'He's releasing song after song after song,' musical director Gil Smith tells MTV News of evolving I Am Still Music Tour.
By Rob Markman
Lil Wayne
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Lil Wayne is constantly evolving. From a 12-year-old kiddie MC, to the self-proclaimed "best rapper alive" to rock star and now R&B singer, Weezy has kept things interesting during the course of his 14-year career.
His I Am Still Music Tour has been just as prolific, thanks to the mass amount of music he's been releasing. And with his ninth solo album, Tha Carter IV, dropping at midnight after Sunday's VMAs -- where Wayne will also perform -- concertgoers can expect some changes to the set list.
"I think just in terms of the tour, we've been adding songs here and there," Wayne's musical director Gil Smith told MTV News. "You gotta understand with Wayne, there is so much music. I mean, we can talk about Tha Carter IV, and then we can sit down and have a different conversation about Sorry 4 the Wait, which was a whole different thing that he put out. So it's so much music. Even when we're on the road, he's releasing song after song after song, so we got to kind of find ways to incorporate that as we go along."
When he and his Young Money compadres opened the tour in May in Providence Rhode Island, Wayne hadn't yet released his fan-dedicated tape Sorry 4 the Wait, and Tha Carter IV was in release-date limbo.
During the course of the concert run, which was extended through September, Wayne released the mixtape and a number of C4 singles. Smith said that by the time the tour wraps, the first show will be much different from the last. It's not just the music, either. "It's changed quite a bit. Now he's skating around the stage, he has a skateboard trainer who's out there with him," Smith said. "He's really into skateboarding, and he's also into singing for the ladies. There's a section of the tour that's dedicated to that, and that's how we kind of incorporated 'How to Love,' along with some other favorites."
Wayne will grace the stage this Sunday at the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards, and while Smith wouldn't reveal what the YMCMB star has planned, he said fans can expect a Weezy they've never seen. "We've been brainstorming and taking from things that we put together on the road, so I think they can just expect a new-and-improved Wayne, a different Wayne," he said. "You know, he always comes different: One day he's a rock star, one day he's a skater; he's singing R&B. I think we can expect a little bit of everything in this performance."
The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live Sunday from Los Angeles at 9 p.m. ET/PT, following the Selena Gomez-hosted pre-show at 8. See the list of nominees, revisit last year's highlights and vote for Best New Artist by visiting VMA.MTV.com.
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1669707/lil-wayne-i-am-still-music-tour-director.jhtml
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