Lil Wayne is one of the most legendary artists in the music industry.
But he’s also had plenty of legal problems throughout his career.
Now it looks like the rapper is in trouble again after his bodyguard accused him of threatening him
with an assault rifle during an argument. Let’s take a look at what went down.
Lil Wayne is currently under investigation after one of his bodyguards accused him
of pointing an assault rifle at him.
The bodyguard says
he and Wayne got into a physical altercation at the rapper’s crib in Hidden Hills, California.
The fight allegedly started after Wayne accused the security guard of taking pics of him,
then leaking them to social media.
Wayne then told him to get out.
But he decided to use the bathroom before he left.
This supposedly pissed Wayne off, who then pulled out an AR-15
and demanded he leave immediately.
That’s when the guard ran out of the home
and took shelter in the security booth at the front of the gated community,
where he called the police.
Wayne is a convicted felon and not allowed to be in possession of any guns,
especially an AR-15.
So, the police came to investigate.
But by time they got there, he was already gone.
Law enforcement sources told TMZ that the cops who investigated the case
have some issues with the body guard’s story.
Some facts aint really add up
and he aint have no bruises or marks on his body from the altercation.
But they've still launched an investigation.
Lil Wayne hasn’t spoken publicly on the accusations,
but sources close to him say that he strongly denies the incident ever happened.
They also said that Weezy don’t even own a gun.
So clearly there’s more to the story.
But it’s hard to tell exactly what happened.
This ain’t Lil Wayne’s first run in with the law either.
He’s had his fair share of legal trouble,
which even put him behind bars for almost a year for gun possession.
Lil Wayne grew up in the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans.
His mom was a cook who had him when she was only 19 years old
and his dad left the family when he was just two years old.
Wayne was enrolled in the gifted program at Lafayette Elementary School
and wrote his first rap song at just eight years old.
In the summer of 1991, he was introduced to Bryan “Birdman” Williams,
who saw his potential and became his mentor.
Birdman had just started Cash Money Records, with his brother Slim
and he included Wayne on several early Cash Money tracks.
But Wayne’s mom ain’t like him hanging out with these older dudes.
So, she told him that he had to stop rapping and hanging out with his friends from Cash Money.
Wayne was so depressed he couldn’t rap anymore, that he shot himself in the chest at just 12 years old.
An off-duty police officer named Robert Hoobler ended up saving his life
by insisting he be driven to the hospital in a police car, rather than waiting for an ambulance.
Wayne credits Hoobler with saving his life and often calls him Uncle Bob.
Initially, Weezy claimed the gunshot wound was an accident.
But years later, he admitted it was a suicide attempt
and even wrote a song about it called Let it All Work Out on the Carter V.
After that, Wayne’s mom let him continue rapping
and he later dropped out of high school at 14 to pursue a music career.
He joined the Hot Boyz, with Juvenile, BG, and Turk.
They dropped their debut album Guerilla Warfare in 1999,
which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 200.
Wayne was also featured on Juvenile’s hit single Back That Azz Up, which peaked at #18.
Later that year, Wayne dropped his first solo album, The Block Is Hot.
The album sold over 229,000 copies the first week and debuted at #3 on the Billboard charts.
So, at just 17 years old, Wayne’s name was already established in hip hop
and he was on his way to becoming one of the biggest artists in the world.
He continued to build his musical catalog, dropping albums like Lights Out
and 500 Degreez in the early 2000’s.
In ‘04, he dropped his fourth studio album The Carter, which was a critical and commercial success.
He followed up with The Carter II in '05
which peaked at number 2 on Billboard and sold over 2 million copies worldwide.
So, by this point,
Wayne was one of the leading voices in hip hop.
But just as he was starting to reach the highest levels of the game,
he faced a bunch of legal problems that almost destroyed everything.
On July 22nd, 2007,
Weezy got arrested on gun and drug charges after a performance at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan.
The NYPD caught Lil Wayne and another man smoking weed near a tour bus.
After arresting him, they found a .40 cal pistol in a bag right next to him.
Even though the gun was registered to his manager, Wayne was still arrested
and charged with criminal possession of a weapon and marijuana.
His lawyers argued that the weapon ain’t belong to him
and the police had no reason to search him.
But he still got charged.
A few months later, Wayne was performing at the Quest Arena in Boise, Idaho,
when he got arrested on felony fugitive charges.
Police in Georgia accused him of possessing a controlled substance,
which is what triggered the arrest.
