Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. He is regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, and has been lauded as among the greatest rappers of all time. Born and raised in New Orleans, he was discovered by fellow New Orleans-based rapper Birdman in 1993, signing to the latter's record label, Cash Money Records, at the age of eleven. In the following years, he emerged as the flagship artist of Cash Money Records before ending his association with the imprint in June 2018.
He was first placed in a duo with Cash Money labelmate B.G. in 1994—known as the B.G.'z—and they released an album, True Story, in July of that year, although Carter (at the time known as Baby D) only appeared on three tracks. Carter and B.G. then formed the Southern hip hop group Hot Boys with labelmates Juvenile and Turk in 1997; they released their debut album, Get It How U Live! in October of that year. The Hot Boys gained mainstream success following the release of their second album Guerrilla Warfare (1999), as well as their hit single, "Bling Bling". The group briefly disbanded after the album due to each member (besides Carter) parting ways with the label, although one further album—Let 'Em Burn (2003)—was released.
Carter's debut studio album, Tha Block Is Hot (1999) quickly achieved commercial success and served as his breakthrough as a solo act, followed by Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2003). He reached wider popularity and critical acclaim with his fourth and fifth albums Tha Carter (2004) and Tha Carter II (2005), as well as several mixtapes and collaborations throughout 2006 and 2007. He propelled to the forefront of hip hop with his sixth album Tha Carter III (2008), with first-week sales of over one million units in the U.S. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and was supported by his first Billboard Hot 100-number one single "Lollipop" (featuring Static Major), the top-ten singles "A Milli" and "Got Money" (featuring T-Pain), and the top-20 single "Mrs. Officer" (featuring Bobby V and Kidd Kidd).
Carter's seventh studio album, Rebirth (2010) experimented with