I Am Not a Human Being II

Lore & Background

The 'I Am Not a Human Being' concept was born from Wayne's desire to externalize the parts of himself that felt inhuman—the rage, the insomnia, the relentless creative output that seemed to drain him of normalcy. The first volume (2009) sketched the outline; the second volume, recorded in the shadow of his 2009 federal and state sentencing, filled it in with blood. Tracks were laid down in a Rikers Island visitation room, in a studio in New Orleans, and in sessions with longtime collaborators like Mannie Fresh and newer voices like Rockwilder and T-Minus. The result is a record that swings between anthemic bravado and whispered confession without ever feeling like two different albums.

Musically, the double-disc structure lets Wayne split his emotional register: one disc leans into the banger, the hook, the Young Money energy; the other drifts into slower, more reflective territory where he speaks directly to his daughter, to his ex, to the version of himself that the public never sees. The collaboration with Eminem on 'Weezy Baby' became a cultural touchstone, a father-son dynamic in rap that fans still reference. The Young Jeezy feature on 'Right Above It' bridged the Atlanta and New Orleans scenes in a way that felt organic rather than forced.

In the broader narrative of Wayne's career, this album is the bridge between the playful, almost cartoonish 'Carter' era and the more psychologically complex artist who would emerge with Tha Carter IV and later projects. It is where the mask starts to crack, and the fans lean in to see what's underneath.

In Their Own Story

The studio was quiet in the way it only gets at 3 a.m. in New Orleans—the kind of silence that hums with the bass of the last take still rattling the glass. Wayne sat cross-legged on the leather couch, a half-empty water bottle sweating onto the armrest, staring at the waveform on the monitor like it was a seismograph of his own pulse. Rockwilder nodded from the booth, hit record, and the beat dropped: sparse, almost funereal, a single piano note repeating like a heartbeat under concrete. Wayne didn't grab the mic. He just talked. Mumbled. Laughed at himself. Then, somewhere in the second verse, the voice shifted—lower, older, the voice he used to talk to his daughter when she was four and asked why Daddy was always gone. The engineer stopped the track. Nobody spoke for a long time. Wayne said, 'Run it back. But this time, don't make me sound cool. Make me sound tired.' They ran it back. They kept that take.

Reader's Guide

2010 | Young Money / Universal Motown | Singles: "Weezy Baby" (feat. Eminem), "Right Above It" (feat. Young Jeezy), "On My Mind" (feat. T-Pain)

The creative context was everything. Wayne had just served time at Rikers Island, and the legal and personal weight of that period bled into every session. Producers Rockwilder, T-Minus, DJ Paul, and Mannie Fresh each brought a different texture—Rockwilder's dark, cinematic synths; T-Minus's bouncy, club-ready patterns; DJ Paul's gritty Southern bounce; Mannie Fresh's signature 808-driven arrangements that had defined the Young Money sound since the mid-2000s.

The double-disc format was a deliberate choice: one side for the world, one side for the man. The Eminem feature turned 'Weezy Baby' into an event, a generational handoff played for joy. The Jeezy track anchored the album in the street-credibility lane. T-Pain's melodic run on 'On My Mind' showed Wayne willing to be vulnerable over a pop-adjacent beat, a risk that paid off emotionally.

In the broader catalog, this is the album where the 'Tha Carter' character starts to feel like a costume he's wearing rather than a skin he's grown into. It sets the stage for the more stripped-back, self-interrogating work that follows, and it remains the record fans point to when they say, 'This is where Wayne got real.'

Did You Know?

• Parts of the album were recorded during Wayne's visits to Rikers Island, with some vocal takes captured in a visitation room rather than a traditional studio.
• The Eminem collaboration on 'Weezy Baby' became one of the most-played hip-hop duets of the 2010s and is frequently cited in 'best rap collaborations' lists.
• The 'I Am Not a Human Being' title is a direct reference to Wayne's own self-description of feeling detached from normal human experience due to the pace and pressure of his career.
• The album's double-disc structure was a creative decision to separate Wayne's public persona (the banger disc) from his private self (the reflective disc), a duality he has referenced in interviews since.