Lil Wayne Pleads Guilty to 2008 Drug Charge

Lil Wayne is serving a yearlong prison sentence in New York's Rikers Island stemming from 2007 weapons charges, but another potential legal battle has been brewing for the rapper — charges from a 2008 incident in Arizona when cocaine, marijuana, Ecstasy and a handgun registered to Wayne were found on his tour bus during a search by DEA agents. But it appears Lil Wayne will not be serving any additional time behind bars. Via video feed from Rikers to a Yuma, Arizona courtroom, Wayne has accepted a plea deal, the Yuma Sun reports.

Under the terms of the agreement, Weezy will plead guilty to a lone charge of possession of a dangerous drug and reportedly be sentenced to 36 months probation that will begin once his prison term in Rikers ends. According to Weezy Thanx You, Wayne's official prison blog, pending good behavior, the MC will be eligible for release in 135 days.

Look back at Lil Wayne's rise in photos.

The Arizona incident took place at a Border Patrol checkpoint search 75 miles of Yuma in January 2008, where DEA agents found four ounces of marijuana, an ounce of cocaine, 41 grams of Ecstasy and a .40-caliber pistol registered to Carter, who had a Florida concealed weapons permit for the handgun. The tour bus was stopped along the highly policed Interstate 8, a drug trafficking route and major artery for illegal immigration. Wayne and two members of his crew were arrested following the January 22nd search and posted bail the next day.

As Rolling Stone previously reported, Wayne began serving time in Rikers in March 2010 after pleading guilty to 2007 weapons charges from a similar tour bus search following a concert in New York City. Though Wayne is still scheduled to spend less than a year behind bars, the rapper did find himself in some trouble after contraband — an iPod charger and "unauthorized" headphones" — was found in his cell. Following that incident, Weezy said in a prison phone call to DJ Scoob Doo, "I can't live without my music. You know how it is, man. I needed my music. It's all good. I had to take my little slip up."

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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