Lil' Wayne Dwayne Michael Carter Jr (born September 27, 1982 in New Orleans, Louisiana), better known as Lil' Wayne, is an American, Grammy-nominated rapper, and is known as the president of the New Orleans-based label Cash Money Records and the CEO of Young Money Entertainment.Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. was born an only child (now has a younger brother) in the poverty-stricken and crime-ridden Hollygrove section of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is part of the 17th Ward. His biological father left him when he was an infant, and until the age of sixteen, Reginald "Rabbit" Carter was his stepfather. Despite his unpleasant surroundings, he struggled to keep off the streets and to stay in school[citation needed]. Wayne's first contact with hip-hop was listening to local Cash Money artists such as Pimp Daddy and U.N.L.V., whom he also credited as his earliest influences. At first he started rapping at the block parties; his performance at one of them caught the ear of Lil Slim (an earlier Cash Money Records artist who was from the same neighborhood as Lil Wayne), who soon after the show gave him their phone numbers. He went on an autograph signing session with Lil Slim, where at the first time he met Cash Money Records owners, Brian "Baby" Williams and Ronald "Slim" Williams. His freestyling abilities impressed the Williams brothers, but they didn't sign him at first. 11-year old Wayne started to record freestyles on Baby's answering machine and haunted Cash Money offices nearly every day. When Baby saw so much engagement in the young rapper, he soon signed him and hooked up with another newcomer Lil' Doogie (who would later become famous as B.G.) to form group The B.G.'z. Group released their first and only album, True Story, in 1995. At the young age of 13, Wayne would drop out of school to fully pursue a rap career. Wayne did not rap about adolescent issues, unlike many child rappers, such as Lil' Romeo and Bow Wow, who performed rap that was for younger audiences until their late teens. He did, however, refrain from swearing in his rhymes at the behest of his mother. In 1997, Wayne formed the Hot Boys along with Juvenile, Turk, and B.G., and they released their seminal debut CD Get It How You Live. The record's success earned the young teenagers fans throughout the south and midwest. He further distinguished himself on the Hot Boys' platinum selling Universal debut Guerilla Warfare released in 1998, followed by their 2003 release Let Em Burn. In 1999, at age 17, Wayne launched his solo career with the release of Tha Block Is Hot. This was followed by Lights Out in 2000 and 500 Degreez in 2002, an allusion to Juvenile's 400 Degreez. In 2004, Wayne Carter released Tha Carter. This album is marked as a personal milestone as he claimed to have finally perfected his trade. It was also Tha Carter that finally earned him mass notability outside the south as a lyricist because at that time southern rappers were stereotyped as having little to no lyrical ability, yet his nimble flow proves that in this case the stereotype does not fit. On December 11, 2005 Wayne released Tha Carter II which further solidified his spot as a contemporary rapper, noticeably producing the album without the prominent beats of Mannie Fresh. Tha Carter II sold more than 238,000 copies debuting at no. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart and has been certified platinum. The lead single off the album, "Fireman", became a hit in the US, peaking at 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The second single, "Grown Man", was solicited to urban radios in January of 2006 in hopes of spreading to Top 40 Mainstream and then to the Hot 100, but failed to do so and failed to receive any attention due to lack of promotion and no video.[citation needed] The third single "Hustler Musik" received a video and gained minor attention also. "Hustler Musik" reached #87 on the Billboard Hot 100. Recently Wayne was recruited by the Boyz N Da Hood as their fourth member after Young Jeezy left the group to engage in his solo career. Due to scheduling conflicts involving the promotion of Tha Carter II, he would never be formally named an active member of Boyz N Da Hood but maintains a very good relationship with the group recording new tracks with them often. Florida rapper Rick Ross was rumored to then replace Wayne and in essence, Young Jeezy but he also has denied that he will be an official member of the group. Lil Wayne will also be featured on Roman Verone's up coming mix CD and LP due out soon. In 2006 Lil Wayne released his critically acclaimed sequel to his Dedication mixtape with DJ Drama called Dedication 2. On it, he included an outro track entitled "Georgia....Bush" on which he addresses the problems surrounding the government's response to Hurricane Katrina in his native New Orleans, Lousiana and also places a large amount of blame on President George W. Bush. Throughout the track, he claims that