But, they later admitted that the arrest was a mix-up and the charges were dropped.
The following year, on January 3rd, 2008,
Wayne got arrested alongside two others
after his tour bus was stopped by border patrol agents outside of Yuma, Arizona.
A K-9 unit was used to search the car and found 105 grams of weed,
29 grams of coke, 41 grams of ecstasy, and $22,000 cash.
So, Wayne was arrested and charged with possession of narcotic drugs for sale,
possession of dangerous drugs, misconduct involving weapons, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He eventually posted a $10k bond and was allowed to travel out of the state.
So, the charges just kept racking up.
In 2009, Lil Wayne and 11 others were detained at the border at Falfurrias, Texas
after an unknown quantity of marijuana was found on two of his tour buses.
That same year, he pled guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon,
relating to the charge he caught in New York back in ‘07.
For that crime, he got hit with 1 year in county jail, which he eventually served at Riker’s Island.
But Wayne ain’t start his sentence right away.
First, his attorney delayed the sentence for Weezy’s dental surgery,
which included 8 root canals and several tooth implants.
Then, his sentencing was pushed back again after there was a fire in the basement of the courthouse.
So, Wayne began his one-year sentence at Riker’s Island on March 8th, 2010.
While locked up, he was caught with illegal contraband,
which included an MP3 player, charger, and headphones which led to disciplinary actions.
But other than that, Weezy kept his head down
and spent most of his prison time working out and reading the Bible.
He was released on November 4th, 2010 after serving eight months of his 1-year sentence.
But, while he was locked up in New York, he became a fugitive in Arizona,
after missing a court date for the drug charges he caught at the border.
In March 2010, a bench warrant was issued for his arrest
after he ain’t show up for his final trial management conference.
So, while still at Riker’s Island, he accepted a plea deal
and was sentenced to 3 years of probation.
After that, Wayne seemed to learn his lesson and began moving smarter.
For a smaller artist, that jail time would’ve have killed their career,
But Wayne was always determined to be the GOAT, so when he came home, he was bigger than ever.
Over the next decade, he stayed more lowkey to avoid getting into trouble.
In January 2015, he sued his former mentor and business partner Birdman for $51 million.
He claimed Birdman had withheld royalties and violated their contract
by refusing to let him drop his album the Carter 5.
Wayne would diss Birdman multiple times on stage and in his music,
which ruined their relationship.
But they eventually settled the lawsuit in 2018,
and Wayne walked away with a settlement of over $10 million.
Ever since then, the two seem to be on good terms
and have appeared together in public and in music videos.
Then, just when it seemed like Weezy was back on track,
he got arrested on federal firearms charges in Miami.
On December 23rd, 2019,
Miami police received an anonymous tip
that there was illegal contraband aboard Wayne’s private jet.
He had just landed at Opa-Locka Executive Airport after a trip from Cali.
So, when they landed,
authorities was there waiting for them.
They searched the plane and found a Coach bag belonging to the rapper
which had a gold-plated .45 handgun inside.
According to arrest records, Wayne told the police it was a Father’s Day gift.
In addition to the gun, they also found bullets, coke, ecstasy, oxys, and other drugs.
But they were personal quantities
and Wayne aint get hit with any drug possession charges.
He was still hit with a gun charge because he’s a convicted felon.
He pled guilty to the charge in December 2020
and was facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
He got out on a $250k bail and had to surrender his passport.
His sentencing hearing was scheduled for January 28th, 2021.
But at the last minute, he got pardoned by former president Trump
on his last day in office.
Wayne had just recently endorsed the president ahead of the 2020 election,
by appearing in a photo with him that was posted on social media.
Wayne also hired celebrity attorney Bradford Cohen
who is known for defending high-profile rappers like DMX and Kodak Black.
Cohen had close ties to the Trump administration
and was also a contestant on the 2nd Season of the Apprentice.
So, he was able to secure Wayne a pardon for his pending gun charge.
Wayne got off lucky with that case.
But he gotta stay out of trouble if he wants to stay out of jail.
That’s why these new accusations could be bad for him.
If what the body guard is saying is true, Weezy could easily get locked up again
on another gun charge.
If a gun-friendly state like Florida was willing to give him up to 10 years for a pistol,
who knows what the state of California would do
if he’s caught threatening someone with an AR-15.
But it sounds like the cops not even believing the guy’s story
so this may just be a case of an angry employee doing whatever he can to get back at his boss.
More info is likely to come out as the police investigate,
so stay posted for updates.