Lil Wayne’s Memory Loss Linked to His Long Battle With Epilepsy

Many rappers describe their lives as a movie, but for Lil Wayne, it feels more like a blur. As one of this century's most successful and influential artists, he often struggles to recall much of the music he has created.

During a 2023 interview with Rolling Stone, Lil Wayne — whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. — reflected on his nearly three-decade career.

The five-time Grammy winner admitted that he has difficulty distinguishing between many of his past album releases.

Wayne went on to share that he is experiencing memory loss as a complication of his long battle with epilepsy. He struggles to remember lyrics and even the release dates of his albums.

According to the Epilepsy Foundation, memory loss is a common issue associated with epilepsy.

Read on to discover the extent of Lil Wayne’s memory loss.

In the recent interview, the New Orleans-born rapper admitted that he has a hard time remembering which songs belong to his well-known albums.

"I don’t know ‘Tha Carter III,’ ‘Tha Carter II,’ ‘Tha Carter I,’ from ‘Tha Carter IV,'" he confessed. "And that’s just my honest truth. You could ask me about a specific song, and I wouldn’t even know what you’re talking about."

The talented musician began experiencing seizures related to his disorder as a child. While he kept this aspect of his life private during the early years of his fame, he went public about it in 2013 when he was hospitalized for a series of seizures.

Wayne explained that his memory of these seizures is limited, often leaving him in disbelief when he wakes up in a hospital bed and learns what happened.

"I go to sleep and wake up in the hospital. I don’t feel anything. I just hope it stops happening,” he shared.

These seizures, which usually occur without warning or triggers, continue to be a significant challenge for Lil Wayne. In an interview with MTV, he spoke about the abruptness of these episodes, stating, “No warning, no nothing.”

According to the Los Angeles Times, many believed that the rapper's use of sizzurp—a recreational beverage often mixed with cough syrup—may have played a role in his health incidents.

Wayne has been open about his drug use in his music and interviews, but many overlook the consequences of such choices.

In 2017, the "Sucker for Pain" rapper had to cancel a performance in Las Vegas due to multiple seizures, as reported by Rolling Stone. He was reportedly found unconscious in his hotel room in Chicago at the time. He once revealed that he experienced three consecutive seizures, which reduced his heart rate to just 30 percent of its normal level.

“Basically, I could’ve died soon. That’s why it was so serious,” he said in an interview with CBS News. He noted that many of the seizures were triggered by various factors in his life, particularly stress. “The cause of the seizures is just plain stress, lack of rest, and overworking myself. That’s pretty typical for me,” he added.

Despite his health issues, Lil Wayne remains focused on his career and has no plans to slow down his music.

"The motivation isn’t to show them that I’m still that dude, which I am,” Wayne explained. “The motivation is to show them why I’m still that dude. That’s the motivation because I want [rappers of the new generation] to hopefully get something from that and continue to be whoever the dude or woman they are."