BILLBOARD’S GREATEST POP STARS OF THE 21ST CENTURY: NO. 21 — LIL WAYNE

ith the first quarter of the 21st century coming to a close, Billboard is spending the next few months counting down our staff picks for the 25 greatest pop stars of the last 25 years. We’ve already named our Honorable Mentions and our No. 25, No. 24, No. 23 and No. 22 stars, and now we remember the century in Lil Wayne — who turned popular music into Wayne’s World for much of the late ’00s, and helped raise an empire that would rule pop and hip-hop for the entire 2010s.