Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, and is often mentioned among the greatest rappers of all time. Carter's career began in 1995, when he was signed by rapper Birdman to his record label Cash Money Records, becoming the youngest member of the label at age eleven. From then on, he was the flagship artist of Cash Money Records before ending his association with the imprint in June 2018.
Full Sail, LLC, doing business as Full Sail University, is a private for-profit university in Winter Park, Florida. It was formerly a recording studio in Ohio named Full Sail Productions and Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts. The school moved to Florida in 1980 and began offering online degrees in 2007.
William Gregory Woodford-Wells is a Canadian record producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and audio engineer. He has worked with Grace VanderWaal, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariana Grande, Quincy Jones, Adele, Michael Bublé, Taylor Swift, John Legend, Kid Cudi, Sir George Martin, Dua Lipa, Stephen Schwartz, Missy Elliot, Burt Bacharach, Celine Dion, Timbaland, Selena Gomez, Rufus Wainwright, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ryan Tedder, Weezer, Jazmine Sullivan, Katy Perry, OneRepublic, Carrie Underwood, Deftones, Jamie Cullum, Pink, Theophilus London, Keith Urban, Crash Test Dummies, MIKA, Twenty One Pilots, Aerosmith, Elton John, and the Count Basie Orchestra. Throughout his career, Wells has contributed to projects which have sold a cumulative 130 million units.
Auto-Tune, or autotune, is an audio processor introduced in 1997 by the American company Antares Audio Technologies. It uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances.
Tha Carter III is the sixth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne, released on June 10, 2008, by Cash Money, Universal Motown & Young Money Entertainment. It follows a string of mixtape releases and guest appearances on other hip hop and R&B artists' albums. The album features appearances from Jay-Z, T-Pain, Fabolous, Robin Thicke, Busta Rhymes, Juelz Santana, Babyface, Bobby V, and Kanye West, among others. It also features Static Major, who is credited posthumously following his death in February of that year.
Bruce Swedien was an American recording engineer, mixing engineer and record producer. He was widely known for his work with Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Paul McCartney and Barbra Streisand.
"Let's Groove" is a song by American band Earth, Wind & Fire, released as the first single from their eleventh studio album, Raise! (1981). It is written by Maurice White and Wayne Vaughn, and produced by White. The song was a commercial success, and was the band's highest-charting single in various territories. It peaked inside the top 20 in countries including the United States, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada and other component charts in America. In 1979 and the early 1980s, there was a severe backlash against disco music. In spite of this, the band decided to revive the disco sound that was included on their previous works and later records. Musically, "Let's Groove" is post-disco, pop and funk which includes instrumentation of synthesizers and keyboards along with live electric guitars.
"A Milli", abbreviated occasionally as "Milli", is a song by American rapper Lil Wayne. The song was released April 23, 2008, as the second official single from his sixth album Tha Carter III.
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, on February 8, 2009, honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning October 1, 2007, through September 30, 2008. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, winning five awards, including Album of the Year for their critically acclaimed album Raising Sand. Krauss became the sixth female solo artist to have won 5 awards in one night, joining Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Beyoncé Knowles, and Amy Winehouse. Lil Wayne received the most nominations, with eight.
Joseph J. LaPorta is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound in New Jersey.
Emily B. Lazar is an American mastering engineer. She is the founder, president, and chief mastering engineer of The Lodge, an audio mastering facility that has operated in New York City's Greenwich Village since 1997. She won a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Beck's album Colors, becoming the first female mastering engineer to win in this category.
Vlado Meller is a Slovak audio mastering engineer, currently with Vlado Meller Mastering in Charleston, South Carolina. Meller works across many genres of music, with credits on rock, hip-hop, pop, jazz, metal, dance, opera, Broadway, and classical albums over 50+ year career. Albums that he engineered have won two Grammy Awards.
Tha Carter V is the twelfth studio album by American rapper Lil Wayne. It was released on September 27, 2018, by Young Money Entertainment and Republic Records. The album's release date commenced the day of Lil Wayne's 36th birthday. The album's features include Swizz Beatz, Kendrick Lamar, Sosamann, Lil Wayne's daughter Reginae Carter, Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj, Ashanti, Mack Maine, Travis Scott, Nivea, and the late XXXTentacion, with bonus tracks and the deluxe edition featuring additional appearances from Post Malone, Gucci Mane, Raekwon, and 2 Chainz.
Dave Pensado is a Grammy Award-winning mix engineer. His career began in Atlanta in the 1970s and 1980s doing live and studio sound engineering. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1990.
George Marino was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s.
Chris Gehringer is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound in New Jersey.
Danny and Alex is an American pop duo. Danny Scordato and Alex Merrill write, produce, and engineer their own music. They have released one EP and seven singles.
"Don't Cry" is a song by American rapper Lil Wayne featuring fellow American rapper XXXTentacion. "Don't Cry" was released as the second single from Lil Wayne's twelfth album Tha Carter V. The song uses vocals recorded by XXXTentacion prior to his death on June 18, 2018. It debuted and peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it became the second-highest charting song from the album and in XXXTentacion's discography.
Brad Blackwood is an American audio mastering engineer. He has mastered albums for artists such as Maroon 5, Against Me!, Lamb of God, Black Eyed Peas, Sara Bareilles, and is an 18 time Grammy nominee and 3-time winner, as well as having multiple nominations and awards including Latin Grammy, Pensado Awards, Juno Awards and Dove Awards. He opened Euphonic Masters, his personal mastering room in Memphis, Tennessee in 2003. He is a graduate of Full Sail University.
The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held in and around the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles on March 14, 2021. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 2019 to August 31, 2020. The nominations were revealed via a virtual livestream on November 24, 2020. The performers for the ceremony were announced on March 7, 2021. South African comedian Trevor Noah hosted the ceremony.
