same for Premo. Fat Joe gives up alot of points too these days in exchange for keeping his overhead leveled.
Yeah, so many features in the industry are done for free. For example, Rapper A and Producer B might exchange 1 verse from Rapper A on Producer B’s album for one beat from Producer B on Rapper A’s album. Think Jay-Z and Timbaland, for instance. Or 2 other rappers might trade guest verses on each other’s albums/singles. It’s like a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” type of deal. I’d be willing to bet this is a rather frequent occurrence in the industry.