A Milli

* Single
* SIDEPIECE Remix

## Single by Lil Wayne

"**A Milli**" is a song by American rapper Lil Wayne. The song was released February 13, 2008, as the second single and third track from his sixth studio album *Tha Carter III* (2008). Production was handled by Bangladesh and samples the three songs "I Left My Wallet in El Segundo" by A Tribe Called Quest (1992), "Don't Burn Down the Bridge" by Gladys Knight & the Pips (1974), and "Go Crazy (Remix)" by Jeezy (2005).

The song won Best Rap Solo Performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards. On June 28, 2021, he celebrated the song attaining a billion streams. He opened the 2023 EPSY Awards for its 31st annual year, where he performed "A Milli."

## Background

Producer Shondrae "Bangladesh" Crawford vocalized his displeasure with unpaid royalties, where he appeared on Rick Ross' "Idols Become Rivals" with a diss towards Birdman, the co-founder of Cash Money Records. In 2010, he sued Lil Wayne and the Cash Money company, reaching to a settlement later that year.

In 2018, he told *Billboard* of how he went to high school with Shanell, and "she started running with Lil Wayne and Young Money." Crawford gave her some beats, and she played them for Wayne, where the one for "One Milli" captured the rapper's interest. Bangladesh continued, "The song is from an interlude to a real song, which was the original idea. [Lil Wayne] had a bunch of his younger artists like Corey Gunz, Tyga, Hurricane Chris that he liked rapping on the beat, and this was the interlude that was going to be going in and out of his album. When I got a whiff of this idea, I didn't like it—I thought, 'You're kind of wasting my beat with this interlude shit.' I wasn't feeling it. Somewhere along the way he changed it up and he rapped on it and I think he did several versions of it." He said of the record's impact, "[it] broke the barriers down with no hook and three or four sounds in the beat. It's dope to put some simplicity together, that was so eclectic at the time. It touches you in a way where it inspires you to want to make beats. A lot of young producers you hear now were inspired by ["A Milli"]."

## Personnel

* Ali Shaheed Jones-Muhammad – writer
* Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Carter Jr. – vocals, writer
* Ed Falcor-lidow – assistant recording engineer
* Fabian Marasciullo – mixer
* Joshua Berkman – recording engineer
* Kamaal "Q-Tip" Fareed – writer
* Shondrae "Bangladesh" Crawford – producer

## Reception

### Critical response

*Billboard* retrospectively wrote, "At one point, it seemed like everyone in America had memorized every word to 'A Milli'—that may be a hyperbole, but there seemed to be genuine national sense of awe over the bars on this track. For four minutes, Wayne goes uninterrupted on wordplay, all while executing a flow faster than some of his more recognizable mid-tempo tracks—not once sacrificing speed for lyricism. The song was a ubiquitous hit the whole year, playing non-stop on the radio, at parties, and on TV—but somehow ten years later, it still doesn't feel old."

## Gallery

* 2017 Powerhouse
* 2023 ESPY Awards
* 2023 Rolling Loud
* Amazon Music Live
* SIDEPIECE Remix

**@liltunechi**: "A Billi A Billi A Billi...... shoutout @spotify and @rapcaviar. And most importantly shoutout every last one of y'all that listened, streamed, and still bump it till this day!! 🤙🏾 #IAintShitWithoutYou"
* June 28, 2021
* Instagram

## Lyrics

**Lyrics**
[Intro]

*Bangladesh*

Young Money!

You dig?

Mack, I'm going in

[Verse 1]

A millionaire, I'm a Young Money millionaire

Tougher than Nigerian hair

My criteria compared to your career just isn't fair

I'm a venereal disease, like a menstrual bleed

Through the pencil, and leak on the sheet of the tablet in my mind

'Cause I don't write shit, 'cause I ain't got time

'Cause my seconds, minutes, hours go to the almighty dollar

And the almighty power of that ch-cha-cha-cha-chopper

Sister, brother, son, daughter, father; mother-fuck a copper

Got the Maserati dancin' on the bridge, pussy poppin'

Tell the coppers, "Ha-ha-ha-ha

You can't catch him, you can't stop him"

I go by them goon rules: if you can't beat 'em, then you pop 'em

You can't man 'em, then you mop 'em

You can't stand 'em, then you drop 'em

You pop 'em 'cause we pop 'em like Orville Redenbacher

[Chorus]

Motherfucker, I'm ill

[Verse 2]

A million here, a million there

Sicilian bitch with long hair, with coke in her derrière

Like smoking the thinnest air

I open the Lamborghini, hopin' them crackers see me

Like, "Look at that bastard Weezy!"

