Lil Wayne at Little 5

A jailed rapper might not sound like the best pen pal, but senior Meredith Barron learned that not only would her favorite artist, Lil Wayne, write back, he’d even try to grant her wish: a Little 500 concert.

Barron, a Weezy enthusiast, wrote her fi rst letter to Lil Wayne last June after his imprisonment for weapons possession. In it she mentioned a petition she started at Kilroy’s to have him perform here, as well as how much his music meant to her.

“I didn’t want to sound creepy or like, ‘I’m obsessed with you,’” Barron says. “But his music really got me through some tough times.”

A couple months later, Lil Wayne, on his site weezythanxyou.com, responded specifically to Barron. “I thank you for your love and support,” he posted. “I can’t wait to see the petition and I’m gonna see if I can do the little 5 for ya.”

He even added a shoutout to Barron’s pooch, affectionately named after Lil Wayne’s last name. “Carter’s adorable, just like you.”

Barron also created a Facebook event promoting Lil Wayne’s attendance at this year’s Little 500, a page that at one point had more than 50,000 members.

“Within 24 hours, there were like thousands of people saying they would come if he came."

While Barron pulled at Weezy’s incarcerated heartstrings, Union Board worked to make a deal with Live Nation, which handles tour dates for Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj. Union Board Concerts Director Lisa Wagner says she attended a conference in Los Angeles, determined to make a deal.

“We always try to bring to IU the artists the students want the most, mostly according to surveys,” Wagner says. “So we had to send [Live Nation] a mean offer. Bloomington, although it’s a small city, shouldn’t be underappreciated.”

After a two-week turn around, Live Nation told Union Board that Lil Wayne would attend Little 500 this spring. Mission accomplished.