Dakota Fanning Gets Lil Wayne's Approval for Viral "Shoes" Rap

You can’t spell “Fanning” without “fan.” Actress Dakota Fanning went viral earlier in September while rapping a classic No Ceilings verse from Lil Wayne , which ended up making it onto the New Orleans legend’s radar.

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The actress revealed on the Emmy Awards red carpet on Monday night (Sept. 14) that Weezy actually reached out to her and showed love after seeing her go bar-for-bar on his 2009 “Watch My Shoes” track.

“He did. I got the stamp of approval from Lil Tunechi on Instagram. He loved it. It was a big deal. I was pinching myself,” the War of the Worlds actress recalled during an interview with E! News .

Now 32, all of Fanning’s hard work paid off after she’d spent hours rapping Wayne’s verses while growing up with her friends in high school.

“If I could have told my 16-year-old self in the back of my best friend’s car going to a party in high school that one day Lil Wayne will see you rapping this song and then DM you and say that he loved it? I was freaking out. Beyond,” she continued.

Fanning joined Track Star in late August, where she shined while flawlessly rapping along to Lil Wayne’s “Watch My Shoes.” The viral clip now has more than 10 million views on Instagram.

No Ceilings officially arrived on Halloween in 2009, but many of the tracks had already leaked online in the months prior. The fan-favorite mixtape found its way onto streaming services in August 2020.

Watch the interview with Dakota Fanning recall her interaction with Lil Wayne below.

_Originally reported by [Billboard](https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/dakota-fanning-lil-wayne-reached-out-after-she-rapped-shoes-1236340550/)._