Get the latest gossip
Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century: No. 21 — Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne is our No. 21 Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century for how the took over the world (with some help) in the late '00s and early '10s.
The cultural impact of Wayne’s mixtapes run is essentially incalculable, since the Billboard charts didn’t account for DatPiff downloads and circulating Limewire files, but many of the tracks live on in iTunes libraries and the hearts of fans as holy grails of that Weezy period. High school football players across the U.S. made the Kane Beatz-produced beat the soundtrack to their highlight tapes while the girls walking the hallways updated their Facebook statuses in unison to Wayne’s feel-good, “Life’s a beach, I’m just playing in the sand” bar. While Drizzy and Minaj took the baton and ultimately surpassed Weezy’s pop stardom in their own wildly successful crossover careers, they still always pay homage to Wayne as the GOAT, and continue shouting him out for giving them a chance and helping them achieve their rap dreams.
Or read this on Billboard
