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Lil Wayne

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The most influential rapper of his generation, and still the most quotable — a mixtape run that rewired the whole genre.

Lil Wayne was born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. in New Orleans on September 27, 1982, and grew up in the Hollygrove neighborhood. Hometown rapper Birdman discovered him in 1993 and signed him to Cash Money Records at age eleven, first pairing him with labelmate B.G. as the B.G.'z on the 1994 album True Story, on which Carter appeared under the name Baby D.

In 1997 he joined B.G., Juvenile and Turk to form the Hot Boys, whose debut Get It How U Live! came out that year. Their second album, Guerrilla Warfare (1999), and the single "Bling Bling" brought the group wider notice before it split, save for one further album, Let 'Em Burn, in 2003.

Carter's solo debut, Tha Block Is Hot (1999), was his commercial breakthrough, followed by Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2003). Tha Carter (2004) and Tha Carter II (2005) both reached the Billboard 200 top five, and between roughly 2005 and 2008 he released an enormous run of mixtapes, including the Dedication and Da Drought series, built on dense internal rhyme, non-sequitur punchlines and an increasingly raspy delivery.

Tha Carter III (2008) sold over a million copies in its first week, won the Grammy for Best Rap Album, and carried his first number-one single, "Lollipop," alongside the top-ten hits "A Milli" and "Got Money." Rebirth (2010), a rap-rock experiment, met a poor critical reception, and that year he also served eight months in jail on a weapons charge.

Later albums include Tha Carter IV (2011), Tha Carter V (2018), Funeral (2020) and Tha Carter VI (2025). Carter has sold more than 120 million records worldwide, won five Grammy Awards, and in 2012 passed Elvis Presley for the most entries in Billboard Hot 100 history. His approach to melody, ad-libs and metaphor has been widely absorbed by the rappers who followed him.

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