This features R&B producer and songwriter Stephen "Static Major" Garrett, formerly of the group Playa, who died on February 25, 2008 at the age of 32 from a rare medical condition. Static was Aaliyah's main lyricist; his writing credits for her included "Rock The Boat," "More Than A Woman" and "Try Again."

The Miami director Gil Green, whose other clients include Rick Ross, DJ Khaled and Jay Sean, directed the video. Lil Wayne wanted to shoot it in Las Vegas at three locations: a hotel, a club and a casino. Then they tried to set up the shoot, however, hotel owners would Google the rapper and see his police record, so they rejected the requests. With this plan foiled, Green came up with the idea of driving around the Strip instead. Taking the show on the road worked, thanks to an expansive luxury limo that provided most of the interior shots. The clip won for Best Hip Hop Video at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.

This was Lil Wayne's 20th chart entry and first chart-topper. Of those 20, nine featured Wayne in a lead spot and eleven included Wayne in a featured role. This song was the first of the nine featuring Lil Wayne in a lead spot to reach the Top 10, let alone #1. Billboard reported that the song was downloaded 183,000 times the week it hit #1. >>

This topped the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It was the first rap single to reach #1 on that particular listing since Ludacris' "Money Maker" climbed to the summit in October 2006.

"Lollipop" won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song, beating out Flo Rida's "Low" and another song Wayne appeared on: "Swagga Like Us."

This was produced by Jim Jonsin, who recalled to Rhapsody working on this track: "I originally made the track in a session for Danity Kane. They passed on the record, and I went over and played it for Static. He was working at my studio with Pleasure P from Pretty Ricky. He had the melody within, like, 15 minutes. He had the melody already down and he laid it. He laid the hook. It was probably about 30 minutes, he laid the hook and then they came out with the 'juicy for you' part and then I sampled their vocals: [sings] 'Sh-sh-she lick me like a…' I sampled the little parts in the MPC drum machine and then I sampled the 'call me' and just made it like I was scratching and it was done. Static met up with Wayne and played it for him. We used auto-tune, but with auto-tune, you can't just sing through it. You gotta know notes. So Wayne's not just singing through some thing and it makes his voice sound perfect. The way he used it, he did some neat s--t with it. He was singing all crazy with weird melodies that no one really does."

Co-producer Deezle added in the same Rhapsody interview: "We recorded it and we were listening back to it after. I looked at Wayne and he was like, 'It's cool' I said, 'Man, I can bring this song home.' I totally re-did the drums and changed the bassline that Jim had. All my drums are harder than most people's drums. I gave it the bouncy feeling. It was more sedated before. That's why the people dance like they do when the record comes on. I brought it back to Wayne and he jumped up on the speakers and was excited and started doing the same dances he's doing in the video and was like, 'That's the next single. I know we're supposed to do 'Showtime,' but we're going to do this one.'"

Tha Carter III became the first album to top one million sales in its debut week in the US since 50 Cent sailed past 1 million in 2005 with The Massacre.

Lil Wayne told Rolling Stone magazine how this song came together: "My homeboy Static, the guy who's on the song with me, it was all his idea. He brought the song to me with his vocals already on there, the beat was already done and I just laid my vocals to it. The decision to make it the single was evident right after I finished recording it. Everybody in the studio knew this was the one. We had some females in there and they were going crazy."

The lyrics draw inspiration from some other popular songs, including "Candy Shop" by 50 Cent ("I'll take you to the candy shop, I'll let you lick the lollipop"), "My Humps" by Black Eyed Peas ("Lovely lady lumps") and "Drop It Like It's Hot" by Snoop Dogg. >>

This topped the Billboard Hot 100 a few weeks prior to Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl." Whilst Perry's song created much controversy over it's lyrics about bi-sexual experimentation, this ode to oral sex surprisingly escaped censure.

On the Billboard chart announced April 10, 2008 this song rose 7-1 on Hot Rap Songs, the largest position leap and quickest move to #1 this century to date.

Static Major, who was credited as a featured artist, became the seventh performer to earn a posthumous US chart-topper, following Otis Redding ("(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay"), Janis Joplin ("Me And Bobby McGee"), Jim Croce ("Time In A Bottle"), John Lennon ("Starting Over"), the Notorious B.I.G. ("Hypnotize" and "Mo Money Mo Problems") and Soulja Slim ("Slow Motion").

Framing Hanley recorded a rock version of this song in 2008, which changed the band's fortunes. They had released their first album in 2007, and a year later were playing a show in their hometown of Nashville when they decided on a lark to cover "Lollipop" (this was their first show with guitarist Ryan Belcher as an official member).

When we asked Framing Hanley lead signer Kenneth Nixon what led them to cover the song, he replied, "A bunch of alcohol on a boring day at rehearsal!"

The band's record label saw the performance on YouTube and had them record a studio version of the song and make a proper video. The Skratch 'N Sniff radio show started playing it, the video went viral, and the band had a sudden hit on their hands. They were in the midst of recording their second album at the time, but decided to tour in support of the single while it was hot. This kept them on the road for over a year, delaying the album (A Promise to Burn) until 2010.

"It was a double-edged sword," Nixon told us. "People know about your band, but they know you for a cover. But I think now as we're a little older we come to realize, 'Hey, that opened the door for a lot of people to find out about Framing Hanley and a good number of those people are sticking around.' So it was a blessing."

This was the best-selling digital single worldwide in 2008. Japanese singer Thelma Aoyama's "Soba ni Iru ne" was the second best seller, followed by Flo Rida's "Low."

"Lollipop" was the top-selling ringtone of the 2000s.

The song has provoked several lawsuits. Jonsin claimed that he was owed half a million dollars in unpaid royalties for his work and rapper Dirahn Gilliams alleged the track uses portions of one of his musical work, "Grindin Like A Goon" without permission.

Jonsin had come by an agreement with Wayne over his unpaid royalties by the end of 2010. He told Florida newspaper Broward Palm Beach New Times: "We worked out an arrangement. They're giving me some money now, and will pay the balance in the first or second quarter next year. I never had an issue with Wayne, he and I were cool. It's just there was some confusion owing to [clearance issues with] a sample from another song I made for him ["I Feel Like Dying"]. There's never been hard feelings between me and him."

Lil Wayne explained the album cover to Rolling Stone magazine: "I just wanted to put my baby picture up there like Nas and Biggie did - all those albums when people did that, they were memorable, legendary albums. You don't forget those albums. The tattoo idea came later. I just thought it would be funny."