On The Set Of "Got Money" With Lil Wayne

Posted Thursday, June 26, 2008 @ 12:54 in Events by Paul Glanting

When reading a Spiderman comic it’s simple to distinguish where the real world lies, where the border of the fantasy world begins and finally, where the reality once again takes precedent; Spiderman only exists when the book’s flaps are ajar. And, when its delicate pages close, Peter Parker, Doctor Octopus and the Green Goblin vanish.

On a sweaty Monday morning (which turned into a late night and then to morning again) a slew of individuals crammed into a “comic book” of sorts at an abandoned bank in downtown Los Angeles. In this comic however, spinach is replaced by sizzerp and the ability to fly has been replaced by the ability to brutally tear through the dignity of other rappers. This comic’s hero would be a man whose trademark dreads coupled with his demonically efficient braggadocio would certainly carry with them an aura indicative of a modern day superhero, not to mention his most-recent superhuman feat of slanging an average of 11.6 albums per second: Dwayne “Lil Wayne” Carter. Today along with T-Pain, Lil Wayne is filming "Got Money" which is the second single from Tha Carter III.

Outside of what was once an operational Bank Of America, a dozen jump-suited robbers linger. From behind their shades, procerus-deep skull caps and bandana-covered mouths, they converse--or rather, mumble conversations with several cops. One of these gray-haired cops answers his cell phone, “No sweetie, I’m a cop today,” he says loudly. Another one of these cops is the bushy-mustached James Evans, who’s become the go-to guy when a dominant-yet-defiant rapper needs discipline. “In videos, I’ve arrested Snoop Dogg, 50-Cent and I’ve chased Bust[a] Ryhmes,” Evans says, “and when Snoop actually got arrested, the news showed that footage next to the clip of me arresting him in the video.” I ask Evans if he’ll be booking Wayne today.“Yeah, probably,” Evans says in a jaded tone that could only come from a disillusioned officer whose once-iron patience has been worn paper-thin after a career tainted by the unstopping onslaught of disobedient scofflaws.

Perhaps the world of the fantastic has already begun to leak into the real world. Also roaming and quasi-patrolling is Dennis Garr, who while merely playing a policeman, still takes it upon himself to assist talent and crew across the busy LA street and directs a little traffic while he’s at it. Garr is somewhat of a renaissance man on the set. He has supervised the authorities for videos by the likes Chamillionaire and Chris Brown. Garr also plays a chopped-up corpse on Dexter print-ads as well as the prowler on the Brinks Home Security commercials. Thus far however, Garr, fully outfitted in riot-gear, is happily pretending to slam the late-teen thieves against the hood of the police cruiser. The adolescents enthusiastically line up to have this usually traumatic scenario snapped on cameras and cell phones.

One of these faux-crooks is Angela who has taken the bandana from her mouth to reveal her licorice whip-colored lips. Angela is an up-and-coming dance choreographer. “Robbing banks isn’t usually my thing,” she says. Appropriately enough, Angela’s day-gig is at a bank.

On the curb lurks a massive armored transport truck. Enjoying the sunshine and swinging his legs while sitting on the truck's bumper is Michael, who’s provided the shoot with the cop cars, trucks as well as the wads and wads of cash, which Wayne shall later toss liberally. Michael holds up some of the product. In each hand he clutches what, in the fantasy world, would amount to cars, mansions, yachts and other fluid, which flows through pipe dreams.

Lil Wayne finally emerges from his trailer with an entourage which is relatively modest in size, about five deep or eight deep counting Wayne’s personal bodyguard. Wayne looks lethargic. However, this may be Weezy's preparation for the upcoming scene which depicts the rapper eater being cuffed and arrested so that his horde of robbers can get away, while a crowd of extras cheer Weezy’s martyrdom. Birdman, who is apparently part of this shot, hops out of a citrus-colored Hummer and walks into the center crowd. Baby has somewhere to be, naturally, so this shot needs to get nailed within a take or two. The video’s director marches over and roars, “For this shot, stare at Wayne being arrested, for fuck's sake do not stare at Birdman.” They indeed get what they need and instantly the same orange Hummer rolls by again and Baby hops in and isn’t seen again that day.

Later in the dusty bank, Wayne tosses cash and runs across the counter. With each take Wayne’s 7-foot bodyguard lifts him from the counter and puts him back on the ground. Wayne retreats to a corner and slowly sips an unknown substance from two stacked styrofoam cups. Despite being between takes, Wayne happily takes photos with fans, flirts with the two curvy bank robbers who are flanking him in the shot and mingles with several high-profile friends who’ve come to the set to be seen, including: Travis Barker, Lil Mama and Ray J (who, it’s later decided, shall be in the video’s grandiose club scene). I ask Wayne if he’s made any huge purchases to celebrate selling a-million copies of Tha Carter III in the past week, “Nah, not really, I always tell myself I’m gonna take a week-long vacation, but that don’t ever happen,” Weeze says through his phlegm blocked drawl.

At around 1:15 AM, the cop cars and Land Rovers have disappeared into LA dusk, Wayne disappears into his trailer and the bank robbers once again become students, bankers, retired postal workers etc. They put down their stolen millions and collect their one-hundred dollars of legit cash then jammed into Corollas and onto busses and the comic closes.

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