10 Random Things We Learned About Lil Wayne from His Rikers Island Diary 'Gone 'Til November'
Lil Wayne painted an unpretty picture of life behind bars for his recently released memoir Gone 'TIl November (released Oct. 11), a personal diary detailing his eight-month bid at Rikers Island in 2010 on a gun case. Designed like an actual notebook with the rapper's scrawl, the book offers a look into Weezy's thought patterns and everyday happenings while in jail.
"I don't ever want to come back to this bitch!," he wrote at one point. "There's absolutely nothing cool about jail. It's nasty. It's dirty. Everything is f---ing used. Getting something new in the bitch is like winning the lottery." He also described his stint as his first long break from performing onstage since he was 13 years old.
Between whipping up his own commissary delicacies and falling asleep listening to ESPN, Lil Wayne made the most of his time as an inmate and signed off each day with the DJ Khaled catchphrase "Another one."
Here are the most random facts about Lil Wayne that we learned from Gone 'Til November.
His daily dish
Wayne often grabs his morning coffee and whips up his frequent meal: a burrito with either Doritos or Ruffles.
His life hacks
Given his very limited resources, Wayne sometimes channeled his inner-MacGyver, fashioning an air freshener from an orange peel and dropping it into the toilet as well as mixing shampoo and water in a spray bottle.
His reading habits
Every night was spent reading the Bible, but Wayne also tackled Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis' 2004 biography Scar Tissue. "Good book so far...he's a crazy guy," he wrote.
He officiated a wedding
In one instance, Lil Wayne grabbed the Bible and officiated a wedding between two of his inmates named Coach and Dominicano. With Gatorade flowing and tissue paper decorations in the dayroom (or common area), the jail nuptials was an entertaining anecdote. "Imagine seeing grown-ass men in jail hanging tissue for wedding decorations...AND one of them is Lil Wayne...Crazy!"
He landed his first job in jail
Lil Wayne was hired after passing the test to be a suicide prevention aide, an inmate who scans the cells overnight for an eight-hour shift to make sure prisoners did not hang themselves. "I still get that mula baby, because S.P.A. is the highest-paying job an inmate can get," he offered.
While the job was temporary, Weezy penned his thoughts about suicide. "I've never been this close to suicide before. It's truly a new reality for me," he wrote during one of the last weeks of his bid. "I was actually there when this kid that was in mental isolation tried to hang up. What's really f---ed up is that it all could've been prevented if the COs would've just brought him some water."
His visitors
Lil Wayne had frequent visits from his mom, his woman and his manager Tez (Cortez) Bryant, plus high-profile guests like Tyga, Diddy, Chris Paul and Kanye West.
He also writes about having his girl come to see him and requesting that she ditch her unmentionables, but given the "extensive-ass searches," the officers made her put on a pair of boxers.
His mail and phone calls
Wayne often wrote about responding to fan mail and surprise calling some of his supporters. At one point, he recalled talking on the phone with Drake, who admitted he had slept with a former flame. "As a man, honestly that shit hurt...and not because it was Drake. It could've been any man and it would've hurt the same," Wayne admitted.
He also received a movie script for New Jack City 2 (a sequel to the 1991 drug crime thriller starring Wesley Snipes) so that he could play the son of drug lord, Nino Brown, and hopefully fund the project.
His earnings in jail
Lil Wayne gets into it with another inmate, who blows up his spot after reading a Forbes article. "Obviously I was trying to keep it on the low up in here, but Forbes f---ing blew my cover and announced that in three months, I had just made 20 million sitting in jail," he said.
His time in "the hole"
When Lil Wayne asked his people for a watch that played MP3s, Weezy landed in some trouble after the chief warden found out. After a traumatizing shower incident, he was then sent to "the hole," otherwise known as solitary confinement. "I really don't know what would've been better or worse: to be locked up with other Bloods or to be around other mothaf---as' actual blood," he wrote while in the infirmary box. He then described stepping over big puddles of blood left by other inmates when he took showers.
On the flip side, correctional officers were much more accommodating, with one even letting Wayne hold on to his iPod and cell phone.
His last day
On his final day behind bars, Lil Wayne has a personal revelation: "The ultimate high is to know that my creativity can never be taken from me by anyone or anything."