Finally! Dwayne "Lil Wayne" Michael Carter, Jr. was released from Riker's Island prison this past week on November 4th. It was a joyous day in the music industry. His presence in music and in the social scene had been missed greatly. Him and his Young Money crew went directly to Miami to party it up after his release. Birdman/Baby (Wayne's mentor) compared it to be something like a scene from the Godfather when Michael comes back home from Italy. Or to the rest of us, a crazy, party-filled weekend filled with women, parties, clubs, champagne, and all those things that Wayne had missed. The first images of Wayne showed that he had maintained and actually improved his form, meaning he was in really good shape. He said that push-ups and sit-ups were a daily process for him, sometimes for a hour or two at a time. Around two months ago I had heard there was going to be a "Welcome Home Weezy" concert according to Drake, a very popular understudy of Wayne's. To my dismay, there was no actual concert but he did come on and perform "Right Above It" with Drake at a show in Las Vegas. Although the performance was rumored, everyone was more or less surprised to see Wayne on stage doing what he does best. I only can imagine how legit that performance would be.
The last few days Wayne has been just getting readjusted to life outside the cell (the last of his 8 sentence was in solitary confinement due to being found with a MP3 player in his cell with his cell mate, which was not allowed). The most recent news I had heard about Wayne was that he logs a 15-hour session in the studio...yeah, 15-HOURS!! And the most interesting part is that Wayne is actually writing his material. MTV has 24-hour coverage of Wayne post-release and revealed that Mack Maine (President of Young Money and Wayne's close friend) said, "He's writing. He's writing music now. Everyone knows that Wayne didn't write before he went in," Maine said. "[He's been] incarcerated for eight months. You can't remember eight months of material up top." Although I doubt this behavior will continue for too, I do agree that Wayne just has too much built up that writing it down is the way to clarify it all most efficiently. It was well-known that Wayne had a MP3 for nearly all of his time at Riker's Island. That and due to fact that Wayne recorded something literally everyday, he must have a library worth of verses to spit out.
I can only hope that it will all result in a totally new level for Wayne, just as the the Hot Boys, the Carter 2 album and especially the Drought 3 mixtapes did for him earlier in his career. I am an AVID fan of Wayne and I cannot wait for his new album. He literally has a library of hits and I hope they continue and soon. It is rumored that Wayne will do a mini-tour before focusing totally on the Carter IV and I really hope to see him perform at this time. I mean come on, he is "Weezy F Baby".
**Photo from MTV 24-Hr Coverage
**Photo from MTV 24-Hr Coverage
