Lil Wayne begins eight-month sentence at Rikers Island

Why it matters

March 8, 2010. Lil Wayne began an eight-month sentence at Rikers Island for an attempted criminal possession of a weapon charge stemming from a July 2007 New York traffic stop. He had pled guilty in October 2009 in exchange for the eight-month deal, plus probation. He was sentenced after a series of postponements while he finished commercial obligations and had dental work done. Wayne kept the audience engaged from inside Rikers via a blog series called Weezy Wee, which his team posted on his website on his behalf. He read fan letters, made cell-block observations, occasionally commented on rap-industry news. The blog made him one of the first famous rappers to publicly maintain his commercial relationship with his audience from inside an active prison sentence. He was released November 4, 2010. He resumed touring within weeks. The album I Am Not a Human Being came out in September 2010, while he was still inside, partially assembled from material recorded before he went in. You can argue Wayne's commercial trajectory absorbed the Rikers sentence without losing momentum. The post-Rikers catalog says he did.