Is Lil Wayne Making Self-Aggrandizing Prank Calls From Prison?

A friend of a friend shares with SOTC an interesting story he originally posted on his Facebook page: It’s 9:50 a.m., Thursday morning, when his work cell phone — a number pretty much reserved for co-workers and family — rings. On the other end? A mysterious yet familiar voice. The question? “Have you heard of Weezy F. Baby?” The rest of the conversation, between our friend of a friend (FOF) and a guy we’ll call Lil Wayne, went like this:

LW: Do you know Weezy F. Baby?
FOF: Excuse me?
LW: Do you know Weezy F. Baby?
FOF: I am sorry, sir, but you will have to repeat what you are saying.
LW: Do you know Dwayne Michael Carter?
FOF: You mean Lil Wayne?
LW: Yes. Are you a fan of my music?
FOF: Yes, I am.
LW: Well, thank you very much, and have a nice day. [Proceeds to hang up.]

Now, before you scoff, realize that our friend of a friend grew up in New Orleans, and has been listening to him “since I was a teenager.” But the real proof — of something, anyway — is in what happened next. Our FOF called the number back, and a Rikers prison operator picked up. “You just spoke with inmate number xxx-xxx-xxx,” the operator said, and offered to try to track down the inmate. But by the time the operator looked, whoever had made the call was gone.

Inmates don’t get a lot of outgoing calls per week. So either it was in fact Wayne, or it was a particularly sad, friendless inmate, with nothing better to do than to bask in Weezy’s reflected glow. According to our FOF, it certainly sounded like Wayne: “The voice is very distinctive,” he said, referring to Weezy’s well-worn croak, “and by the third or fourth time that he talked, I started recognizing the voice.” Wishful thinking, or fact? We may never really know. But if you take away a man’s every option for entertainment, is it any wonder he might start calling strangers for comfort?