The meaning behind Lil Wayne’s first rap name: Shrimp Daddy
Lil Wayne has been such a key player on the hip-hop scene this century it would be forgiven to assume we know everything there is to know about him. Born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. in New Orleans, Lil Wayne was a child prodigy: he was music label Cash Money Records’ youngest member at aged jut 11.
While his breakout debut album, Tha Block Is Hot, was released in 1999 and was a genuine commercial success, it was the next decade’s Carter album series that established him as a champion of his genre. 2004’s Tha Carter and 2005’s Tha Carter II both debuted within the top five of the Billboard 200 upon release, while 2008’s Tha Carter III saw first week sales of over one million units, and that’s just within the USA.
It won Lil Wayne ‘Best Rap Album’ at that year’s Grammy Awards, and garnered three top-ten singles: Lollipop featuring Static Major, and ‘A Milli’ and ‘Got Money’, both featuring T-Pain.
So far, all the stuff of the fodder that maketh the legend. But before the awards and number one hits, and despite the extraordinary childhood success, Lil Wayne was just fleshing out different ideas and personas, just like any other artist.
“What can you tell the people about Shrimp Daddy?” The rapper was asked in an interview with Nardwuar. “Pimp Daddy was a Cash Money artist and he used to have this song out called ‘Gots To Be Real’. It was a real big song,” Lil Wayne began to explain.
“Now this guy, Pimp Daddy, was such a classic in New Orleans and such a hit that my actual first rap name was Shrimp Daddy. And I named it because I was short, like a shrimp, and I wanted to be like this guy right here, Pimp Daddy.”
Unfortunately, no old Shrimp Daddy material seems to exist to this day. Luckily, there’s enough Lil Wayne material to get through in his decades long career.
Racking up fourteen studio albums in total, including this year’s Tha Carter VI, Lil Wayne has sold over 120million records worldwide, which renders him one of the world’s best-selling music artists. His success is not just commercial, but critical too: he has won eleven BET Awards, eight NAACP Image Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, and five Grammys, and in 2012, became the first male artist to surpass Elvis Presley with Billboard Hot 100 entries, coming in at a legendary 109.
Outside of smash hit albums, the rapper is credited by fans and critics alike for being a leader in the 2000s-mixtape era. Dedication and Da Drought 3 are generally considered some of the best mixtapes in hip-hop history; what’s more, as if there was anything left to achieve!
His label, Young Money Entertainment, has signed artists including Nicki Minaj, Tyga and Drake. His legacy extends beyond his own accolades and that of Nicki and Drake’s own awe-inspiring successes: his influence in hip-hop, if not wider music, can be heard in contemporary rap’s emphasis on lyrics that highlight punchlines alongside experimental flows.
Not bad, Shrimp Daddy!