Lil Wayne
American rapper and singer

Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. He is often regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop artists of his generation, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Born and raised in New Orleans, he was discovered by hometown rapper Birdman in 1993 and signed with his record label, Cash Money Records, at age eleven. He emerged as the label's flagship artist until his departure in 2018.
Carter was initially placed in a duo with another artist signed to Cash Money Records. B.G. in 1994—known collectively as the B.G.'z—and they released the album True Story that year, although Carter (at the time known as Baby D) appeared on only three of its tracks. Carter and B.G. then formed the Southern hip-hop group Hot Boys with labelmates Juvenile and Turk in 1997, and released their debut album, Get It How U Live! that year. The Hot Boys gained mainstream success after the release of their second album Guerrilla Warfare (1999) and their appearance on B.G.'s single, "Bling Bling." The group briefly disbanded after the album due to each member (besides Carter) parting ways with the label, although one further album—Let 'Em Burn (2003)—was released.
The public source identifies “Lil Wayne” as american rapper and singer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Wayne, American and rapper.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15615. VIAF identifies the subject as 39600891. The Library of Congress control number is no2001023421. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1993, 2018 and 1994.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lil Wayne” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.