Though he found stardom early as one of the teenage Hot Boys, few could have predicted how long and fruitful Dwayne Carter's career would be. After developing his gift for wordplay over the course of his first four albums with Cash Money in-house producer Mannie Fresh, Lil Wayne began devouring a wider, darker variety of beats on a series of albums and mixtapes that supported his claim to being the “best rapper alive.” Presiding over a new generation of stars with his Young Money imprint, Weezy F. Baby continued to rack up hits with unpredictable punchlines and animated vocal tics.