Carter's debut studio album, Tha Block Is Hot(1999), quickly achieved commercial success and served as his breakthrough as a solo act, followed by Lights Out (2000) and 500 Degreez (2003). He further reached mainstream audiences with his fourth and fifth albums Tha Carter (2004) and Tha Carter II (2005), as well as several mixtapesand collaborations throughout 2006 and 2007. He propelled to the forefront of hip hop with his sixth album Tha Carter III (2008), with first-week sales of over one million units domestically. It won Best Rap Album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awardsand was supported by his first Billboard Hot 100-number one single, "Lollipop" (featuring Static Major), as well as the top ten singles "A Milli" and "Got Money" (featuring T-Pain), and the top 20 single, "Mrs. Officer" (featuring Bobby V and Kidd Kidd).
Carter's seventh studio album, Rebirth (2010), experimented with rap rock and was released in February of that year to generally negative critical response. A month later in March, he began serving an 8-month jail sentence for criminal possession of a weapon stemming from an incident in July 2007. His eighth album, I Am Not a Human Being (2010), was released during his incarceration, while his ninth album, Tha Carter IV(2011), followed months after his release from prison. Despite mixed reviews, Tha Carter IV sold 964,000 units in its first-week domestically.[12]His twelfth studio album, Tha Carter V (2018)—preceded by I Am Not a Human Being II (2013) and Free Weezy Album (2015)—was released following long-term delays and label disputes, and was met with 480,000 in first-week sales. His thirteenth album, Funeral (2020), became his fifth non-consecutive number one album.[13]
Carter has sold over 120 million records worldwide, including over 25 million albums and 92 million digital tracks in the United States, making him one of the world's best-selling music artists.[14][15][16] He has won five Grammy Awards, eleven BET Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards and eight NAACP Image Awards. On September 27, 2012, he became the first male artist to surpass Elvis Presley with the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100, with 109 songs.[17][18] Carter founded the record label Young Money Entertainment in 2005, which has signed artists including Drake, Tygaand Nicki Minaj.
Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. was born on September 27, 1982, and spent his first few years in the impoverished Hollygrove neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana's 17th Ward.[19]His mother, a cook, gave birth to him when she was 19 years old. His parents divorced when he was two and his father permanently abandoned the family. When CBS interviewer Katie Couricasked why he used the name Wayne instead of his given name, Carter explained that "I dropped the D because I'm a junior and my father is living and he's not in my life and he's never been in my life. So I don't want to be Dwayne, I'd rather be Wayne". Asked if his father knew of this, Carter replied, "He knows now".[20] Carter has said that he considers his deceased stepfather Reginald "Rabbit" McDonald to be his real father. Carter has a tattoo dedicated to McDonald.[21]
Carter was enrolled in the gifted program at Lafayette Elementary School. He later attended Eleanor McMain Secondary School for two years, where he was an honor student and a member of the drama club, playing the Tin Man in the school's production of The Wiz.[22][23][24] After matriculating to Marion Abramson Senior High School, Carter dropped out at age 14 to focus on his musical career.[25]
Carter wrote his first rap song at age eight.[26] In the summer of 1991, he met rapper and Cash Money Records co-founder Bryan "Baby" Williams(known currently as Birdman), who mentored him and encouraged his love of hip-hop; Birdman included Carter on several Cash Money tracks, and Carter would often record freestyle raps on Williams' answering machine.[27]
In 1994, at age 12, Carter suffered a near-fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.[28] At the time he said the injury was accidental. Decades later Carter claimed that it was an attempted suicide after he was told by his mother that he would have to end his rap-related associations.[29] Carter credits off-duty police officer Robert Hoobler, who he calls "Uncle Bob", with saving his life by insisting the dying child be driven immediately to hospital in a police car rather than waiting for an ambulance to become available.[30] Other accounts indicate that several officers played a part in deciding on and implementing that course of action.[28]
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