Lil Wayne Tops Billboard 200
Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV sold 964,000 copies and gave the workaholic his third career chart-topper on the Billboard 200 chart, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The long-anticipated album sales are said to stem from brand loyalty and a well-timed marketing plan after his stint in the joint for illegal gun possession, according to industry watchers.
Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr., was born on September 27, 1982 and grew up in the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.’z, with B.G. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included rappers Juvenile, B.G., and Young Turk. Hot Boys debuted with Get It How U Live! that year. Lil Wayne gained most of his success with the group’s major selling album Guerrilla Warfare, released in 1999. Also in 1999, Lil Wayne released his Platinum debut album Tha Block Is Hot, selling over one million copies in the U.S.
His most successful album, Tha Carter III, was released in 2008 and sold over 1 million copies in the U.S. its first week of release. It included the number-one single “Lollipop” and won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. Lil Wayne released his debut rock album, Rebirth, in 2010, which was not well-received from radio or critics, although the album eventually went gold. In March 2010, Lil Wayne began serving an 8-month prison sentence in New York after being convicted of criminal possession of a weapon. While in the can he released another album entitled I Am Not a Human Being in September 2010, featuring Young Money artists such as Drake, Nicki Minaj and Lil Twist. His ninth studio album and first since being released from prison, Tha Carter IV, was released on August 29, 2011.
