Born in New Orleans 25 five years ago to Jacida Carter, Wayne’s upbringing is one that’s become all too familiar in hip hop lore; drugs, death and no dad were an everyday reality in a city ravaged by record murder and drug statistics. "What is a normal childhood though?" Wayne asks of selling cocaine as an 11-year-old and becoming a father at 15. In 1997 he had a child with a high school sweetheart and his daughter, Reginae, remains a pivotal part of Wayne’s life, cropping up in many of his lyrics. "She say I’m the best daddy in the world, but every kid say that," he chuckles. "She a great kid. She’s mine. She’s perfectly mine." Four years before he became a father, on "Friday May 13, 1993", the fledgling rhymer was spotted rappng outside a record shop. He was brought to the attention of local rap heroes Bryan "Baby" Williams and his older brother, Ronald "Slim" Williams, CEOs of the hugely successful Cash Money Records. Alongside Master P’s No Limit label, Cash Money dominated the late ‘90s, with the label making millions in touring and record sales. Finally, after a tough childhood, Wayne had finally "made it."

H: You give so much of yourself lyrically - is there anything you hold back from rhyming about?
W: I don’t think so. I was Lil' Wayne at 11 so ain’t nothing too much important happen before 11, except hide and go seek and Nintendo games. Other than that I’ve been Cash Money, I been rapping, so everything I say is all of me. There was never a point where I worked at such-and-such and I could rap about that. I was scooped up at 11 and that was that.

H: What was life like growing up in New Orleans?
W: A lot of people there will hate me for saying this, they say it’s tough growing up there, but you have to be an individual. I’m from that city, but you didn’t have to do all that stuff. Those teachers were telling the truth when they said you didn’t have to do that. I paid attention and now look what I’m doing. I’m very intelligent and that’s why I do this. I had a strict mum, Ms Cida don’t play, I couldn’t come inside on no irresponsible type stuff. But I love my city, it made me who I am, meaning it made me be able to go out into the world and be totally fearless. I’m totally fearless because of where I’m from. Nothing can scare me. Fear can rule the world - it actually does. And I owe them that because fear in life in general is big. We fear God and who knows if there even is one, we just fear it. My city gives me that. I’m fearless because I’ve been around everything. That means the most to me.

H: How has New Orleans changed since Katrina?
W: I don’t get to spend no time anywhere 'cos I’m bouncing everywhere and trying to get everything being given to me. As far as the city, I don’t think I can speak on it 'cos I wasn’t there before the hurricane, or after, so when I fly back and I ride through, it’s ugly. It don’t look good, nobody’s happy. That’s all I know about it so I try and get away from it as quick as I can. I don’t like to be around that type of stuff.

H: Given how crazy your life was, do you feel you’ve missed out on a normal childhood?
W: What is that? That’s for children and I ain’t a child so... You don’t cry over nothing you’ve missed, for something you can’t get back. I look at it like childhood wasn’t meant for me. I look at people with childhood and it’s still not exciting to me. I love what I do. At eight years old I was writing raps, at 11 I was making money. I was cool with that.

H: Are you still doing your psychology degree?
W: Yeah. My schedule’s getting stupid now, but my tutor’s helping me. I do it online - Phoenix online.

H: Have you learnt much about yourself, doing a psychology degree?
W: I already know about myself, I know who I am. I got a lot of mirrors, there’s mirrors all around my crib, so I know what I look like and I can see through these [points to eyes]. As far as psychology, it’s more about figuring out everybody else and the way they are. I think you figure it out to a mental point, where words aren’t used, where you mentally understand. You know how they act, you know who they are, stuff like that. And then you’re never sure. And that’s the beauty of psychology, the beauty of humanity. You never know who somebody is. Psychology teaches you that; that you could never know someone.

H: What made you decide to do a degree?
W: I don’t know. It’s different for me 'cos I don’t have to turn up in a class or hand nothing in, so if I’m going to do it I have to be interested. It’s not like I’m being forced to do it. I have to do it if I want to do it, so that makes it a whole lot different. I’m just trying to kill time.

H: What else do you do to kill time? How do you relax away from rap?
W: I don’t really chill. Chillin’ is for dead folk. That’s what you do when they put your body on ice. Me, I just go hard 'cos one day I’m going to stop. No time soon but one day I’m going to get very tired and be like, "I quit."

H: Have you thought about writing a book?
W: I thought of a book called Just A Thought, but I don’t know. It’s about everything I think about; ideas, theories, shit I think about all day that has no answer.

H: Like?
W: Crazy stuff like words. Like the word "bitch". Why women hate to be called bitch when a bitch is a female dog and a dog is a man’s best friend. I don’t get it. Things like women putting period in red gravy. I get deep up behind that. It’s not just me saying that. You got to think about that. If you’re sitting up in a woman’s belly, first thing a woman gets when she’s pregnant is she loses her period because you as a baby, you consume all that shit that she’s discharging. So that’s what makes you prone to your mother, because you’re consuming youe mother, you’re eating your mother so you’re a part of her now, she lives inside of you and outside of you. Ya dig?

H: You’ve had a phenomenal three years. Why do you think you've been so successful?
W: You see my video, you hear my song, you hear about me, everything is positive and you get it. Like, this guy cares about what he’s saying and doing. I don’t want to use this reference because I can never be as great as this guy, but it’s almost like Barack. The reason that the guy won is because people feel like they’re him. Even though he’s the President, people feel like they know that guy. When you hear my music, you feel like you’re me.

H: Talking of Barack...
W: [Laughs] I’ve said before in my raps that we’re not trying to be Presidents -that is such a dumb line now. Like, thanks Barack, you make me look crazy!

H: What are your hopes for Obama’s Presidency?
W: I think it’s going to be good. He’s going to be a democratic President like JFK. I think he’s going to take care of things and make the economy better like FDR. And he said he wants to do the health thing too and make that better, like Clinton said he wanted to. And I think he’s going to succeed because he’s not FDR, he’s not Clinton, he’s not JFK, he’s Barack. You feel like you know him. It’s just that feeling he gives me. It’s like his family is your family. That’s what I try and give you in my music, that you know this guy, this guys means what he says. That’s important.

H: You seem such a complex character and somewhat ambiguous about so many subjects. Can you try and explain a little bit about who Lil' Wayne is?
W: That’s simple. I can explain me in one word; unexplainable. Anybody who can be explained should be ashamed of themselves. If you can fall under a word that comes from the dictionary, then that word was created before you were even here. That means you were created before you were even here, so how do you know you were finished? You probably wasn’t even finished. I have no word; I wasn’t created, I wasn’t made. I was put here and there’s no word for it. I can’t explain myself. You look at me and tell me what you see, you listen to me and tell me what you get. That’s what it is, that’s who I am. I am music, ya dig?

CLICK HERE to read Part One of this exclusive interview, in which Weezy talks about Martians, rock stardom and how he writes the most surreal rhymes in hip hop.