Since his 17th birthday, Lil Wayne has successfully sold 120M albums as a hip hop star

Rapper, producer, and music executive Lil Wayne is an American with a $170 million fortune. The musician has accumulated a lengthy list of personas during his career, which includes Weezyana, Tunechi, Young Tune, Dr. Carter, Birdman Jr., and several more. Whatever you choose to name him, one thing is for sure: this man has made a ton of money. In addition to selling more over 200 million records worldwide and winning other awards, he has surpassed Elvis Presley in the number of Billboard Top 100 entries. Having sold millions of records over his career, he had all the experience he needed to start his own record label, Young Money Entertainment.

Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr., best known by his stage name Lil Wayne, signed a record contract with Cash Money Records when he was only nine years old. He left The B.G.’z and the Hot Boys to go solo, and in 1999 he released his first solo album, “The Block Is Hot”. The album went platinum and launched a very successful solo rap career that hasn’t ended. In the US, his album “Tha Carter IV” has sold over five million copies since its release in the summer of 2011.

Early Life
Lil Wayne’s birth name was Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. in 1982. Carter was identified from an early age, despite growing up in the poor Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans. The child was put in the gifted program at his elementary school and also joined the theatrical club.

At eight years old, Carter penned his first rap song, which Bryan Williams, better known by his stage name “Birdman,” heard a year later. Williams represented Lil Wayne’s first major-league chance as the owner of Cash Money Records. Carter sent messages on Birdman’s answering machine with his freestyles, encouraging Williams to give the kid a shot. The fact that Lil Wayne often appeared in songs published under the Cash Money Label made it clear that music will be his primary focus going forward.

At twelve, Carter had a tragic event. He was taken to the hospital by an off-duty police officer after he shot himself in the chest with a 9mm pistol, perhaps killing himself. Since then, he has admitted that the motivation for this suicide attempt was his mother’s condemnation of his vocation as a rapist.

First Success
Lil Wayne’s career really took off when he signed with the Hot Boys in 1997. The group was very successful and often reached the top of the R&B/Hip-Hop Billboard. When his first album “Tha Block is Hot” came out in 1999, Lil Wayne, at seventeen years old, was ready to pursue a solo career. He became well-known thanks to his first album, but his next two albums, Lights Out and 500 Degreez, didn’t live up to the hype, thus he was in danger of becoming unheard after that.

All that changed in 2004 with the publication of “Tha Carter.” This was a pivotal moment in Lil Wayne’s career, especially when taking into account the follow-up album (“Tha Carter II”) that was released a year later. As his trademark dreadlocks got longer and his lyrics became more nuanced and intellectual, his image began to take shape. The popular song “Fireman” was especially notable during this time.

The rapper didn’t accomplish much for the next two years, although he did contribute to a lot of other people’s tracks, such as Ludacris, Wyclef Jean, and Fat Joe. Lil Wayne made a dramatic return in 2008 with the release of “Tha Carter III.” “Lollipop,” one of Lil Wayne’s most well-known tracks to date, was featured on this album.

The next major accomplishment for Lil Wayne was the release of “Tha Carter IV” in 2011. After yet another lengthy delay, “Tha Carter V” was released in 2018 with identical levels of success. In many interviews, the rapper has said that “Tha Carter V” was his last album. He has expressed his desire to retire and spend more time with his loved ones.

Lil Wayne made his reappearance in 2020 with the release of his album “Funeral.” When it debuted at the top of the Billboard 200, it became his sixth consecutive number one album in the United States. In2023, he followed up with the release of the greatest hits album “I Am Music” and the mixtape “No Ceilings 3”. He is currently working on “Tha Carter VI.”

Young Money Catalog for sale
When Drake and Nicki Minaj were relatively unknown musicians, Lil Wayne signed them to Young Money Entertainment. In July 2020, Lil Wayne sold the Young Money Masters to Universal Music for a cool $100 million.

Personal Life
Lil Wayne has four children overall when his first child was born in 1998, and Carter was sixteen at the time. Lil Wayne married the child’s mother, Toya Johnson, but the two divorced in 2006. The rapper gave birth to their first child in 2008; the boy’s mother is a radio broadcaster. The name of his son was Dwayne III. In 2009, he and actress Lauren London welcomed another child. 2009 witnessed the birth of a second son, Nivea, the singer. Between 2014 and 2015, he dated Christina Milian, a singer. Lil Wayne and model La’Tecia Thomas called off their engagement in May 2020. In June 2020, he started dating Denise Bidot. After a breakup, the two reconciled in November 2020.

In 2008, Carter and Cortez Bryant went back to McMain Secondary School to collaborate with the students on designing an invitation for the dinner that would serve as the official launchpad for the One Family Foundation organization.

Substance Abuse and Health Issues
Carter is charged with long-term abuse of the powerful medication known as “Lean”. The rapper’s purported addiction has been connected to a slew of health issues, including seizures that necessitated hospitalization. One of the worst of these incidents occurred in 2017, when Lil Wayne required hospitalization after suffering two abrupt seizures. Despite the charges, Lil Wayne has always denied any connection between the seizures and a purported drug problem. In 2013, Carter came clean about having epilepsy.

Conflict
Lil Wayne has been arrested several times. The rapper was arrested in 2007 on drug-related and illegal weapon possession charges. In 2008, he was arrested once again, this time on more serious charges. Upon apprehending Carter in Arizona, Border Patrol agents found his tour bus brimming with illegal drugs and a variety of firearms. He was charged with having drugs with the intent to sell them.

2010 saw Lil Wayne serve a year in jail on Rikers Island for charges involving guns. In accordance with the terms of his plea, he also completed his 36-month probation. In the end, he only served eight months of the one-year sentence.

In addition, Lil Wayne has been the subject of several legal actions inside the music industry. There are several issues with his songs, leading to accusations of copyright infringement against him. In other cases, Lil Wayne has forgotten to pay record labels royalties and canceled gigs for which he had previously received payment to perform.

Lil Wayne has also participated in a few well publicized feuds. The rapper has clashed with Juvenile, Jay-Z, Young Buck, Pusha T, and other people.

Lil Wayne’s Salary Twelve million by 2007
2008: Thirteen million dollars
2009: $18 million
2010: Twenty million dollars
2011: $15 million
Twenty-seven million in 2012
$16 million in the previous year
Twenty-three million in 2014
$15 million, $14 million, and $16 million were all spent in 2015.
2018: $19 million
2019: Twenty million dollars
2020: One hundred million
$5 million, or 333 million in total, in 2021.

Real Estate
In 2011, Wayne spent $11.6 million for a Miami island beachfront home. After that, he made millions of dollars’ worth of improvements to the land, adding standout elements like an inside shark tank lagoon and an elevated skate park. The mansion was first listed for $18 million in 2015, but he just accepted $10 million for it in June 2017. Subsequently, he dropped the price to $12 million. Located on the exclusive island of La Gorce, close to Miami Beach, is this 20,857 square foot mansion. It has three levels, a private pier, a pool, and an elevator. There are nine baths and nine bedrooms in it. Here is a video tour of Lil Wayne’s former La Gorce residence:

In the past, Lil Wayne possessed a condominium in New Orleans where he had a recording studio.

In December 2018, Lil Wayne paid $16.75 million for a brand-new home on an island near Miami. The 23,000 square foot plot of land was purchased by a developer in 2013 for $4.4 million, and the mansion was built according to the concept. Lil Wayne listed this mansion for $29.5 million in September 2022. The home generated $22.6 million in revenue in 2023. Here’s a video tour of that property:

In April 2021, Lil Wayne paid $15.4 million for a home in Hidden Hills, California.

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