Lil Wayne: Not Dead

THE RUMOR: According to a report that allegedly came from the BBC, Lil Wayne was shot and killed over the weekend after a show in New Orleans.

TRUTH THRESHOLD: 0%.

LIKELY TRUTHS: None. No, really.

LIKELY FALSEHOODS: Let’s just go through the story:

Dwayne Carter known by his rap alias of ‘Lil Wayne’ is the latest victim of the notorious feud between the ‘Bloods’ And ‘Crips’.

Shortly after performing at the New Orleans Arena, Lil Wayne was involved in an altercation with members of rival gang the ‘Crips’, and brutally shot 6 times with a semi automatic 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun

Paramedics rushed to the scene and attempted to resuscitate the rapper, however were unable to prevent colossal blood losses and Dwayne Carter was pronounced dead at 02:36 Am, November 1st,shortly after arriving at Tulane University Hospital.

This will be seen as a huge loss to the hiphop community, as the self proclaimed ‘Best Rapper Alive’ has been an integral part of the revival of the genre, going platinum with his latest release Tha Carter III within one week.

New Orleans police Chief Warren J.Riley appealed to any witnesses to come forward with any information about the 4 gunmen

Atrocious copyediting aside (“02:36 Am”???), here are a few facts that can be disputed via a simple Google cross-check:

• Lil Wayne was actually scheduled to play Atlantic City on Saturday, although he canceled at the last minute. However, the idea that he played the New Orleans Arena instead is kind of ludicrous, since… • the arena played host to a Hornets-Cavaliers game that night. (The Hornets upended the Cavaliers 100-99. Sorry LeBron! ) • Riley’s only other Google News hit is from an Oct. 10 story about the revitalization of New Orleans’ French Quarter. One would think that such a grand manhunt would be all over the wires, no? (Not to mention that his official title is superintendent, not chief. Ahem.)

Anyway, that little bit of debunking took me, oh, five minutes or so. And even the idea that this news was spread via a “BBC report” is completely false, as the story was hosted on KineticNorth.com, the self-proclaimed “world’s shittiest website [sic],” and the fake story template was taken from some story that came out a year ago:

Don’t you think the BBC’s Web producers would at least try to surround a huge story like this with some up-to-date stories? Come on, people.

‘Lil Wayne’ Slain In Notorious Gang Shootout [KineticNorth.com] Lil Wayne NOT Dead [MTV UK]