After two failed sentencing appearances, Lil Wayne was finally sentenced earlier today and was sent off to prison for 12 months. He’s eligible for early release for good behavior.
He’ll be held in protective custody, not in general population, at NY’s infamousRikers Island facility.
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The rapper was scheduled to be formally sentenced by a judge and begin serving his one-year term stemming from a 2007 arrest that resulted in a guilty plea in October for attempted weapons possession.
The Cash Money MC arrived shortly after 2 p.m. with his label heads Birdman and Slim. He quietly entered the courtroom as photographers snapped pictures from the hallway. Wayne wore a navy coat and black-framed glasses, and he sat still while his lawyer Stacey Richman spoke.
She informed the judge that she sent a notification to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office that the rapper is suffering from a cracked tooth and would need to postpone his sentence. The judge agreed and ruled to reschedule for March 2.
The postponement wasn’t guaranteed. The rapper has typically arrived to his previous court appearances with a small crew that included a bodyguard and his road manager, in addition to Baby and Slim. On Tuesday, however, he was accompanied by that group as well as Lil Twist, Mack Maine and several others from the Cash Money/ Young Money camps. The proceedings were swift and austere as the prosecution agreed that the rapper would receive better care with his own dentist versus treatment at the Rikers Island facilities.
The rapper is set to undergo surgery February 12 in Miami, according to Richman. He will need a week to 10 days to recover. His defense offered prosecutors February 25 as a date for Wayne to turn himself him in after surgery, but Judge Charles H. Solomon instead selected March 2.
The judge then warned Wayne that he must return to Miami on Tuesday. Solomon insisted if he leaves tomorrow, there would be a chance his surgery would be delayed due to hazardous weather conditions leaving New York, where a snowstorm is expected.
“I don’t want this to get pushed back anymore,” Solomon said. “This is the last adjournment.”
In its new issue, Rolling Stone stays up all night with Lil Wayne as he prepares to go in and serve his 12 month sentence for gun possession stemming from a 2007 arrest in New York City. Here’s an excerpt:
“I don’t like to stop,” Wayne tells RS‘ Chris Norris. “I believe you stop when you die.” So in the weeks before he reports to Rikers Island, Wayne is keeping busy — recording tracks bound for Tha Carter IV (the album Cash Money staffers call “C4? because it’ll be the bomb), shooting videos with his Young Money protégés, spending time with his growing family, and deliberately not asking anyone for advice about life on the inside. “This is Lil Wayne going to jail. Nobody I can talk to can tell me what that’s like,” he says. “I just say I’m looking forward to it.”
While Weezy’s away, his label is relocating to New York to be near him, and his manager Cortez Bryant is exploring ways to keep Wayne in his fans’ minds for the duration — from jailhouse Twitter accounts to endorsements. “I’ll have an iPod, and I”ll make sure they keep sending me beats,” Lil Wayne says. Tha Carter IV — which Norris is told features tougher, faster beats — is scheduled to arrive shortly after he gets out.