You probably haven’t watched the “Bling Bling” video in 20 years so now is a good time to check it out again. Anytime I hear or see Hot Boys I think of Todd all gassed up on Cash Money. Big bro and I made sure that our mom referred to her jewelry as bling going forward and she obliged.

Juvenile popped first but when BG dropped “ Bling Bling” it was a smash that everybody knew the words to. The roster was loaded with Juvenile, BG, Weezy, the Big Tymers, and the Hot Boys with all of them getting laced with beats by Mannie Fresh. Birdman and Slim started the label following Master P’s blueprint with No Limit Records. Cash Money Records was a movement out of New Orleans and the South in the late 90’s and they had dope energy with platinum chains dangling from their necks. When the Hot Boys came out Todd was ALL OVER THEM. But when I listen to Weezy I do all of those same things but I have vivid memories of different friends of mine through various times of Weezy’s career. While you may hear a Lil Wayne song, you might nod your head in approval or maybe even rap in your car a bit. And here’s one of the things I love most about rap. If you’re reading this I’m sure you already know my love of rap music. No Ceilings was a fire mixtape and Stro, Lito, and I were all in. Lito was out of state attending University of Michigan but we knew he was up on the new Weezy. On our way home from work, Stro and I thought it was a good time to hit our boy Lito up on speaker phone. We both already had started to memorize lyrics so we weren’t scared to flex a few bars if needed on that car ride. My homie Stro and I carpooled to work a few days after the mixtape released and I had it downloaded on a CDR so we could BUMP it in my 2004 Acura Integra on our drive to work. The album had so much buzz on the blogs and on the mixtape scene back then. Lil Wayne dropped the No Ceilings mixtape on October 31, 2009. Oh yeah… A lot of you probably don’t know the significance or meaning of the words No Ceilings now on Spotify so let me clarify. It was from my boy Lito and it read, “ No Ceilings on Spotify.” Now some of you might start your day with a casual stretch or with a glass of water but when I get a text like this, I grab the AirPods, press play, and disregard everything else I was supposed to do. This morning there were a few notifications on my iPhone but only one mattered. Standard morning routine from me which ranges anywhere from 2am - 4am. I woke up early this morning and made my way to the living room to grab my phone and catch up on missed texts.

Lil wayne mixtapes 2004