Lil Wayne Research Papers

Alexa Trani

Professor Barkan History of Popular Music Monday/Wednesday 12:30-1:45 Lil Wayne (Dwayne Carter)

Dwayne Carter, also known as “Lil Wayne”, was born on September 27, 1982 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up in Hollygrove, which is one of New Orleans's poorest neighborhoods. In the beginning of his career he worked with a group called “The Hot Boys” before starting his solo career. Lil Wayne has been creating music and singing/rapping etc. since he was a child and he is considered today one of the most talented rappers. He started rapping at the age of 8 and then later eventually met Bryan and Slim Williams who are brothers and founders of Cash Money Records who gave Dwayne one of their business cards because they were so impressed

Lil Wayne won a Grammy Award for best rap album and he also had three more honors at the February 2009 awards ceremony. Wayne also won a Grammy for best solo rap performance for his song “A Milli” and another one for best rap performance by a duo or group with Jay-Z, T.I. and Kanye West for “Swagga Like Us”. During the summer of 2009 Wayne spent most of his time on the road with Young Money Presents: America’s Most Wanted Music Festival. In the same summer of 2009 Wayne signed Bow Wow to his label and also performed with Jay Sean on his song “Down”. Lil Wayne released his seventh studio album called Rebirth in February 2010. His eighth studio project, I Am Not a Human Being, was also released that year. In 2011, he released his fourth installment of Tha Carter Series, Tha Carter IV which was quickly made popular. In its first four days the album had three hundred thousand downloads on iTunes which set a new record on the media- downloading application. In the meantime, Wayne has been building up his Cash Money Record label and working with other artists and even helping underprivileged kids. He started an organization for urban youth called One Family Foundation which the charity worked to rebuild athletic fields at the schools he once attended since they were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. Despite all the fame and success Wayne

At one point within a year he released over one hundred songs in which had very tasteful and meaningful lyrics that people were attracted to. He made people pay more attention to lyrics than anything else, he continuously included punchlines, metaphors, etc in his music. He made it popular to spit rap out with a real thought process behind it. Wayne, unlike other artists, made it a point to do features with every artists he could whether or not they were rap artists he still made songs with them and gained a lot of popularity that way in which others saw and wanted to do themselves. Another thing he did to influence other artists was changing the way he dressed. Wayne wore all different colors and different patterns at the same time and wore things that were unheard of for people to wear and he did which influenced other artists to do the same and just be who they are. The people in the beginning were unable to accept the fact that he was being himself and wearing all of these ridiculous things but eventually after he continued to not care and kept doing it everyone accepted