Lil Wayne

When Lil Wayne debuted as a 12-year-old kid on the B.G.’z 1995 album True Story, it wasn’t exactly clear that he’d become one of the best rappers of his generation.

It’s not just that he’s clever or funny—it’s the way his style manages to balance classic, boast-driven rap with the kind of wild metaphors and constellatory thinking often left to poets.

In other words, Wayne didn’t just get high, he ate stars; he didn’t just devour rappers, he told you—in gross, gastrointestinal detail—how they felt going down, stretching the conventional vocabulary of rap to its limits.
A native of New Orleans (“That’s why I holler ‘Hollygrove’ on each and every song,” he raps on Tha Carter II’s “Fly In”), Wayne (born Dwayne Carter in 1982) started writing rhymes at eight or nine, attracting the attention of Cash Money Records cofounder Bryan “Baby” Williams by freestyling relentlessly into Williams’ voicemail.