lil Wayne

Lil Wayne
Background information
Birth name	Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr.
Born	September 27, 1982 (1982-09-27) (age 26)
Origin	New Orleans, Louisiana
Genre(s)	Hip hop
Years active	1999–present
Label(s)	Cash Money/Young Money/ Universal
Associated acts	Birdman, Hot Boys, Trina, Juelz Santana, Mannie Fresh, B.G., Juvenile, T-Pain, Kanye West, T.I., Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, Kevin Rudolf
Website	Cash Money Records

Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. (born September 27, 1982), better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. Currently part of the newly reunited rap group Hot Boys, he joined the Cash Money Records collective as a teenager. He worked with B.G. on the album True Story and eventually recorded for the label. Get It How U Live, released in 1997, was Lil Wayne's first album with Hot Boys, and Tha Block is Hot, his solo debut, came out 1999. Block debuted in the top ten on the American Billboard 200 chart and Lil Wayne was nominated for "Best New Artist" from The Source magazine the same year. Following this success, Wayne soon featured on other rappers' singles, including "Bling Bling" by B.G. and "#1 Stunna" by the Big Tymers in 2000.

After his hit debut album Tha Block Is Hot and two more albums released with little promotion, Lil Wayne reached higher popularity with 2004's Tha Carter and its two subsequent albums Tha Carter II (2005) and Tha Carter III (2008), and he dubbed himself the "best rapper alive." During that period, he appeared on several mixtapes and singles of other artists.