Lil Wayne is an American rapper who also dabbles in rock music. His other stage name is Lil Weezy or Weezy. F. Baby. Lil Wayne’s whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter was born in September 1982, grew up in Holly Grove, Louisiana, and his parents were divorced when he was only two (Gregory 125). He joined Cash Money Records before he was ten years old and was the youngest member of this record label. He joined a group called Hot Boys in 1997 and recorded a run-away hit album titled Guerrilla Warfare with the group (Potter,190). He released his first album titled The Block is Hot in 1999 and the album hit platinum having sold 1.3 million copies in the United States of America. His two subsequent albums were not as successful as the first one as they only hit gold status. Lil Wayne hit the international limelight with the Carter album in 2004. Carter II, a sequel to The Carter was released in 2005 but his most successful album was Carter III, which sold 1.5 million copies in the United States of America within six days (Light,78) The most popular song in this album was a collaboration with the late Static Major, titled Lollipop.
This album won a Grammy award in 2008 as the best rap album before he released a negatively acclaimed rock album titled Rebirth in 2010, though the album hit gold eventually. Lil Wayne is one of the most sought-after artists for collaborations. Only Senegalese-born musicians called Akon and Trinidadian-born female rapper namely Nicki Minaj can rival Lil Wayne in collaborations. One of his most successful collaborations was a song titled Stunting like my Daddy in rapper Birdman’s album titled Like Father, Like Son and he has also collaborated with other artists such as Fat Joe, DJ Khaleed, Akon, T,I, Chris Brown , Nicki Minaj many others. Between 2008 and 2009, Wayne did not release any album but appeared in numerous singles which include Sweetest Girl, Duffle Bag Boy, I am So Hood and all these singles played within top twenty songs in the billboard for a long time. Apart from albums, singles, and collaborations, Lil Wayne has been reaching his fans and audience through mixtapes and guest appearances in various singles. Dedication two and drought 3 mixtapes received positive acclaim and critical analysis.
In the Drought 3 mixtape, there was a song titled George Bush that criticized the former American president because of the way he responded to hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. This mixtape was available for free download and was unique because this rapper was rapping over beats of songs done by other artists. Drought 3 and Drought is over are said to be the best hip hop albums released in the year 2007. His best-ever performance in a song was his verse in the song Taking Over featuring DJ Khalid, Akon, T.I, and Fat Joe. Wayne has won various titles such as Hottest emcee in hip hop, rap artist of the year in 2008, workaholic of the year in 2009, and the best rock star alive while the Vibe Magazine described him as the most talented rapper of the current generation. In 2008 Weezy became the first rapper to grace the Country Music Awards playing along kid rock in a song titled All Summer Long. Later in the year, he has nominated for 8 Grammy awards and no artiste received more nominations than Lil Wayne. At the end of 2008, he became the first male artist to be named as the MTV artiste of the year after winning a Grammy award for the songs Lollipop, Swagger like Us, and A Milli.
Lil Wayne Married Antonia Johnson, his college sweetheart on February 2004 but they divorced in 2006, though the two have a fourteen year old daughter they got while in high school. Wayne has four children with different women who including actress Laura London and Singer Nivea. Wayne dropped the letter D from his surname Dwayne because his father has been absent from his life. Wayne Smokes marijuana recreationally and has been nabbed several times in possession of the drug. He also used to take Codeine Syrup as a drug but stopped it after it led to the death of his fellow musician Static major. Lil Wayne has been arrested on several occasions during his life as a rap artist. In 2007, he was arrested in Idaho on felony charges after was found in possession of controlled substances though the charges were later dropped. In 2008, Wayne was arrested along the Arizona border after his tour bus was stopped by the AK 9 unit, and loads of cocaine and marijuana were found in the bus.
He was charged with four felonies including possession of dangerous weapons and drugs for sale though he was granted permission to travel outside Arizona after posting a bond. Currently, he is serving 3 years probation after being found in possession of dangerous weapons again. Wayne is one of the rappers who have crossed the paths of the law enforcement officers many times and most of his charges are related to possession of drugs and dangerous weapons. Wayne has also been involved in several lawsuits. In 2009, RMF production label filed a one million dollar suit against this rapper after he canceled shows all of which had been paid in advance by the producers. In the same year, Wayne, Birdman CMR record label, and their distribution outlets were sued by a budding artist who claimed that they had infringed his intellectual property by using his voice without his permission. Despite his controversial life outside music, President Obama has made several references to Lil Wayne in some mixed contexts. During his election campaign, Obama advised children to achieve their dreams through education saying that some of them could be the next Lil Wayne.
In conclusion, Lil Wayne is the most successful hip-hop artist of the current generation. He is a hard-working musician who keeps on releasing songs, albums, and mixtapes quite often. There is no quality hip hop music show that ends without playing at least three Lil Wayne songs and budding hip-hoppers have like Players Circle have been brought into the international limelight by Lil Wayne after appearing as a guest artist in their songs. Lil Wayne has revolutionized hip hop music especially the crunk genre of hip hop and his name is mentioned in the same breath as those of hip hop legends such as Tupac Shakur and Dr. Dre. No other modern artist has more fans on their Facebook fan page than Lil Wayne.
Works Cited
Gregory, Nelson. Hip-Hop America. New York: Penguin Books. 2005.
Light, Alan. The VIBE History of Hip-Hop. New York: Three Rivers Press. 1999.
Potter, Russell. Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip-Hop and the Politics of Postmodernism. Albany: Penguin.2005.