On October 11th, Lil Wayne is set to release a memoir, Gone 'Til November, detailing his eight-month stint in Rikers Island prison back in 2010. The memoir is reportedly lifted directly from Wayne's diaries at the time, without a ghostwriter, and it shows. The book is largely a day-to-day account of prison life, filtered through the experience of a rapper at the height of his fame, and replete with Lil Wayne-style asides that read like song ad-libs ("Ughh," "Yeah!" or "Damn!" appear about once a paragraph).
Here are some of the craziest things we learned from Gone 'Til November.
He's Releasing It Now Because Of His Label Trouble
According to Wayne's author's note he's releasing Gone 'Til November because of his troubled relationship with Cash Money Records and former friend—and frequent jail visitor—Birdman. Calling his label situation "bullshit," Wayne writes that he's releasing the memoir now so his fans have something from him while they await new music.
New Jack City 2?
While in prison, Lil Wayne is sent the script for New Jack City 2, a sequel to the 1991 classic. He was supposed to play the son of Nina Brown and loved the script, which he read while locked up. The only problem? The script was sent to Wayne with the intention that he would fund the project.
He Hates Tyler Perry Movies
A running theme of the memoir is Wayne's viewing habits in prison coming down to other people's choices. Sometimes, they pick well: he loves Martin, likes some of the movies that are played, like Shutter Island, and tolerates American Idol. "I love magic!" Wayne writes, when a magic show is on TV in the dayroom. Ideally, though, he watches sports.
Wayne avoided the dayroom rather than watch shows like 24. Wayne's strongest words are saved for when Tyler Perry is played, though: "The movie choice pissed me off—a freaking Tyler Perry movie...AND of course I said something about it."
He Was Nervous To Rap In Prison
Despite selling millions of records and performing sold-out shows from the time he was a teenager, Wayne still got "nervous as hell" to rap on the prison yard for the first time.
He Officiated A Prison Wedding
It's been reported that Wayne officiated a prison wedding, but from his telling it was likely a joke, and certainly non-consensual. "Being that Dominicano [one of the wedding participants] is so Dominican and don't understand to much English, he doesn't know that we be fucking with him," Wayne writes. They push Dominicano up the aisle, where Wayne is waiting with a Bible and eventually says, "I now pronounce you," at which point Dominicano realizes what's happening and bails.
He Loves Sugar
If there's one takeaway from this memoir, it's what food Lil Wayne likes. Most prominently figured: Sugar. Wayne is singularly focused on the acquisition and consumption of sugar, most often in his coffee. The majority of entries in the diary begin with Wayne waking up, getting coffee, and adding sugar. He goes so far as to put his sugar packs in his lemonade packs because sugar is confiscated during cell searches. The other food Wayne is most passionate about while locked up is burritos, a loose definition of the word since it's usually Doritos or Ruffles wrapped in a tortilla.
Drake Slept With His Girl
The lowest point of Gone 'Til November, outside of the melancholy of being imprisoned that runs through each entry, comes when Wayne finds out that Drake slept with his girlfriend. It didn't happen while he was in prison—it happened before Wayne ever met her—but he still describes it as "the absolute worst thing I could've found out." Drake confirmed that it happened while visiting Wayne in prison.
He Had A Lot Of High Profile Visitors
Wayne had plenty of visitors—he brags in the memoir that someone came to see him during every single visiting hours, twice a week, during his time at Rikers. Mostly, it was friends and family. But, he also got plenty of famous figures in hip-hop to stop by Rikers. Birdman, Drake, Nicki Minaj—his YMCMB family at the time—all came through, as well as Kanye West, Diddy, Tyga, and his protégé at the time, Cory Gunz.
Prison Was The Closest He Ever Came To Suicide
In one of the darker moments in the book, Wayne reflects that he's "never been this close to suicide before." The thoughts are likely prompted by Wayne's (brief) time working as a Suicide Prevention Aide, and, in an unrelated incident, witnessing an inmate attempting to hang himself. Wayne doesn't dwell on the event, writing that prison desensitizes people before moving on.
He Never Wears Underwear More Than Once
"I never wear the same T-shirt, boxers, or socks more than one time EVER," Wayne writes. So, in prison, he has his friend E.I. bring him some T-shirts, boxers, and socks every time he visits. Problem solved.
Correctional Officers Made Wayne Home-Cooked Meals
Wayne spent his last month in prison in solitary confinement, or "the box," as punishment for smuggling an mp3 player (which was built into a watch) into Rikers. He wasn't allowed out of his cell much, but he writes that the C.O.'s on duty would bring him home-cooked meals when he wasn't in the general population.
