Lil Wayne

An uncompromising and provocative MC with a bad-boy personality were just a few of the perceptions people had of hip-hop artist Lil' Wayne. After launching his career as a featured artist with Cash Money Records in the late 1990s, Lil' Wayne ascended to the top by redefining the mixtape genre and for his massive body of work, including the critically acclaimed album series Tha Carter (2004), its follow-up Tha Carter II (2004) and Tha Carter III (2008). Featuring tracks that were often laced with misogyny, violence and drug themes, delivered in his signature raspy, breathless voice, these albums propelled Lil' Wayne to the top of the charts, earning him a multitude of Grammy awards. Yet, as his success grew, so did Lil' Wayne's personal crises and run-ins with the law, including an eight-month prison sentence in 2010 after being convicted of criminal possession of a weapon from a 2007 incident. His incarceration, however, did not slow down his creative juices and immediately upon release, Lil' Wayne shot back into the spotlight with numerous hip-hop collaborators. He also released the highly-anticipated albums Tha Carter IV (2011), I Am Not A Human Being II (2013) and Free Weezy Album (2015), which delivered heavy doses of Lil' Wayne's original rhymes and increasingly quirky freestyle tracks, cementing his place as a game-changer in the world of new millennium hip-hop.