He's a beast, he's a dog, he's a mothafuckin' problem

Okay, you're a goon, but what's a goon to a goblin?

Nothin', nothin', you ain't scarin' nothin'

On some faggot bullshit: call 'em Dennis Rodman

Call me what you want, bitch! Call me on my Sidekick!

Never answer when it's private, damn, I hate a shy bitch

Don't you hate a shy bitch? Yeah, I ate a shy bitch

She ain't shy no more, she changed her name to My Bitch

Yeah, n\*\*\*a, that's my bitch, so when she ask

For the money when you through, don't be surprised, bitch!

And it ain't trickin' if you got it

But you like a bitch with no ass: You ain't got shit

Motherfucker, I'm ill, not sick

And I'm okay, but my watch sick, yeah, my drop sick

Yeah, my Glock sick, and my knot thick — I'm it

[Chorus]

Motherfucker, I'm ill

[Verse 3]

See, they say I'm rappin' like B.I.G., Jay, and 2Pac

André 3000, where is Erykah Badu at? Who that?

Who that said they gon' beat Lil Wayne?

My name ain't Bic, but I keep that flame, man

Who that one that do that, boy?

You knew that true that, swallow

And I be the shit, now you got loose bowels

I don't owe you like two vowels

But I would like for you to pay me by the hour

And I'd rather be pushin' flowers

Than to be in the pen sharin' showers

Tony told us this world was ours

And the Bible told us every girl was sour

Don't play in her garden and don't smell her flower

Call me Mr. Carter or Mr. Lawn Mower

Boy, I got so many bitches, like I'm Mike Lowrey

Even Gwen Stefani said she couldn't doubt me

Motherfucker, I say "Life ain't shit without me"

Chrome lips pokin' out the coupe, look like it's poutin'

I do what I do, and you do what you can do about it

Bitch, I can turn a crack rock into a mountain — dare me

Don't you compare me, 'cause there ain't nobody near me

They don't see me but they hear me

They don't feel me but they fear me

I'm illy, C3, 3 Peat

## References

Template:Tha Carter III
Template:Tha Carter Singles Collection
Template:I Am Music

1. ↑ Williams, Aaron (June 29, 2021). "Lil Wayne Celebrates His 2008 Hit 'A Milli' Reaching an Ironic Streaming Milestone". *Uproxx*.
2. ↑ Rizzo, Carita (July 13, 2023). "Watch Lil Wayne Revisit His Track 'A Milli' at 31st Annual ESPY Awards". *Rolling Stone*.
3. ↑ Hughes, Josiah (December 16, 2010). "Bangladesh Settles "A Milli" Lawsuit with Lil Wayne". *Exclaim!*
4. ↑ Saponara, Michael (February 13, 2018). "'A Milli' Producer Bangladesh Talks Timeless Hit & Wanting to Work With Lil Wayne Again: 'He's Got a "Thriller" Album in Him'". *Billboard*.
5. ↑ Maher, Natalie (September 13, 2018). "Lil Wayne's 20 Best Songs: Critic's Picks". *Billboard*.
6. ↑ "The 100 Best Songs of the 2000s". *Complex*. October 9, 2017.
7. ↑ Krueger, J. (August 7, 2023). "50 Best Hip-Hop Songs of All Time". *Consequence*.
8. ↑ Rindner, Grant and Jane Burnett (September 6, 2022). "54 Hip-Hop Songs That Capture the Genre's History". *Oprah Daily*.
9. ↑ "100 Best Songs of the 2000s". *Rolling Stone*. June 17, 2011.
10. ↑ "100 Greatest Hip-Hop Songs of All Time". *Rolling Stone*. June 2, 2017.
11. ↑ "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". *Rolling Stone*. September 15, 2021.