What are they gonna say now?

Since Lil Wayne was seemingly reborn as a hip-hop artist some two-plus years ago on his way to becoming the Hottest MC in the Game, criticism about his studio efforts has been as scarce as Denver Nuggets playoff wins. But one fact his detractors always point out is that his ascension has been mostly on guest appearances and not his own records.

Well, well, well, it has all come together for Weezy: He has the #1 video on "TRL" and the #1 song on Billboard's Hot 100 with "Lollipop."

Lil Wayne told us Monday that his friends and fans are more excited than he is, but he's grateful nonetheless. "I don't feel like nothing," he said on the phone from Miami. "I feel like I ain't got nowhere yet. I ain't do nothing yet, actually. But I'm trying to live off everybody's happiness."

Wayne's album, [article id="1579291"]Tha Carter III,[/article] doesn't come out till June 10, and Weezy has already taken measures to make sure the popularity of "Lollipop" lasts. He has a remix coming — not to be confused with the unofficial remix Young Jeezy just put out.

"That's not the official remix, but Jeezy is real crazy," Wayne said. "I love that one, but it's not the official remix. We gonna put out the official remix two weeks before the album comes out. Also, you know I don't do no remixes. This is kinda like a first for that too. You never heard a 'Go DJ' remix or a 'Hustler Music' remix or a 'Block Is Hot' remix. This is the first remix. The person we picked to put on there, he told me something about the verse. He said this was the first song to make him wanna jump on a song again after a certain situation. I took that into consideration and said, 'This is the one we wanna run with.' "

While "Lollipop" is winning the popularity contest right now, "A Millie" is being labeled as the hottest song in the streets by some mixtape DJs. Wayne plans to shoot his next video for that track. There will be several different versions of "A Millie" on Tha Carter III. Instead of having skits, he's going to have young artists give their interpretations of the record.

"I'm not gonna have skits on the album. [The different versions of 'A Millie'] will be where the skits would be," he explained. "It's gonna be like I'm calling home and the person who's on that track is gonna be, like, inside Tha Carter at that time. Only people I put on there is all new artists — artists I think is gonna be in this music sh-- for a long time. [article id="1586134"]Tyga[/article], Corey Guns, Hurricane Chris, Lil Mama — it's gonna be ill. On the video, I'm introducing my artist, Lil Chucky. He's 13 years old. He's hot in the South. He's got his own part for 'A Millie' too."

Other guests, such as Jay-Z and Ludacris, appear on TCIII, but Weezy told us his mother played a significant part in the LP as well: She provided the picture for the album cover. It's Wayne as a baby with tattoos on his face and hand — and despite recent reports on some blogs, it is the official album cover.

"That's me!" he said. "All day. No computers. Only thing [digitally enhanced] was the tattoos. My momma gave me the picture for me to put on the album cover. I don't know where my momma found that picture. My momma, she gave me that and one more. If you would have saw the other picture, you'd be like, 'She got too many pictures.' "