Lil Wayne Joins the Dead at 27 Club

Okay, so of course he hasn't...yet. (Did that sound bad?) Anyways, last night I was watching Lil Wayne's "Behind The Music" for about the 3rd time. I'm also a sucker (PAUSE?) for hip hop documentaries, so I can watch them over and over. After I finished, I started to think about how Lil Wayne has a lot of similarities to some of the music stars who had their fates sealed into what many refer to as "The 27 Club". What is the 27 Club you ask? Well, let's have a little rundown.

The 27 Club is an unofficial group of popular musicians that died at the age of 27. Some of the most famous ones include Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix. Other notable deaths were Janis Joplin, The Doors lead singer Jim Morrison and the famous blues musician who allegedly sold his soul to the devil for musical talents, Robert Johnson. Now, granted this isn't a clearly proven fact that all of these musicians died at 27 because of a special connection, but it is quite a coincidence. Lil Wayne came to mind because of what's been going on lately. Anyone who has followed Lil Wayne's life in the past decade would understand my concern and reason for exploring this topic. First off, let's observe some of the similarities between him and other musicians who have died at 27.

Jimi Hendrix is often hailed one of rock n' roll's greatest guitarists of all time. He is considered a great pioneer for the genre. Something else Hendrix was also known for was his heavy usage of drugs and substances. Though not officially confirmed, it was rumored that Jimi dabbled with acid, cocaine, heroin, marijuana and many leisure drugs from the 1960s and 1970s, stating that it allowed him to play better. He also had run ins with the law and drug charges throughout his career. He eventually died from an asphyxiation on his own vomit after mixing sleeping pills with wine. Kurt Cobain was known to be in and out of rehabilitation with a heroin addiction. He dealt with many problems and episodes, even suffering an overdose before a performance in New York in July of 1993. Kurt also had trouble coping with fame. Though there are still many theories circling his death, it was officially ruled a suicide. The autopsy also found traces of heroin and Valium in his system.

What does this all have to do with Lil Wayne? Well, nothing officially. But what really prompted me to think about was the way Lil Wayne spoke during some of his interviews. "I don't care if it's heroin in my cup; it's in MY cup.,,,I think people should mind their business. I'm going to do whatever I want to do." These are the true words of a rock superstar. You don't answer to anybody but God (if even that) and you do whatever you want to do. Lil Wayne right now is arguably the biggest superstar in hip hop at the moment. He's hailed as one of the greatest in the genre (sounds like Jimi with rock, right?).

We already pretty much know that Wayne's favorite drink is drank and the line "I like my sprite Easter pink" is probably more honest than we know. Everything about Dwayne Michael Carter sums up one of the greatest stars of all time. His last rap album sold 1 million copies in a year, and just this week, his "rock" effort just broke 500,000 copies. So what do we have here? You have a modern rock star in our presence, who has massive and universal popularity, has frequent run-ins with the law and is engaged in heavy substance abuse. Oh, and he's 27. He's shaping up to be another one of the greatest music legends ever, just like those I mentioned before, but does that mean he'll have to die like them to? I personally don't wish death on anyone. I hope Wayne can be around for a long time, but I'd be a fool if I tried to act like some of his activities seem to be setting him up for the same fatal fate as the greats before him.

Is his image really as deep as we see or is it just for the rock star illusion? Is Lil Wayne just hoping to give off the idea that he is in the same boat as these dead legends, or is he really the 21st century version of them? Will he make it to see 28 and allude tragic fate? I guess only time will tell, and regardless of how bad this sounds, we get to watch it happen in front of our eyes. He'll either crash and burn or triumph and entertain us all. Let's just hope he doesn't end up as another inductee into this illustrious death club to establish his legendary status.