Lil Wayne: CONVICTED AND IMPRISONED!

Keep Your Head Up, Weezy
By Ingy Fahmy

The worldwide famous rapper, Lil Wayne, made his final appearance on Monday, March 8, 2010 as a free man before he entered the courthouse where he will be imprisoned for a minimum of eight months, depending on his behavior. As he entered the courthouse in Manhattan, hundreds of fans were lined up to get a last glimpse of Lil Wayne, aka Weezy, before they jail the legendary rapper.

In October of 2010, Lil Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., pleaded guilty of attempted possession of a weapon in connection with a gun that was found on his tour bus in 2007. After initially pleading not guilty, prosecutors were able to negotiate a one-year sentence for Weezy in exchange for him pleading guilty. He will be incarcerated at Rikers Island in New York City. During his last court hearing, Wayne chose not to speak.

Lil Wayne was initially meant to start his sentence on March 2, 2010, but it was postponed twice in the past month. It was postponed the first time so he could undergo dental surgery and delayed a second time after due to a fire that broke out in the courthouse where he was meant to be handed his final sentencing.

Eight months or one-year might seem like a pretty minimal amount to be sentenced. However, that is a long time in today’s 24/7 pop culture news cycle. That being said, Lil Wayne and his team have been extremely busy during the days leading up to his imprisonment. He informed MTV that he had shot seven new music videos in addition to the nine new ones he made a few weeks before. It is even rumored that he has new songs stashed up in a vault somewhere. That is a lot of material that he strategically put aside to keep his fans busy during the coming year.

Wayne told Rolling Stone Magazine: “I look at things as ‘Everything is meant to be.’ I know it is an experience that I need to have if God is putting me through it.” Lil Wayne is still a major culture phenomenon by any measure regardless of the fact that he will spend the rest of 2010 behind bars. Going to Rikers Island is definitely not the best career move; it does, however, set the stage nicely for a 2011 comeback narrative that will undoubtedly take the whole world by storm.