Star Analysis

Lil Wayne

Background/Young Days

Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. a.k.a Lil Wayne he is an American rapper; he was born on the 27th of September 1982. He joined his first record label at the age on 9 called "Cash Money Records" which made him the youngest member of the group. In 1997 he joined a group known as the "Hot Boys", who debuted with a song called "Get It How U Live" (click on the link to hear the song)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsmD4S2RWa0. Lil Wayne gained most of his success with the groups major selling album "Guerrilla Warfare" which was released in 1999; also in that year Lil Wayne released his own platinum debut album which was called "Tha Block Is Hot" selling over 1 million copies.  

His most successful album was "Tha Carter III" it was released in 2008 selling over 1 million copies all over the U.S within its first week of release. It included a number one single called "Lollipop"and also won a Grammy Award for the best Rap Album. This album was initially supposed to be released in 2007 but it was later released in 2008 after a serious delay, which was caused because majority of the tracks were leaked and distributed on mixtapes. Lil then decided to release the leaked tracks on another album which was titled "The Leak". This album was then released on December the 18th 2007 and the album "The Carter III" was released on the 10th of June 2008 which sold over 1 million copies within the first week it was released.  

Fashion/Visual Look 

Lil Wayne has his own unique appearance, and has changed his style of fashion, and look over the years. Below are some examples of images where Lil Wayne has changed his look.
As you can see from the first image, it is Lil Wayne in his young days when he was still in his group "Hot Boys"  and he looks unrecognisable, not only because he is young but because of his hair style and the fact that he has fewer tattoos.

Where as if you take this next picture below you can see that he has changed a lot in his appearance for example his hair has changed, he has a lot more tattoos than he had before in the picture above and he has less facial piercings too. 

Not only has Lil Wayne's appearance changed but as well as his style of clothing; this has changed alot over the years too. For example if you look at the first image below you can see that in his young days he dressed in more baggy, and colourful clothing.

Whereas now he is usually dressed in something different everytime you see him for example if you look at the images below they're different styles of clothing but they're similar too;but these two styles are both very different from his style from when he was younger. These two different styles have some similarities for example the same type of shades and the long hair, whereas in the image above he does not have any shades on or long hair. 

 

Genre

Lil Wayne markets himself in a way that was unique but is becoming very imitated, which is his key to the success of being on of the best rappers. Lil Wayne has dominated the rap spotlight since 2005 without releasing a formal studio album. Even hip-hop critics lose their minds and can't wait every time he drops a mixtape. Wayne is the most entertaining rapper alive, and "The Carter III" is one of his greatest albums. The beats almost universally fit his slow, freestyle-heavy verses and his penchant for unexpected lyrical turns. Lil Wayne also has always a high amount of views on his videos whether there he's own or he is featured in the song, but there is always over 1,000,000 views on youtube this shows that his music/videos are very famous and popular. If you look at the links below they will take you to the video see how many views the video has, there is also a few examples below. 

Lil Wayne - How To Love

(28,484,924 views)

DJ Khaled - I'm On One Ft. Drake, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne 

(8,593,348 views)

Lil Wayne - John Ft. Rick Ross - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fumBcKC6RE&feature=relmfu (28,503,092 views)

Lil Wayne - 6 Foot 7 Foot  Ft. Cory Gunz - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7tOAGY59uQ&feature=relmfu (36,906921 views)

Lil Wayne - Drop the World Ft. Eminem - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErCAOMi5EGM&feature=relmfu (61,924,784 views)

Lil Wayne - Lollipop Ft. Static - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IH8tNQAzSs&feature=relmfu (86,031,584 views)

Lil Wayne - Knockout Ft. Nicki Minaj - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfYcOYMNuXM&feature=relmfu (35,069,925 views)

Media Representation

Lil Wayne's presentation in the media is similar to the way he represents himself on stage. Usually on the stage he is performs topless, and as you can see from the image below he is posing without a top on. Each of his magazine appearances gives an overall identity of his representation in the media.

For example if you look at the image above he is on the cover of the "Rolling Stone" magazine. The Rolling Stone is a U.S based magazine which is devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture which is published every two weeks. It was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jenn Wenner who is now publisher and editor of the magazine, and Music critic Ralph J. Gleason. This magazine represents Lil Wayne as a confident artist because he is topless in the image showing off a lot of tattoos all at the same time. That confidence is also emphasised by the facial expression on his face, also for someone who is 5'5 he doesn't look very small as the image makes him look bigger than he actually is.

     

Vibe music is a music and entertainment magazine founded by producer Quincy Jones. The magazine features RnB and Hip-Hop music artists, Actors and other Entertainers. Unfortunately the magazine shut down in summer 2009, and Vibe was then purchased by a private equity investment fund called InterMedia Funds. Lil Wayne again surprised his fans with a new style of clothing with the matching belt and underwear. He is again portrayed as a confident artist by his body language and style of clothing, because he is up right position wearing bright coloured clothing, which also shows that he likes standing out. 

        

Symbolism

The illuminati is a conspiracy theory that holds a global elite society that is trying to take over the world, in order to do this they need as many people involved as possible. The theory behind it is that those who join will have a successful career in their life, all they need to do is advertise their symbols. The illuminati have many different symbols for example if you look down below you will see a few pictures.

  

As you can see from the two images below you can see that Lil Wayne presenting both symbols from the images above. Lil Wayne has had a very successful career so far he may be part of the illuminati, or he may just be incredibly talented, who knows? But from the two images below it is a too hard to say that he isn't involved.