Gone 'Til November

October 1, 2016
Rapper and producer Lil Wayne was incarcerated for eight months following a gun-related charge in 2010, and this is his diary from that time. A lot of his days are the same: coffee, trips to the yard, trash-talking with other inmates, visits from family and friends. He does perhaps several million push-ups, responds to fan mail, prays, journals, and listens to ESPN every night before bed. He watches his new friends leave, and he hopes for their sake they never come back. There's definitely no glamorizing here: Jail is nothing but doing a whole lot of fucking nothing, and I will never understand how anyone could think that this shit is cool. Wayne is the first to admit he gets special treatmentnot all of it goodbecause he's a superstar, and he doesn't refrain from making homophobic and sexist remarks, but his is still an actual journal of a prison inmate, and how many of those see mainstream publication? With Lil Wayne's popularity and shows like Orange Is the New Black captivating streaming-TV audiences, readers might be more than ready to experience Rikers Island with Weezy as their guide.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2016

Platinum-selling and four-time Grammy Award-winning rap star Lil Wayne was convicted of possession of a firearm in 2010 and sentenced to a yearlong stay at Rikers Island. Here are accounts taken directly from his journal about what it's like to live behind bars.

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