Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne has been hospitalized, but according to his camp and his official Twitter account, he's OK. The multiplatinum rapper was hospitalized in Los Angeles on Friday and reps confirmed he was "recovering. " He apparently tweeted to his fans from his official account Friday night: "I'm good everybody. Thx for the prayers and love. " A person close to the rap star's camp who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter confirmed to the Associated Press that Lil Wayne had a seizure.

Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III is one of the few albums of 2008 to be both a critical and commercial success. The New Orleans rapper who ended up on many critics' best-of lists for the year sold more than a million copies of III in its first week of release, and went on to sell another million-plus despite the slow economy. The so-called best rapper alive has finally arrived. On Sunday night at the multi-act Power 99 HollaDay Jam, the rabid enthusiasm of the throng gathered at the Susquehanna Bank Center proved it. Kids clung to every leap in Wayne's timbre, every manipulation of mood and meter.

"I am the greatest entertainer the world has ever seen," Lil Wayne told the crowd near the end of his show at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night. In different circumstances, that might seem a bit of a stretch, but in that moment, it would have been difficult to argue the point. Stoked in no small part by Dwayne Carter's own claims, the debate over whether he is the best rapper alive rages on, but at the top of his game, he is the top of the game. After an eight-month prison term on weapons charges and a middling attempt to incorporate rock elements into his sparse, sweaty Southern hip-hop, he headed back to his roots.

Lil Wayne has posted a video thanking fans for their support while he was ill. Lil, 30, was hospitalized after having what has been described as a serious seizure last Friday. "I just want to say thank you to all y'all for all y'all prayers," Lil says. "I want all y'all to know that I'm good . . . more than good. " Lil's rep has denied a TMZ report that he fell ill due to an overdose and that his condition was so grave he received last rites.   But can they top LiLo?

Epic Records this week went to "great efforts" to remove a leaked recording by Lil Wayne that features lyrics that have deeply offended the family of Emmett Till . The tune, a cover of rapper Future 's "Karate Chop," features pornographic sexual references in its description of the beating death of Till, a 14-year-old Chicago boy tortured and shot in Mississippi in 1955 for supposedly whistling at a white woman. Responding to objections by Till's family, the Rev. Jesse Jackson contacted Lil Wayne's managers with a request to take the song off the Web. "Out of respect for the legacy of Emmett Till and his family . . . we are going through great efforts to take down the unauthorized [remix]

Does Lil Wayne realize how damaging he was to the late Emmett Till 's memory and to the civil rights legacy when he made sexual references in his depiction of Till's beating death in a remix of Future 's "Karate Chop"? So asks a Till cousin, Airickca Gordon-Taylor , who wants Wayne to issue an apology. Till, 14, was murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman. "It was a heinous murder," his cousin says. "He was brutally beaten and tortured, and he was shot, wrapped in barbed wire, and tossed in the Tallahatchie River.

The ironically monikered New Orleans hip-hop star Lil Wayne (Dwayne Michael Carter) was arrested Monday in an Atlanta hotel room on charges of drug possession, MTV reports. He was busted with an array of pills including alprazolam (generic Xanax) and hydrocodone as well as "two small burnt joints of marijuana. " Seems a hotel employee narced on Lil when he saw the "Tha Block Is Hot" singer hanging in his room with the alleged substances. The 23-year-old Hot Boy alum's fifth album, Tha Carter II, debuted at No. 2 last year.

Lil Wayne once again breathes the sweet, sweet smell of freedom, the Associated Press reports. The Grammy-winning rapper has emerged from famed New York bastille Rikers Island after doing eight months on a gun-possession charge, according to the NYC Department of Corrections. "FREE AT LAST!!!!!!!" the performer's manager, Cortez Bryant , tweeted Thursday morning. Lil Wayne is off to Miami for a big homecoming party Sunday. Life behind bars fazed Weezy not a whit. "I was never scared, worried nor bothered by the situation," he professed Tuesday on Weezythanxyou.

Lil Wayne's love for his people - 25,000 or so of whom packed the sold-out Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden on Friday for the America's Most Wanted music festival, also known as the Weezy & Jeezy Tour - knows no bounds. The prolific and unpredictable New Orleans rapper, who goes by the nickname Weezy F. Baby and was sharing the bill with Atlanta neo-gangsta Young Jeezy, began his headlining portion by explaining three crucial facts about himself to his enraptured, iPhone waving, diverse audience.

