At only 5’5” talk, Lil Wayne might be small, but his hip-hop career has been bigger than any one person could ever imagine. As an accomplished rapper and singer, songwriter, performer, record executive, entrepreneur, and actor, Wayne has been connected to the likes of Drake, Nicki Minaj, and Tyga – some of the biggest pop music stars on the globe. With Grammy Award-winning hits like “A Milli” and “Lollipop,” and a five-part album series called “The Carter,” this New Orleans native has undoubtedly taken the mainstream music landscape by storm. But who exactly is this lil’ man with a larger than life career?
A Lil Star Is Born
Born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. on September 27, 1982, Lil Wayne, as he would come to be known across the globe, spent the early years of his life in the low-income neighborhood of Hollygrove in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dwayne Carter’s parents would divorce while he was two years old, and he would spend much of his life without the presence of his father. Wayne also had a step-father – Reginald “Rabbit” McDonald – who has since passed away, but Wayne has said he considers his ‘real’ father. From a young age, Wayne was clearly musically inclined. By the age of eight, he was already rapping and writing his own songs.
A year later, Wayne would meet Bryan Williams, a rapper in his own right and the owner of Cash Money Records. Williams would continue to mentor Wayne and include his work on a number of recordings and mixtapes. Wayne would eventually begin his professional music career in 1995 at the age of 12. At the time, Wayne was asked to join Cash Money Records by entrepreneur Birdman.
Signed as the youngest member of Cash Money Records, the American rapper might have been enjoying music success, but over time, his mother and stepfather would increasingly show disapproval as Wayne’s grades in high school were dropping. They even disallowed the young rapper from continuing on with the label as a form of punishment. He would eventually come back to work with his Cash Money Records labelmates in the group Hot Boys. The rapper, also known as “Weezy,” would release a number of prominent projects with the label, as well as work as a featured artist on the work of other prominent singers and rappers until he left the label in 2018.
A Lil Star Power
Some of his features include work with R&B celebs like Beyonce’s Destiny’s Child, Usher, Keri Hilson, DJ Khaled, and 3LW, and Rap stars Nicki Minaj, Drake, Jay-Z, Eminem, Kanye West, Kendrick Lamar, and T-Pain, among others. Having sold 120 million records worldwide, he is not only one of the world’s best selling artists, but one of its most decorated with a series of Grammy Awards, BET Awards, Billboard Music Awards, MTV Video Music Awards, and NAACP Image Awards.
His most successful album? Likely, Tha Carter III released in 2008. The studio album went on to sell one million copies in the United States in its first week of sales. Wayne also garnered a Grammy for the album, which featured some of his most successful singles – “Lollipop,” “A Milli,” and “Got Money.” Currently, the rapper is also a successful entrepreneur – serving as CEO of his own record label titled Young Money Entertainment. Throughout the 2010s, Wayne went on to release additional albums in the Carter series, as well as complete a stint in prison although he is now living the life in Miami with an estimated net worth of $120 million.
A Lil Man In Love
Alongside his larger-than-life career, Lil Wayne has also dated an array of women who range in height. The first among a long line of partners is Antonia Toya Carter, who Lil Wayne married in 2004 on Valentine’s Day. According to sources, Carter, who is 5’1”, and Wayne had met while the two were in middle school back in 1996. Two years later, the two would have a child together by the name of Reginae.
The hip-hop star would only be fifteen years old at the time of the birth of his first child. The two would have a rocky relationship but would remain together until 2006. In the midst of dating Carter, Wayne would also meet Meagan Good – only an inch shorter than Wayne. After meeting in 1998 during a concert in L.A., the two are said to have dated on and off until approximately 2001.
And if dating two women at the same time wasn’t enough, Wayne decided to add a third into the mix. By 1998, Wayne was also dating 5’1” actress Lauren London. Like Good, Wayne’s relationship with London was also on-again, off-again. The two began officially seeing one another in 1998, and a little less than ten years later, the couple were engaged. In the interim of their relationship, London and Wayne shared a child together – a son by the name of Cameron Carter. Unfortunately, the two would break it off and officially separate in 2009.
Wayne seemed to love dating petite women – likely so that they could be smaller than his already little frame. This would change when he began dating R&B star Nivea in 2002 – who came in at a whopping three inches more than he did at 5’8”. Less than ten months after they began dating, Wayne proposed.
While the two planned to make their vows official in 2004, Wayne decided to call off the engagement a year earlier. Five years later, when the two began dating again, Nivea would propose to him! But he rejected her request, only to propose himself in 2008.
Together, the two artists had a child together in 2008, only to separate two years later. While so many of Wayne’s partners were well-known actresses and performers, Wayne would also date lesser-known women as in the case of homemaker Adrienne Williams-Bosh whom he dated from May 2004 to January 2009.
Wayne was particularly known for having a number of on-again, off-again relationships with other hip-hop artists. One of which was his relationship with rapper Trina who he first dated in 2005 for a short period in time and later again in 2012. Coming in at 5’2”, Trina was not only a girlfriend to Wayne, but according to reports, she was also engaged to Wayne and carrying his child in 2006.
Unfortunately, she would later have a miscarriage, and the two would break-up for a short period of time in 2006. The two then briefly rekindled their romance in 2007, and again in 2012. Between 2006 and 2015, Lil Wayne would also date R&B singer Solange Knowles between 2006 and 2008; singer Farrah Franklin between 2007 and 2008; writer Karrine Steffans between 2008 and 2013; Kat Stacks in 2010; Keri Hilson for a year between 2008 and 2009; and Christina Milian between 2014 and 2015.
Lil Wayne would also date two public personalities. The first, Sarah Bellew, was a Vietnamese radio personality at the time that the two met after one of his concerts in 2005. While the two share a child together – Dwayne Michael Carter – they would later break off their relationship in 2009. Wayne has also dated Italian personality, Dhea Sodano.
The two met one another after yet another of his concerts – this time in Arizona. After meeting, the two decided to get engaged on Valentine’s Day in 2012. While it has appeared that Wayne has not entirely been successful in love, he has certainly not experienced this level of trouble on the career front. While he may be a small man – as stated right in his moniker – he has had anything but a small career and love life with larger than life hits like “How to Love” and “Sucker for Pain.”
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