After a hostile $51 million feud that spanned the entirety of last year, Lil Wayne and Birdman were spotted at the same party on New Year's Eve. Then, they were both seen in the studio with Yo Gotti, and then, at the end of February, they were heard on the same track, "Hate," which also features Juvenile and is produced by Mannie Fresh -- the whole Hot Boys lineup, aside from B.G. and Turk. Slowly but surely, Wayne and Bird have been restoring their old father-son relationship, but there are still some wounds to be healed, explains Mannie Fresh, a driving force behind the reconciliation.
In a new interview with Genius, Fresh explained that "Hate" started out just with Juvenile. They were going for a throwback Hot Boys sound, so they decided to call up Wayne. It turns out that Wayne was at a studio two blocks away, and he enthusiastically told them to bring the song over.
Then, in another coincidental turn, Fresh ran into Birdman, and he decided to ask the Cash Money prez if he'd be willing to lace "Hate" with one of his famed intros. Birdman agreed, and expressed his fascination about the collab -- "we should do it more often." What's more, apparently the trio of Weezy, Juvie, and Mannie have plenty more collabs on the way, taken from that same recording session. "We probably did five songs that night, songs with that old Cash Money sound," said Fresh. "The hard part is convincing them to do the whole [Hot Boys] album."
Fresh also took the time to admit that Birdman and Wayne are still working out some issues, as there were a lot of hard feelings to come from last year's highly-scrutinized fallout, which led to a dramatic lawsuit that is constantly being pushed back -- and one that's still going on despite their tempered attitudes toward one another.
Mannie believes he alleviated some of the tension by expressing to each of them this idea: "We can resolve all that behind the curtain, but for now, let's make music for the people." Supposedly, that resonated with the two leading faces of the Cash Money brand. "When it all started coming together, the brotherly love came out."
