Lil Wayne: Tha Carter

Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (Lil Wayne, Tunechi, Weezy F Baby) is claimed by many critics and fans to be one of the greatest emcees to grace a microphone. The Grammy award winner has had five albums go platinum (1 million copies sold). He has sold over 120 million albums through the duration of his career. Not to mention, Lil Wayne has a deep library of mixtapes that are provided to the public for free.

Wayne helped launch the careers of Nicki Minaj, Drake, and others. The Louisiana native has cemented himself into the GOAT (greatest of all time) conversation due to his witty wordplay and commitment to the rap game. He’s helped launch the careers of Nicki Minaj, Drake, and others.

Dwayne Carter was born and raised in Hollygrove, New Orleans. Hollygrove is one of the most dangerous and poor areas in New Orleans. Lil Wayne claims to have started rapping as early as 8 years of age. Lil Wayne befriended two rappers in the area that were signed to Cash Money Records.

For a few years, Lil Wayne made himself comfortable with the studio and waited patiently for his chance to hop on the mic and record. In 93’ when Dwayne was just 11 years old, he got his first chance to record a verse. The track is titled, True Story, where he was a featured artist behind rapper, BG. At the time he went under the rap alias, Baby D.

Lil Wayne fell into the drug game fairly early in his life. Around the age of 12 he started selling crack, weed, and other illicit drugs. Lil Wayne has opened up about the time that he shot himself in the chest with his mother's gun at the age of 12. For years he would tell stories about how it was an accident and he was just toying around.

An article by Billboard dives into his references in his last album in regard to this story and how he admitted that it was an actual suicide attempt. Dwayne’s mother would not allow him to rap anymore due to the behavior that came out of the hobby. The gunshot wound to the chest was related to this incident, even though it took him almost 25 years to admit.

Lil Wayne stayed out of the rap game for a few years but his passion for music couldn’t be held in. Four years went by without Weezy recording any form of music. In 1997, Lil Wayne resurrected his efforts towards rap music. He teamed up with a group of rappers, the Hot Boys, under Cash Money Records.

Get it How You Live was a collaboration album that came out in ’97. The album sold over 400,000 copies. Two years later the same group released a follow-up album titled Guerilla Warfare. The album has now surpassed 1.5 million copies. At the age of 16 years old, Lil Wayne was rising in the rap industry.

99’ was a big year for Weezy as he also released his first solo single, Tha Block is Hot. The single sold 229,000 copies first week (RIAA) and was listed #3 on the Billboard 200. The song has now gone platinum.

In the years following, Lil Wayne released two full albums, Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2002). Both albums did not receive the praise that was expected from the rapper or his label. In response, Lil Wayne started working on underground mixtapes that he would release to the public for free.

In the early 2000’s, downloadable mixtapes were significant in the rap game. It was how artists would get discovered. Websites like Datpiff would hold downloadable copies of projects where anybody could go online and download it. Weezy took full advantage of this opportunity and created a mass underground rap following. Lil Wayne is known for releasing some of the greatest mixtapes of all time, such as Da Drought 3 and No Ceilings.

In 2004, Lil Wayne returned to mainstream music with the release of Tha Carter. This album is what brought Weezy to true hip-hop stardom. With the highlight of the album being his single, Go DJ, Lil Wayne found himself on radio stations across the nation. From that moment, a rap legend was born.

Check into the Come Up next week for a dive into the story of the Glory Boy, Chief Keef.