Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. (born September 27, 1982 in New Orleans, Louisiana) better known as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper and songwriter, 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. grew up as an only child (he now has a younger brother) in the poverty-stricken and crime-ridden Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans' 17th Ward. At the age of sixteen, his stepfather Reginald "Rabbit" Carter died.
 
 Wayne's first contact with hip-hop was listening to local Cash Money Records artists like Pimp Daddy and U.N.L.V., whom he would credit as his earliest influences. Wayne began rapping at block parties as a child, and his performance at one of them caught the ear of Lil Slim, a Cash Money rapper also from the neighborhood, who soon after the show gave him his phone number. He went on an autograph-signing session with Lil Slim, and there 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. Eleven-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. Wayne dropped out of school at the age of 13 to pursue his rap career. Wayne later was hooked up with another newcomer, Lil' Doogie (who would later become famous as B.G.), to form The B.G.'z. The group released their first and only album, True Story, in 1995.