Lil Wayne Returns To New Orleans To Give Out Turkeys

Who says you can't go home again? With Thanksgiving just a few days away, Cash Money Records returned to New Orleans on Friday to hand out turkeys and give back to the city that birthed them.

"It's actually been my first time back here for the past eight or nine years, and they've been doing this for 15 years," Lil Wayne told MTV News. "I haven't been back here to do this for so long just being super busy, just always on tour."

Since Cash Money's meteoric rise in the music industry, Tunechi and Birdman have since relocated to Miami but have never forgotten their roots. Every year Baby and members of the Cash Money team return to help out the less fortunate, and even though it has been some years since Wayne himself went back to his old stomping grounds, Friday's experience isn't lost on him.

"Those times I did it years ago, I was just a kid and I was just doing it because Baby and Slim, we were giving away turkeys at a park and that's what we were doin'," Weezy said. "Now it's a totally different feeling, because I can actually give you that and say, 'Here, happy Thanksgiving.' I can do that, and I can provide that for you. That's a different feeling in general, and it's a beautiful feeling overall."

Typically quiet Cash Money co-founder Ronald "Slim" Williams doesn't take his record label's success for granted. "God blessed people to bless other people," he said. "It makes it so special for us to come back home and see a smile on people's face after they received their turkeys and all the other items that go with it. So it's real big and real special for us."

Overall, CMR co-CEO Birdman just wants the people from his old neighborhood to know that despite his multiplatinum success, he isn't that much different than the people in New Orleans. He hopes that going back to the community where he made his bones will spawn a new cycle of success. "Knowing we once were them, so for me to see that they see us hopefully it's an inspiration for them and something positive can come out of it, because we once were them," he said.