Lil Wayne

New Orleans

Lil Wayne began his career as a near-novelty, a preteen delivering hardcore Southern hip-hop. Through years of maturation and prolific output, during which the delivery of his humorous and wordplay-heavy rhymes gradually changed from ringing and pugnacious to stoned and rasped, he developed into a million-selling artist with a massive body of work, one so inventive and cunning that it makes his claim of being the "best rapper alive" worth considering. Wayne debuted at the age of 12, received his first platinum certification only five years later as a member of the Hot Boys, and immediately thereafter became a formidable solo artist with Tha Block Is Hot (1999), his first of nine Top Ten pop albums. During a period of constant output entailing not just successful albums but also reputation-building mixtapes and featured appearances on pop hits like Destiny's Child's "Soldier" (2004), he reached mainstream superstar status with Tha Carter III (2008). A triple-platinum blockbuster, it spawned the number one pop hit "Lollipop" and the number six follow-up "A Milli," and netted three Grammy awards, including Best Rap Album. Throughout the 2010s, despite numerous legal and creative battles, Wayne continued to be a regular presence on the upper reaches of the charts with albums such as Tha Carter IV (2011) and I Am Not a Human Being II (2013), additional smash singles as a headliner, and a continually lengthening list of collaborative hits, including the multi-platinum "Sucker for Pain" (for the Suicide Squad soundtrack in 2016) and "I'm the One" (headlined by DJ Khaled in 2017).