Story highlights
NEW: Fellow rapper Drake and other friends set up vigil outside his room
"I'm good everybody," Lil Wayne writes on Twitter
Lil Wayne suffers a seizure and "is recovering," his record label's publicist says
Lil Wayne is a Grammy-winning and multiplatinum selling artist
Grammy-winning and multiplatinum-selling rapper Lil Wayne suffered a seizure and “is recovering,” his record label’s publicist said Friday.
The New Orleans artist arguably occupies the highest rungs of the hip-hop world, but he shares them with fellow rapper Drake, who hails from Toronto.
Drake appeared at the Los Angeles hospital, where Lil Wayne is being treated, with an entourage of Wayne’s friends. They pulled up chairs in the hallway near his room and set up a vigil.
Twitter has lit up with rumors, spreading fears of the worst for Wayne’s outcome, but a Tweet in his name attempted to calm the tempest.
Lil Wayne’s ready for rap retirement
“I’m good everybody,” read a message from Lil Wayne’s Twitter account. “Thnx for the prayers and love.”
While acknowledging a medical issue, members of the New Orleans artist’s camp have shot down reports that he was near death.
“Dont believe the nonsense about comas and tubes to breathe … that’s false!!” tweeted Mack Maine, the president of Lil Wayne’s Young Money label, around 5:20 p.m. (8:20 p.m. ET) Friday.
Sarah Cunningham, a publicist with the Young Money record label, acknowledged that Lil Wayne had a seizure.
The public relations department at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Los Angeles hospital where the rapper is reportedly being treated, did not confirm or deny that Lil Wayne is there, per its policy.
Maine didn’t offer much detail, though he did say that he and Lil Wayne had been watching the Syracuse University Orange play Georgetown in the Big East men’s basketball tournament.
“Wayne is alive and well!” the record label president wrote on Twitter.
The rapper’s independent publicist, Kia Selby, said only, “Lil Wayne is doing well.” She strongly denied reports he was in a medically induced coma, as reported by TMZ.
Born Dwayne Carter, Lil Wayne is one of the rap world’s most successful artists. He won best rap album for “Tha Carter III” at the 2008 Grammy awards, and took home three more Grammys the following year.
Beyond winning over critics, he’s also been a commercial success. Last September, Billboard reported the rapper had tallied 109 hits on its Hot 100, surpassing the record previously held by Elvis Presley.
But he’s also run into trouble outside the studio and stage.
Lil Wayne was arrested in 2007 outside New York City’s Beacon Theater after police said they found a .40-caliber pistol on his tour bus. He ended up pleading guilty to felony gun charges and spending eight months at New York’s Rikers Island jail.
CNN’s Denise Quan reported from Los Angeles and CNN’s Greg Botelho wrote this story from Atlanta.
