Net Miles Of Smiles

HIT! Lil Wayne mixes it up: In a crowded field of rap and hip-hop contenders, Lil Wayne loomed with one of the year’s biggest commercial and critical wins, “Tha Carter III.” Moving a million copies in its first week of release, the album traded not just on its own formidable strengths but on the New Orleans rapper’s prolific output of both legitimate releases and mixtapes sharing his surreal perspective. Lil Wayne’s cameo performances on other artists’ recordings, meanwhile, made him a ubiquitous presence in urban music. (Robb D. Cohen/Retna ltd.)