Lil Wayne

Writing about Lil Wayne this late into 2008 is a difficult challenge — mainly because there's almost nothing left to say. The popular 26-year-old rapper grabbed the hip-hop world by its balls roughly a year ago with a series of free mixtapes that kept the blogosphere on fire with commentary about his rhymes, his drug use, his women, his health, and everything else you could imagine. Seemingly overnight, he went from a tender-aged Southern rapper with a N'awlins drawl to a mega-pop star who filled the void Britney Spears left open with her breakdown a year earlier. By the time Lil Wayne dropped his magnum opus, Tha Carter III, this summer, nobody was the least bit surprised that the album went platinum in less than a week. Yet for all of the Waynemania that existed this year, can people really stomach any more? Overwhelmingly, the answer is yes. This week, Wayne's I Am Music tour officially commences, and, since he's a Miami resident, the first show is at American Airlines Arena. There's a variety of urban pop performers on the bill, and I'm sure you can expect fellow Miami hip-hop figures like Rick Ross, Brisco, DJ Khaled, and others to make appearances.