Lil Wayne's 'On Fire' Inspired By 'Scarface,' Producer Dre Says

Boom, goes the dynamite: Lil Wayne talks about a woman who ignites his life on his new single from his forthcoming Rebirth LP, "On Fire."

"I said, 'Shawty, let me play up in your match box,' " he sings. "And she's on fire!/ ... She's steamin'!"

"She's hot as hell, call her Helen," he later raps. "Fireman to her rescue like 9-11."

"He's talking about a chick that's on fire," explained Dre, who, along with his partner Cool, produced the record, as well as a handful of other songs on Rebirth. "He's on his knees praying to the Lord to keep him clear because she's on fire. He's got a bad one! She's that bad that's she might have came straight outta hell. I think he's shooting a video for it. I think the video would be outrageous."

Wayne's track samples Amy Holland's "She's on Fire" from the soundtrack to the classic film "Scarface."

"If you speak to Wayne, Wayne will tell you the reason why he loves the record is he gets to do everything on the record," Dre said. "He gets to spit on the record, he gets to sing on the record, he gets to play the guitar on the record. One night I was watching 'Scarface,' and I woke up in the morning, had the damn 'She's on Fire' in my head. I called up Cool, like, 'Yo, we gotta flip this.' The way the sample was, you couldn't flip it. It's like a disco song, but you hear the guitars. I was like, 'We should put this sh-- on steroids and turn it all the way up. Throw some 808s on it and really crank this sh-- up.' We redid the whole beat and kept the 'she's on fire' [vocal sample]. We gave it to Wayne. Wayne is the Fireman, so it's perfect. But we heard it after he did it — we didn't know he was gonna kill the guitar like he did.

"That's him laying the guitar," Dre added. "It's never us producing a beat for Wayne. It's a collaboration. It's always a collaboration. It's not like, 'OK, make a beat.' We're making the music with him in mind and the sh-- he does, [thinking,] 'He'll probably rap; make the music change here.' When we gave him the Pro Tools, he goes in and he amplifies the beat. That song has drops all over it where hits the guitar. Music is so f---ing boring right now. It's good to wake muthaf---as up. Wayne sings on it, he spits on it, and he plays the guitar on it. He gives you everything on one record where his mind is at right now."

Wayne plays the bass on another Rebirth record, a track called "Da Da Da."

"We did that record as well," Dre said. "He plays the bass on the record. 'She's on Fire,' it has more of an urban feel because of 'Scarface.' It has heavy 808. 'Da Da Da' is some rock sh--, but it's some really hot sh--. And not rock sh--. I don't wanna say 'rock sh--.' It's everything too. He plays the bass on the record, he sings on it, spits on it. It's something Rick James would bug out on. It's hot."

Cool & Dre also produced the upcoming Young Money album, and they did the current Game single "Big Money." The Miami duo have Rick Ross and Yo Gotti on the production plate as well.