Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., better known as Lil Wayne, has used several aliases over the course of his career. But what was Lil Wayne’s first rap name? The answer depends on what stage of Lil Wayne’s career you are looking at.
Lil Wayne’s Name Before He Got Signed
In an interview with Nardwuar, Lil Wayne revealed, “my actual first rap name was Shrimp Daddy.”
Lil Wayne took on the name Shrimp Daddy because he was a huge fan of the Cash Money rapper Pimp Daddy. In the interview with Nardwuar, he explains “I named myself that because I was short, so I took the ‘shrimp,’ and I wanted to be like this guy.”
Tragically, Pimp Daddy’s career was cut short. He was shot and killed when he was just 18 years old.
Lil Wayne used the name Shrimp Daddy for a brief period before he was signed, but he did not release any music under that name.
Lil Wayne’s First Rap Name as a Recording Artist
Lil Wayne’s rap name at the start of his professional career was actually Baby D. When he was first signed to Cash Money Records in 2011, he performed as Baby D. You can hear him featuring as Baby D on most of the tracks on label-mate B.D.’s 1995 album True Story.
Apart from True Story, you will probably not find any other releases by Lil Wayne under the Baby D alias.
The name Baby D was fitting, because not only was he relatively short at 5 foot 5 inches – he was also just 13 years old at the time.
How Lil Wayne Settled on The Name ‘Lil Wayne’
It did not take long before Carter finally settled on Lil Wayne as his permanent rap name.
In interviews, he has explained the reason why he opted for Lil Wayne as his alias.
In an interview with CBS, he stated, “I dropped the D [from Dwayne] because I’m a junior and my father is living and he’s not in my life and he’s never been in my life. So I don’t want to be Dwayne – I’d rather be Wayne.”
The ‘Lil’ in Lil Wayne obvious refers to his relatively small stature, as did the ‘Shrimp’ in Shrimp Daddy, and the ‘Baby’ in Baby D.
Apart from Lil Wayne, the rapper has gone by a number of other nicknames, including Weezy, Weezy F., Baby Tunechi, and President Carter.
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