for a few seconds with the diamond-grilled Lil Wayne, lavishing him with praise and tears as he sipped from his trademark double cup of lean (or syrup, the dangerous prescription cough syrup mixture). The slim book, printed on lined paper in an approximation of his handwriting, evokes the mind-breaking monotony of jail, with flashes of humor (his go-to snack is a tortilla stuffed with Doritos) and darkness (an inmate with AIDS berates him for being “a junkie”).Īt a book signing at the Strand in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, about 200 fans, diverse in age and appearance, lined up beginning at 3:30 a.m. On Tuesday, in lieu of new music, Lil Wayne released “Gone ’Til November,” his long-teased prison journals from the eight months in 2010 he spent behind bars at Rikers Island for gun possession. Yet Lil Wayne has proved vital in 2016, sounding renewed in a torrent of collaborations, including his work with 2 Chainz in the duo Collegrove, and in scene-stealing appearances on songs by Chance the Rapper and Solange. Adding to the anxiety surrounding his career, there have also been a series of health scares, including a spate of seizures in recent years. “I AM NOW DEFENSELESS AND mentally DEFEATED & I leave gracefully and thankful,” he wrote.

In a string of emotional late-night tweets last month, Lil Wayne expressed his exhaustion with his career status and threatened to retire. In addition to his 11th solo album, “Tha Carter V,” the fate of his label imprint, Young Money, teeters in the balance, with Lil Wayne, 34, claiming in court that he was never properly compensated for his work or for helping to birth the careers of Drake and Nicki Minaj. It’s not by choice.įor the last two years, this rapper, now two decades into a career defined by prodigious output, has been enmeshed in a messy public contract dispute with Cash Money Records, his longtime label, and in a more personal clash with its boss and his onetime father figure, Baby, or Birdman. Lil Wayne, known for his relentless forward progress, is in something of a holding pattern.

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