The past three years have been a trying time for the career of Lil Wayne. He’s gone from being the number one selling rap artist of our time to booking any show he can get his hands on. How has his career come to this?
A run through of Lil Wayne’s career for the past three years
In 2014, he tweeted that Birdman had refused to release his fifth installment of the "Carter" album. Since then, he's gone on rants about how "Cash Money Records" stole from him over the years. In 2015, he released the "Sorry for the wait 2" mixtape which saw him diss his longtime father figure Birdman.
He then released his eleventh studio album "Free Weezy Album" which saw him saw into greater heights aesthetically. The beats were inspired, he sounded mature and talked about the financial issues he’s been having since the fallout with Birdman. Later in that year, he released the "No Ceilings 2" mixtape out of the blue.
In 2016, he did not release any solo works except a memoir detailing his incarceration in 2010. He hopped on 2 Chainz "Collegrove" which was initially supposed to be a collaborative album between the two, but because of Wayne's legal battles, Wayne was credited as a featured artist. He was also a featured artist in a few top 100 hits, but nothing grand happened that year. He even threatened to retire from music because of all the things he had been going through.
Least to say, these were Wayne's worst years in his career.
Accomplishments in 2017
Three years down the line, he’s about to release his much anticipated sixth installment of the "Dedication" series on December 25, 2017, has been a much better year for Wayne. The year began with the merger between his "Young Money sports agency" and "APAA sports agency" to become “Young Money APAA Sports." He signed some promising players including Duke Riley, Frank Mason, Kadeem Allen, to name a few.He was later a featured artist in Dj Khaled’s billboard hit single "I’m the One" which peaked at No.
1 and has been sold over 5 million copies. He embarked on three tours across the world and performed in some festivals.
When things seemed to cool down, he released "In Tune We Trust Ep" which had four songs to keep his fans excited for what was to come next.He then quietly signed an endorsement deal with the most decorated rum "Bumbu" for an undisclosed amount.
Also all this, he has signed some new artists to his "Young Money Imprint" including HoodyBaby, Jay Jones, and Vice Versa. He also introduced the "Young Money Merchandise" line this year which has sold out every time they restock.
Just as things looked to turn sour, he once again announced that his "Young Money APAA Sports" had acquired a competing sports agency "PlayersRep Sports Management" to become "Young Money APAA Sports and Entertainment."
What the future holds for Lil Wayne
Now, back to his much-anticipated mixtape, the ‘Dedication 6'. On top of the year, Young Money camp teased three projects for this year including the anticipated and never-ending charade "Carter 5, Funeral, Velvet, and dedication 6".
While most of these projects never got to see the light of day, at least "Dedication 6" will.
Which got me wondering, with all this momentum building up, there wouldn’t be a better time for Wayne to get his career back in order. All this good news floating around everywhere makes the best time to begin the rollout of these projects. He could probably go for a short tour in January and February then drop "Funeral" at the end of February. Then drop "Velvet" in June while prepping for the much-anticipated release of "Carter 5" in August during the "4th Annual Lil WeezyAna Fest". Then go a headlining tour across the world, probably come back and win a few Grammys and then retire or continue making great music that we love.
This is how a true fan would want it to go, but this is real life, and stuff happens, so who knows what might happen. All I know is if Wayne and his camp stay in this rollercoaster that they have been on for another year, it will be a career suicide. The industry has already changed so much with Wayne on the sidelines that we do not know what might happen if he releases a project. Will fans buy/stream it or not? After all, Wayne is known for selling records, that has NEVER been a problem for him. Only time will tell.
