Lil Wayne

Does a real photo show Kyle Rittenhouse in an office space with Lil Wayne? No, that's not true: The image was created with tools from OpenAI. It follows a trend of showing Lil Wayne in different places after he missed a concert in Bangor, Maine. The claim appeared in a post made on X on July 2, 2026, by @rittenhouse2a,…

Are viral posts real that claim Cole Allen, the suspect in the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting, worked as a driver for dozens of celebrities? No, that's not true: The false claim is part of an AI-generated series of articles and posts created by a spam operation managed from Vietnam. Fake fan pages are used to target North American and…

Does a video at a hospital show a transgender man being handed and then holding his surrogate baby? No, that's not true: The man in the video, Joseph Hughes, identifies as gay but not transgender. The video shows Hughes with his newborn baby at the hospital. He is a father to twins, born via in vitro fertilization and surrogacy. The…

Did Donald Trump endorse a "$6,400 bonus" scheme before Christmas 2023? No, that's not true: Lead Stories could not find any evidence that the former president ever made any of the comments in a video making the claim, and it appears to be an AI-generated voice making the statements. There is no such federal program at the time of writing.…

Did former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama appear in a video promotion for a federal program giving out monthly $5,600 health spending cards to spend on bills, gas, groceries or "anything else you can think of"? No, that's not true: A video of Michelle Obama taken from a BBC interview has been altered with a fake voiceover that sounds like…

Did former basketball star and current media personality Shaquille O'Neal promote a stimulus check card? No, that's not true: The video making this claim uses a fake voice. O'Neal did not actually contribute his likeness or his voice to an advertisement for the so-called stimulus check card. The claim is the latest effort in a continuing scam to deceive online…

Did rapper Lil Wayne endorse a health allowance card in an online promotion? No, that's not true: Lil Wayne, who purportedly backed the plan, did not post such an endorsement on his official social media channels. The claim that the government is freely giving out health benefits worth thousands of dollars is a scam. Such scams are usually attached to…

Was the founder of the Timberland boot company an 18th-century slave owner in Mississippi named Timberland Hawkins who hung slaves he couldn't auction from a tree in his field that's still standing and is now featured as the Timberland company logo? No, none of that is true: This post is a spinoff from earlier false social media rumors that the…

Did Rapper Gucci Mane file for divorce after finding out his wife slept with his rival Young Jeezy a decade ago? No, that's not true: the story was put out almost a month ago by a site that regularily puts out false news (including death hoaxes) about celebrities to attract clicks and then hides behind a satire disclaimer at the…

Was a 30-year-old Florida man named Otis Dawayne Ryan arrested for telling kids at a playground where babies come from? That's actually true: even though the story appeared on a site that regularily invents stories about bizarre crimes and sex acts and calls it "fauxtire" (a contraction of "faux" and "satire") it did happen for real. The story appeared in…