theories of the government sabotaging the levees of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward were indeed true. The track was recorded on the beat to Ludacris' single "Georgia" which sampled the Ray Charles track "Georgia On My Mind". This song is followed by a freestyle called "Weezy's Ambitions" over 2Pac's Ambitionz Az a Ridah. The freestyle was originally done on BET'sRap City following the release of Tha Carter II. Lil Wayne is set to release two collaboration LPs. Originally, the mixtape I Can't Feel My Face with Juelz Santana was released over the summer, but with its extreme demand and popularity, there are now rumors of it becoming a major-label commercially released LP. On October 31 2006, Wayne released an album with his mentor Baby: Like Father, Like Son. Many confuse Baby as Wayne's birth father, but this is not true, as evidenced by Wayne's singles "Everything" (from Lights Out), and a song on Like Father, Like Son, where Wayne says "My dad died when I was 16." Later in the month of April of 2007 Lil Wayne released a new mixtape album called Da Drought 3. Personal life Lil Wayne had been linked to female rapper Trina since around the time of the 2005 NBA All-Star Game at the Pepsi Center in Denver. They later recorded a single, Don't Trip, which appeared on her album Glamorest Life, and appeared on the remix for Remy Ma's "Conceited (along with Papoose and Jae Millz). After that rumors started flying around about what was going on between the two. There were rumors that the two were dating or even engaged. On a radio interview, Trina said that the relationship was more of a "brother-sister" relationship. Later, on Victoria's RapBasement, Lil Wayne said he knew nothing of the rumors. Both would later retract that statement. In an issue of Sister 2 Sister magazine, Trina would later say that she made a huge understatement at that radio interview, and that "He's one of the sweetest people I've ever met...I have so much love for him!" However, she just burst out in huge giggles when further questions were asked, and she said "We're both happy. That's all the world needs to know." In the March 2006 issue of VIBE magazine, Lil Wayne said that this relationship was better than his past ones because "She's (also) a rapper, so we understand each other." When asked about the ring, he smiled and said, "She just likes rings. I saw a nice one, so I got it for her." Lil Wayne and Trina have recently ended their relationship, which was stated by Lil Wayne, himself, on BET's 106 and Park. He would draw some media and fan attention with the leak of a picture of himself and Bryan "Baby" Williams (a.k.a. Birdman) kissing. It was explained as a father-son kiss, and the photo [1] is not overly suggestive. Williams later claimed the kiss was a "black variation" of Mafia affection. Lil Wayne has insinuated on numerous occasions, mostly in his music, that he is the "best rapper alive". He has even stated that he is the "best to date", placing himself above rap legends such as Big L, Tupac, LL Cool J, and others. These claims have largely been received lightly by audiences, as most hip-hop fans would agree that both are true as of now. A degree of controversy has arisen surrounding Lil Wayne's lyrics, mostly due to another rapper, Gillie Da Kid, claiming that he has written some of Lil Wayne's material. This has neither been confirmed nor disproven, although both Wayne and Gillie remain firm in their views. Lil Wayne wore one of Gillie's diamond-studded pendants in one of his music videos, although this does not necessarily have any correlation with the ghostwriting issue. It could be argued that Gillie's lyrical skills are superior, mostly due to the fact that he has frequently proven himself to be a good freestyle rapper, whereas Lil Wayne usually struggles to form coherent flows when they are not premeditated. Lil Wayne has recently purchased a sky box at the Louisiana Superdome with Birdman. Lil Wayne has a daughter named Reginae Carter, he named her after his step father Reginae "Rabbit" Carter Curren$y is a former member of Master P's the 504 Boyz, appearing on a limited amount of material with the group (though he was often credited as "504 Boyz featuring Currency", making his membership in the group appear minor at best). Currency has done countless features on many No Limit projects. He did a mixtape called Sports Center in 2002. He is the first artist to be released on Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment label. Currency has come out with a song, an underground hit, called "Where Da Cash At," which can be heard on several of Lil' Wayne's mixtapes, including Dedication 2. Currency released his own mixtape with Lil' Wayne titled The Color of Money. He was featured on Lil Wayne's song "Grown Man" from the album Tha Carter II. His debut album Music to Fly To, will be released sometime in 2007. The album will feature guest appearances by Remy Ma, Lil Wayne, Dizzy, Mack Maine, T-Pain, Brisco and Cam'Ron.