RAPPER Lil Wayne was released from prison yesterday after serving eight months of a yearlong sentence for weapons possession. CBS News reports that his buddies are planning an "elegant, extravagant evening of celebration and strippers to welcome him home. " An elegant evening with strippers? Is there any other kind? And wouldn't you know it, Lil has already tweeted (it took him only 6 hours, 40 minutes, post-release, according to TMZ). One of the greatest wordsmiths of the modern hip-hop era wrote, "aaaaaaahhhhhhmmmmm baaaaakkkkkkkkkk.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Even Lil Wayne knew this was wrong. Even a gangsta rapper who spent 8 months in prison realized it was wrong for golf's fussbudgets to pick on a 14-year-old Chinese amateur. Tianlang Guan, the tiny Asian amateur champion who on Thursday became the youngest player to play in a Masters, was assessed a one-stroke penalty for slow play on the 17th hole Friday afternoon. Playing among glacially slow millionaires and making history in his sport's brightest spotlight 12,000 miles from his home, tournament officials dinged the kid for slow play.

Do you remember the pulsating beat and powerful lyrics of Big Daddy Kane, Slick Rick, or LL Cool J? Those artists were some of the key figures of old school hip-hop. They had a message, a unique style, a following, and no doubt a contract with a major record label. Today, the pioneer rappers have been replaced by Lil Wayne, Kanye West, and Big Sean. The message, the style, and fans may differ from the past, but the biggest change from old school to new school is the use of social media.

Lil Wayne has posted a video thanking fans for their support while he was ill. Lil, 30, was hospitalized after having what has been described as a serious seizure last Friday. "I just want to say thank you to all y'all for all y'all prayers," Lil says. "I want all y'all to know that I'm good . . . more than good. " Lil's rep has denied a TMZ report that he fell ill due to an overdose and that his condition was so grave he received last rites.   But can they top LiLo?

Lil Wayne has been hospitalized, but according to his camp and his official Twitter account, he's OK. The multiplatinum rapper was hospitalized in Los Angeles on Friday and reps confirmed he was "recovering. " He apparently tweeted to his fans from his official account Friday night: "I'm good everybody. Thx for the prayers and love. " A person close to the rap star's camp who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter confirmed to the Associated Press that Lil Wayne had a seizure.

Does Lil Wayne realize how damaging he was to the late Emmett Till 's memory and to the civil rights legacy when he made sexual references in his depiction of Till's beating death in a remix of Future 's "Karate Chop"? So asks a Till cousin, Airickca Gordon-Taylor , who wants Wayne to issue an apology. Till, 14, was murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman. "It was a heinous murder," his cousin says. "He was brutally beaten and tortured, and he was shot, wrapped in barbed wire, and tossed in the Tallahatchie River.

Epic Records this week went to "great efforts" to remove a leaked recording by Lil Wayne that features lyrics that have deeply offended the family of Emmett Till . The tune, a cover of rapper Future 's "Karate Chop," features pornographic sexual references in its description of the beating death of Till, a 14-year-old Chicago boy tortured and shot in Mississippi in 1955 for supposedly whistling at a white woman. Responding to objections by Till's family, the Rev. Jesse Jackson contacted Lil Wayne's managers with a request to take the song off the Web. "Out of respect for the legacy of Emmett Till and his family . . . we are going through great efforts to take down the unauthorized [remix]

Gwen Stefani has learned a basic truth about being a parent: You always feel guilty. Especially if you are a woman juggling work and home. "Getting to the studio and not being able to make it happen, but missing out on being at home, missing out on putting the kids down. What's more important? I felt so guilty," the No Doubt singer tells Vogue of raising her two sons with hub Gavin Rossdale , Kingston , 6, and Zuma , 4. Gwen, 43, says she kept thinking, "I am letting everyone down.

Meek Mill, the 25-year-old North Philadelphia rapper swaggering along the cusp of fame and fortune, has been grounded for a month. No tours. No traveling. No performing, except for charity. Less than two months after the release of his first CD, Dreams and Nightmares, a scheduled trip to Africa has been cancelled, and other appearances in St. Thomas and across the United States have also been nixed. And it's all the fault of Meek's alter ego, Robert Williams, convicted in 2008 on a criminal cornucopia of charges including selling drugs to an undercover police officer, possessing illegal guns and hiding wads of tainted cash in his dresser drawers.

Along this strip of Germantown Avenue where business is cheap and quick, prayer is its own commodity. Places of worship have staked their claim amid the take-out food stores, discount shops, abandoned buildings, and blue lights from a police surveillance camera on the corner, near Silver Street. Inside the storefront Philly Open Air Church this mild Wednesday night, the youth-study Bible lesson is on the power of forgiveness, out of the book of Matthew. The circle of nine - mostly teenage boys and young men - sit on worn couches in a conversation that turns to violence.

FOR SOME, watching naked women slide down a poll is an erotic thrill. For others, it can become tedious. Take Lil Wayne. According to TMZ.com, Wayne has seen so many strippers strip so many times that watching them shed their minimalist clothing no longer provides him the same joie de vivre. So, on Monday he put up $1,000 (winner-take-all) to watch two strippers beat each other up. The event did not take place at the Roman Colosseum with gladiators and lions, but at the King of Diamonds, in Miami.