Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, and is often cited as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Wayne's career began in 1995, when he was signed by rapper Birdman, joining Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label. From then on, he was the flagship artist of Cash Money Records before ending his association with the label in June 2018.
In 1997, Wayne was placed in a duo with label-mate B.G. and they recorded an album, True Story, released that year, although Wayne (at the time known as Baby D) only appeared on three tracks. Wayne and B.G. soon joined the Southern hip hop group Hot Boys, with Cash Money label-mates Juvenile and Turk in 1997; they released their debut album Get It How U Live! in October that year. The Hot Boys became popular following the release of the album Guerrilla Warfare (1999) and the song "Bling Bling".
Wayne's solo debut album, Tha Block Is Hot (1999), was his solo breakthrough. He reached further popularity with his fourth album Tha Carter (2004) and fifth album Tha Carter II (2005), as well as several mixtapes and collaborations throughout 2006 and 2007. His prominence in the music industry was solidified with his sixth album Tha Carter III (2008), with first-week sales of over one million copies in the US. The album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album and included the consecutive hit singles "A Milli", "Mrs. Officer" (featuring Bobby V and Kidd Kidd), "Got Money" (featuring T-Pain), and "Lollipop" (featuring Static Major)—the latter became his first single to top the Billboard Hot 100.
In February 2010, Wayne released his seventh studio album, Rebirth, which experimented with rap rock and was met with generally negative reviews. A month later in March 2010, he began serving an 8-month jail sentence in New York after being convicted of criminal possession of a weapon stemming from an incident in July 2007. His eighth studio album I Am Not a Human Being (2010) was released during his incarceration, while his 2011 album Tha Carter IV was released following his release from prison. Tha Carter IV sold 964,000 copies in its first week in the United States. His twelfth studio album Tha Carter V was released in 2018 after multiple delays. Wayne's thirteenth album, Funeral, was released in early 2020.
Wayne has sold over 200 million records worldwide, including more than 25 million albums and 92 million digital tracks in the United States, making him one of the world's best-selling music artists. He has won five Grammy Awards, 11 BET Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards and eight NAACP Image Awards. On September 27, 2012, he became the first male artist to surpass Elvis Presley with the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100, with 109 songs. Wayne also currently serves as the chief executive officer (CEO) of his own label, Young Money Entertainment.
