Lil Wayne's Handwritten Lyrics From 1999 Found In Trash Can Now Worth $5M

Handwritten lyrics penned by Lil Wayne in 1999 have resurfaced with a $5 million (£3.8 million) asking price. The pages were reportedly found in a New Orleans car dealership's rubbish.

According to multiple reports, the pages were discovered by a high school employee working at the dealership after Cash Money Records co-founder Bryan 'Birdman' Williams and associates traded in luxury vehicles there. Staff later cleared items from the cars, with the handwritten pages ending up in the bin.

The employee kept the papers inside a magazine for years before eventually recognising their potential significance.

The pages contain handwritten lyrics for 'I Feel' and 'We On Fire', songs associated with the Hot Boys' 1999 album Guerrilla Warfare. The album was a major release for the New Orleans rap collective, featuring Wayne alongside Juvenile, B.G. and Turk, and reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200.

The material also reportedly contains doodles connected to New Orleans' Magnolia Projects and a phone number for Club Whispers, a nightclub in New Orleans East that was frequented by rappers.

$250,000 Listing Sparked Legal Battle

The extraordinary journey of the lyrics took another turn in 2019, when the owner attempted to sell them through memorabilia company Moments In Time for $250,000 (£190,000).

Wayne's attorney Jonathan Davis subsequently issued a cease-and-desist letter, arguing that the rapper had 'misplaced' the notebook and seeking its return. The dispute eventually reached Orleans Parish Civil District Court.

The ownership question remained unresolved for several years before Judge Kern A. Reese ruled in February 2024 in favour of the person who had possessed the material. The ruling relied on Louisiana law concerning possession of movable property for more than 10 years.

The decision cleared the way for the material to return to the collectibles market. The asking price has since risen dramatically from the original $250,000 (£190,000) to $5 million (£3.8 million).

It's worth noting that the $5 million figure is an asking price rather than a confirmed sale value.

Rare Hip-Hop Artefact Gains New Significance

As it stands, the owner and his representatives maintain that the pages are the only known surviving handwritten lyrics from Wayne's early career with the Hot Boys.

The valuation is largely based on the reported rarity of the material. The memorabilia market has increasingly placed substantial value on original creative material from influential hip-hop artists, particularly when provenance and historical significance can be established.

For Wayne, the pages represent an unusually early glimpse into the career of an artist who would go on to become one of rap's most commercially successful figures. He was still a teenager when the Hot Boys established themselves as one of the defining acts of Cash Money Records' New Orleans movement.

Wayne remains active in music in 2026. His latest release, 'Special Ops', arrived in late August as a Green Bay Packers-themed track and takes aim at NFC North rivals, particularly Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson.

The new single is another reminder of Wayne's enduring presence more than two decades after those handwritten pages were created. What was once discarded as rubbish has now become a potential multimillion-pound piece of hip-hop history.