A photo of Lil Wayne and Birdman sharing a kiss on the lips has stayed in conversation for years, often leading to rumors and confusion about what their relationship really was like at the time.
Birdman addressed the moment during an interview on REVOLT TV’s Big Facts podcast and gave a very personal explanation for what people saw in that image.
He said, “First of all, my own son, I would kiss him. I always looked at Wayne as my son and I always looked at it like, ’cause I was in the streets, and I thought this might be the last time he ever see me.”
He also added, “I was his father when he didn’t have a father since he was 9 years old. And I love him like my own and I’d give my life for him.”
Back in that era, Lil Wayne was not yet heavily involved in skateboarding culture. Before that period, he was seen skating with crews connected to Thank You Skateboards and spending a lot of time around skate parks.
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He is a skate rat at heart, someone who would be on a board whenever he had free time, even while building his rap career.
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That side of him became part of his public identity, mixing music, street culture, and skateboarding in a way that stood out from many other artists at the time.
The photo of Wayne and Birdman started circulating widely. Over time, it turned into one of those moments fans kept revisiting whenever their relationship was discussed.
Things between the two later shifted in 2015 when Lil Wayne filed a lawsuit against Cash Money Records for 51 million dollars.
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The dispute was tied to repeated delays of Tha Carter V, which had already built strong anticipation among fans.
During the same period, Lil Wayne told Rolling Stone that he and Birdman were no longer speaking, which made their situation public and added more attention to their history together.
The legal case was eventually settled in 2018, though the terms were not made public. After the settlement, Birdman later spoke to a New Orleans crowd at Lil Weezyana Fest and addressed Wayne directly.
“I knew this day was going to come, but I didn't know when it was going to come,” he said, according to Billboard.
Since then, both have continued their own paths in music, while that early photo and their past connection still get brought up whenever people look back at their time together.
Even after Wayne’s time as a pro skater for Thank You Skateboards ended, he still stays a skate rat and keeps skating hard in the streets whenever he can.