📍Hollygrove, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA
1982 – 1997“Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. was born in New Orleans in September 1982 and grew up in Hollygrove, a small, working-class neighbourhood in the 17th Ward, near the city's western edge, known for its tight-knit community and its music but also for its poverty and crime. His mother, Jacida, was a chef who had him when she was nineteen, and his father left when he was two. He was a bright student, enrolled in the gifted programme at Lafayette Elementary School, and he loved acting in school plays. He started writing raps at eight, and he was obsessed with music. At about eleven, he met Bryan Birdman Williams, co-founder of the New Orleans label Cash Money Records, left freestyles on his answering machine, and became the youngest member of the label, recording with another young rapper, B.G., as the B.G.'z. When he was twelve, after his mother banned him from rapping for skipping school, he went through a dark moment and was badly hurt, and a police officer, Robert Hoobler, whom he still calls Uncle Bob, rushed him to the hospital and saved his life. Wayne has called the officer his hero, and they remain close. At fourteen, he left school to focus on music, joining the group Hot Boys with Juvenile, B.G. and Turk. His solo albums, especially Tha Carter III in 2008, which sold more than a million copies in its first week, made him one of the most influential rappers of his generation, and he signed Drake and Nicki Minaj to his label, Young Money. Hollygrove remains proud of the boy who freestyled into Birdman's answering machine.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today