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The Origin of Lil Wayne's 'Welcome Home, Tunechi' Nickname

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By Hillary Crosley, with reporting by Sway Calloway and Jayson Rodriguez

On Sunday (November 7), Lil Wayne attended his "Welcome Home, Tunechi" party at Miami's King of Diamonds club along with his Young Money Cash Money family. MTV News' Sway pulled the MC aside and garnered the first words from Wayne himself.

"It's unexplainable," Wayne said of returning to the stage with Drake in Las Vegas on Saturday (November 6). "Words can't explain. I'm good with words and I can't explain."

According to Hot 97's Kay Foxx, a New Yorker who once called Miami home, the strip club used to be a Cosco supermarket and boasts almost 150 dancers, so you can just imagine how amazingly large the venue was Sunday. Now that's really a movie, as DJ Khaled would say.

Also, if you're like some people who have forgotten exactly what Lil Tunechi means—and read the title of the MC's homecoming party and his tweets with a quizzical expression—MTV News caught up with Lil Wayne, along with DJ Scoob Doo, back in February and the MC explained the moniker's origin.

"My nickname is Lil Tune—my grandmother named me that," he explained. "She’s passed. My grandmother, her name was Mercedes Carter. She named me Lil Tune. We just threw the ‘Chi’ on there. Like Gucci, I say ‘Tunechi!’ "

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Grandmothers make the best nicknames.

Stick with MTV News for up-to-the-minute reports on Lil Wayne's prison release as we follow him from Rikers Island to his celebrations at home and beyond. Follow us on Twitter @ for instant updates and bookmark weezywatch.mtv.com for complete, round-the-clock coverage.

Are you excited about Lil Wayne's return home? Were you in King of Diamonds on Sunday? Tweet us at @MTVRapFix or leave a comment below!

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