Lil Wayne, born as Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. on September 27, 1982 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Dwayne Michael Turner and Jacinda Carter, is an American hip hop singer/rapper. His mother bore him when she was only nineteen and his father abandoned them right after his birth. Lil Wayne had to grow up struggling with his mother at Hollygrove division of New Orleans.
Soon after his mother met Reginald “Rabbit” McDonald, who became his stepfather and moved the family to East New Orleans. By that time, Lil Wayne had begun to develop his interest in hip hop and rap music. He started rapping at the age of 8. Wayne was influenced by Cash Money Recording artists like Pimp Daddy, he began rapping at block parties.
Lil Slim, a Cash Money rapper recording artist, made Lil Wayne to meet the Cash Money Records moguls, Brian “Baby” Williams and Ronald “Slim” Williams. At 11, Lil Wayne got to sign up with Cash Money, being the Records’ youngest rapper.
A year after signing the contract, Lil Wayne accidentally shot himself in the chest with his stepfather gun. He stayed on life support for two weeks. According to a Rolling Stone article Wayne says, “It was my mom’s gun,” Wayne told the magazine in 2008. “It was like a chopper hit me. But the bullet went straight through, and I bounced back in two weeks.”
Lil Wayne met Lil’ Doggie, well-known as B.G., and they formed a rap group The B. G’z. With this group, he only recorded and released one album in 1995, “True Story”, which did not sell as expected. He then dropped out of school in the 10th grade and he had a daughter, Regina Carter, with Antonia but he was not allowed to see the child.
In 1997, his stepfather died and he later on formed another group called “The Hot Boys”, with Juvenile, Turk, and B.G. The group released two successful albums Get It How U Live (1997) and Guerilla Warfare (1999). Lil Wayne and his friends officially went on their separate ways in 2001.
Lil Wayne release his first solo album in 1999 “Tha Block Is Hot” which was at number three on Billboard’s album chart and at number one on Billboard Top R’n’B/Hip-Hop Albums, while at the same time scoring him a nomination for 2000 Source Award for New Artist of the Year, Solo. He later on released other albums that failed to be as successful as the first solo album, “Lights Out” (2000) and “500 Degreez” (2002).
Then, in 2004 Wayne released another album “Tha Carter” that was at number five on Billboard 200, and at number two on Billboard Top R’n’B/Hip-Hop Albums. He kept on releasing more Carter Albums and doing more collaborations.
In 2020, Lil Wayne pleaded guilty to taking a handgun and ammunition on aa private plane. He escaped 10 years of imprisonment when he was pardoned by President Donald Trump. Well, this was not the first time for him to get arrested for the same issue. He also serves eight months in the prison in 2010.
Lil Wayne is epileptic and he has been dealing with unprovoked seizures. It has been reported that he can’t remember some of his songs due to memory issues.