Lil Wayne & Behavioral Conditioning

I watched a video of rapper Bun B explaining how Lil Wayne was trained to become the rapper he eventually became. While watching, I realized that they (the people who handled and managed him) conditioned Lil Wayne to treat music studios as his primary setting for all fun and creative activities, pairing them with rapping and recording music. All reinforcing activities (e.g., spending time with friends, dates, playing video games, and experimenting) were redirected to a music studio, to make the music studio his preferred location for all novel activities in the future. They were paired with music by there being a stipulated rule that everyone in the music studio must perform, write, and/or record music. As the rules (i.e., rule-governed behaviors) were followed and maintained, they were reinforced with continued access to desired activities.

This led to a steady and consistent pattern of behaviors of writing, performing, and recording music in highly enriched and rewarding environments, with peers modeling and reinforcing those same rule-governed behaviors. As music production behaviors increased, reinforcers were given consistently, until music production behaviors occurred at high rates with high probabilities of maintaining or increasing those high rates.