NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ Universal Motown Records) - Cash Money/Universal Motown Records iconic resident
Lil Wayne received three American
Music Award Nominations this week. The hip-hop superstar was nominated for Artist Of The Year, Favorite Male Artist & Favorite Album (both in the Rap/Hip Hop Category). The three AMA nominations come on the heals of Lil Wayne's 11 BET Hip-Hop Award Nominations and his MTV
Music Award for Best Hip-Hop Video for the smash hit song 'Lollipop.' The 2008 American
Music Awards will air on November 23rd live from Los Angles.
By now, it's almost universally known that Lil Wayne is the Picasso of contemporary music, but who would have ever guessed he would become the Howard Cosell of the blogging world. Displaying an engaging sports knowledge, the world's best selling rapper (His current Cash Money Records release Tha Carter III, is the biggest selling album of 2008, and was the first release to debut over a million copies in 3 years) has in a mere 10 days become the phenomenon of the entire global sports blogging community.
He contributes his inventive and enlightening sports musings to ESPN.com with typical Lil Wayne flair: fresh, fast, furiously honest and on point - not to mention delightfully entertaining. The witty New Orleans superstar has weighed in on everything from dumping Pittsburgh Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger from his fantasy team (yes, Weezie indulges in Fantasy football), to his incredible passion for�tennis: 'I had a lot of people over at my place to watch the Wimbledon final this year and we went crazy! I love Federer and Nadal.' His commitment as a sports enthusiast - he watches 5 TVs at once on game day are driving a record amount of traffic to the popular sports website, with one column drawing an unprecedented 1,500 comments.
Wayne even blogs about his blogging. 'I'm' overwhelmed about the response,' he quipped on a recent post, 'I did an interview the other day and the reporter was like: 'By the way, I love your blog.' People who come up and say 'Your latest song is crazy. I'm like 'yeah, but did you see my blog?' The entire arrangement with ESPN started as a lark, of sorts. It was during an interview a few weeks ago with an ESPN writer about Wayne's 'influence' on major league baseball players (he was the most popular artist citied by players). The writer who was attempting to gauge Lil Wayne's appreciation of baseball soon realized that the hip-hop star had an affinity for the game well beyond the average fan.
As a loyal watcher of ESPN's cable TV network, it wasn't hard for ESPN executives to imagine some of the other sport scenarios Lil Wayne might be willing to share (he's already revealed he has a tattoo on his arm with the moniker ESPN). What they didn't realize is the intensity of the response he would generate from fans and critics who find his blog a refreshing departure from the work-a-day grind of the sports world.
Accumulating near-record views since its September 24 launch, Wayne posts once a week, usually about a page-and-a-half of observations, which has quickly become the must-read of the sports world. As for any other sports related projects that may be on the horizon for the versatile star, Lil Wayne is taking it one blog at a time right now. The online ritual is just adding yet another dimension to an artist whose ability to surprise fans and critics has been a hallmark of his incredible award winning, multi-platinum career.
