Let It All Work Out

Album: Tha Carter V (2018)
Charted: 75
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • The closing track of Tha Carter V, "Let It All Work Out" finds Lil Wayne detailing a preteen suicide attempt.

    I found my momma's pistol where she always hide it
    I cried, put it to my head, and thought about it
    Nobody was home to stop me, so I called my auntie
    Hung up, then put the gun up to my heart and pondered
    Too much was on my conscience to be smarter 'bout it
    Too torn apart about it, I aimed where my heart was pounding
    I shot it, and I woke up with blood all around me
    It's mine, I didn't die, but as I was dying
    God came to my side and we talked about it
    He sold me another life and he made a profit


    The 12-year-old Lil Wayne shot himself after his mother told him he couldn't rap anymore.
  • Wayne has previously played down the drama as an accident. He claimed on the 2015 Free Weezy Album track "London Roads" that the shooting was a mishap, though a year later during his verse on Solange's A Seat at the Table cut "Mad," he alluded to an unspecified suicide attempt.
  • Mack Maine, president of Young Money Entertainment and Wayne's longtime friend revealed in a 2018 Billboard interview that Weezy added the lyrics to the already existing track in the summer of 2018, following the suicides of designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.

    "He just told me one day that he was ready to address it now," Maine said. "Just being an adult, reaching a level of maturity and comfort where it's like, 'I want to talk about this because I know a lot of people out here might be going through that.'"
  • Wayne's mom, Jacida Carter, gives her view of the story on the preceding track, "Used 2." In a spoken outro, she says, "I still don't know today. Was he playing with the gun or was it an accident? I be wanting to ask him but I never asked him after all these years. I never really found out about what really happened with him and that shooting."
  • The song samples Sampha's "Indecision," which is a track from the British singer-songwriter's debut EP Dual.
  • "Let It All Work Out" combines a pair of instrumentals from different producers: Myles William and Sharif "Reefa" Slater. Though they had never worked together both built their beats around the same sample of Sampha's "Indecision." "I didn't know that the two beats were gonna be combined," William recalled to Rolling Stone. "I see my credit [on the album], and everyone's all excited, and I'm just standing there like, 'Wait, this isn't mine!'… [then the second part] drops, and we all went, 'Ah!'"

Comments: 1

  • Tb1980 from Kokomo Inwow. Deep s--t Wayne. Deep s--t. I see you big homie.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Sarah Brightman

Sarah BrightmanSongwriter Interviews

One of the most popular classical vocalists in the land is lining up a trip to space, which is the inspiration for many of her songs.

George Harrison

George HarrisonFact or Fiction

Did Eric Clapton really steal George's wife? What's the George Harrison-Monty Python connection? Set the record straight with our Fact or Fiction quiz.

Rick Astley

Rick AstleySongwriter Interviews

Rick Astley on "Never Gonna Give You Up," "Cry For Help," and his remarkable resurgence that gave him another #1 UK album.

Deconstructing Doors Songs With The Author Of The Doors Examined

Deconstructing Doors Songs With The Author Of The Doors ExaminedSong Writing

Doors expert Jim Cherry, author of The Doors Examined, talks about some of their defining songs and exposes some Jim Morrison myths.

Kip Winger

Kip WingerSongwriter Interviews

The Winger frontman reveals the Led Zeppelin song he cribbed for "Seventeen," and explains how his passion for orchestra music informs his songwriting.

Philip Cody

Philip CodySongwriter Interviews

A talented lyricist, Philip helped revive Neil Sedaka's career with the words to "Laughter In The Rain" and "Bad Blood."