When are pages from an old notebook worth $5 million? When they once belonged to rap legend Lil Wayne and are full of some of his earliest lyrical work. But these particular notebook pages were also the subject of a legal battle back in 2019 between Wayne and the notebook’s current owner, who claimed to have stumbled upon the priceless find in a car that was formerly owned by Wayne’s label Cash Money Records.
The notebook’s owner is selling the pages, which contain Wayne’s lyrics for the 1999 Hot Boys single “We on Fire,” through memorabilia and autograph sales specialists Moments in Time. They’ve listed the piece as “The only handwritten lyrics of Lil Wayne ever for sale,” and have highlighted its historical importance as some of the first lyrics the young rapper ever wrote in view of his subsequent career:
“Written & recorded in 1998 while on tour. Lil Wayne was 15 years old and his whole world changed after this song was recorded making it his most significant song.”
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Lil Wayne, of course, went on to become stratospherically famous as a solo artist, but that might not have ever happened without the success of this song. But the story behind the notebook’s true ownership is almost as interesting: Moments in Time first tried to sell the pages back in 2019, but Wayne didn’t approve and demanded they return the pages to him. His attorneys even sent a cease & desist to the auction house, which seems to have prevented the sale from happening before its recent re-listing. But Moments in Time and the pages’ de facto owner went to court for themselves, accusing Wayne of intimidation and meddling in a sale that was not his legal concern. And the rapper must not have actually cared about the matter that much because he reportedly never responded, and the court ruled against him by default.
Now, the pages are back for sale, priced at $5 million — whether anybody actually ponies up at that price remains to be seen as of this writing.