Lil Wayne Talks About Why He Started Young Money Sports and What He Plans to Do With the Company

Watch Lil Wayne explain why he started Young Money Sports and talk about what he plans to do with the company in the future.

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Complex Original

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It’s been more than two years now since Lil Wayne first decided to start a sports management company called Young Money Sports. Back in July 2014, there were actually some rumors about how Wayne was possibly going to sign Cristiano Ronaldo as his first client. But since then, it’s been a slow grind for Wayne and his company. He did ink a deal with former Florida State star Reggie Northrup in March, but Northrup wasn’t selected in the 2016 NFL Draft and is not currently on an NFL roster. So it would seem Young Money Sports is on the backburner for Wayne right now, especially with everything else he’s got going on at the moment.

Wayne sat down for an interview with Bleacher Report recently, though, and from the sound of things, he’s still pushing forward with Young Money Sports. While speaking with longtime sports reporter Colleen Dominguez, Wayne explained why he wanted to get into the sports world in the first place and work with athletes.

"We all cut from the same cloth, and it’s just that simple," he said. "We all from the same type of place, and we all like the same type of things. We all wish we were athletes. They all wish they were rappers…Honestly, it was something that almost felt like it was something I was supposed to do. I also understood that you can actually help these people, these athletes, you can help off them off the field or off the court. Once I figured that out, that’s what I wanted to do."

Wayne also talked specifically about how he thinks he can help young athletes. "First of all, I had to pay attention to what I was doing as an entrepreneur, as a businessman, and start to notice that you can do that for, not only my fellow artists or the people that’s under my label or whatever, musicians, I can do that for an athlete as well," he said. "I can help you, for lack of a better term, shine off the field as well."

Northrup spoke with B/R, too, and discussed why he believes signing with Wayne will ultimately help him succeed. "I feel extremely confident," he said. "Even my dad, my dad an older cat but he know about Wayne and the success he had over his career. It don’t take rocket science [to see] that he’s a very smart guy and that he knows what he’s doing."

And while things haven’t panned out as well as Wayne or Northrup would have hoped at the start of his NFL career, Wayne said helping players like Northrup is all part of his new job. "A career is not promised," he said, "but once you sign with me, my job is to make sure that you’re successful, so success is promised over here."

It’ll be interesting to see if any other athletes decide to sign with Wayne in the near future, given the limited success he’s had thus far with Northrup. You can check out Wayne's interview with B/R in the clip above.

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