NEW YORK, March 9, (AP): After saying goodbye on concert stages and online video streams, Lil Wayne had nothing to add as he was sentenced Monday to a year in jail for having a loaded gun on his tour bus.
The Grammy Award-winning rapper delivered only a brief bow to fans and supporters as he was led out of a courtroom in handcuffs to start serving his sentence.
With that, Lil Wayne headed off to face his punishment in a case that had shadowed him as he became one of music’s most prolific and profitable figures in recent years. Arrested in July 2007, he pleaded guilty in October to attempted criminal possession of a weapon. He admitted he had the loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic gun on his bus.
His lawyer, Stacey Richman, said the rapper was resolute as he was taken away.
“He knew what he had to do, and he’s doing it,” she said.
Lil Wayne arrived later Tuesday at the Rikers Island jail complex, where he was being held apart from the general population of inmates because of his fame. He has a cell to himself but the option of spending time in a TV room with 17 other inmates who also have been separated from the general population because of notoriety or other reasons, according to the city Correction Department.
Assignment
It wasn’t immediately clear what work assignment he might have, if any. The 27-year-old rap star could be released in about eight months with good behavior.
Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Carter, is going behind bars with his career in full throttle. His “Tha Carter III” was the best-selling album of 2008 and won a Grammy for best rap album. His latest album, “Rebirth,” was released last month.
He made a point of leaving fans with fanfare, from a “farewell tour” in recent months to a series of videos on the website Ustream on Sunday.
“Law is mind without reason ... I’ll return,” he wrote on his Twitter account Monday morning.
Dozens of fans jockeyed with photographers waiting on the courthouse steps Monday afternoon, cheering as Lil Wayne, fellow rapper Birdman and others arrived. Shouts of “Oh, man” and “Keep your head up, Weezy!” — a nickname he often uses — erupted in the courtroom as he was sentenced.
Although Lil Wayne had agreed to go to jail, a number of roadblocks kept him from starting his sentence in recent weeks.
First, his sentencing was postponed in February so he could undergo surgery on his bejeweled teeth. Then, a fire shut down Manhattan’s main criminal courthouse while he was on his way there last week.
He told Rolling Stone for a story last month that he planned to keep working while behind bars.
“I’ll be still rapping in there, have a gang of raps ready when I come back home,” he said.
As for listening to music, inmates are allowed to buy AM/FM radios at the jail commissary.

A Hollywood associate of Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis was fined $5,000 Monday but spared prison time for his role as the “bag man” in the bribery of jail guards to help Francis when he was held in Reno on tax evasion charges in 2007.
Aaron Weinstein, 45, originally faced a felony bribery charge but agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor of providing contraband in prison.
US District Judge Larry Hicks said Weinstein avoided up to six months in prison because he cooperated with authorities in prosecuting Francis and two former guards at the Washoe County jail who acknowledged accepting thousands of dollars in cash and gifts.
“One could easily say there should be a short prison sentence here,” Hicks said Monday in federal court in Reno. “His cooperation and straight forward demeanor spared him that.”
One former deputy, Ralph Hawkins, was sentenced in December to three years in prison and fined $4,000 for accepting cash and tickets to Oakland Raiders games from Weinstein. Another, Mary Boxx, also has pleaded guilty to a bribery charge and is to be sentenced by Hicks on March 15. A third accused in the case was acquitted.
Weinstein apologized Monday for his involvement in the bribes and the “negative impacts on the lives of a number of people.” He said he was especially concerned about any damage he caused to the reputation of the law officers at the jail.
Assistant US Attorney Ron Rachow said Weinstein’s testimony helped lead to felony convictions of the two deputies as well as Francis, whose soft porn empire includes videos of naked young women.

Authorities say D’Angelo was caught in New York City trying to pay $40 for sex with an undercover cop posing as a prostitute.
Police said Monday that the 36-year-old R&B singer was arrested last week while behind the wheel of his Range Rover.
D’Angelo’s real name is Michael Archer. He says in a statement that he pleaded not guilty and plans to fight the charge.
The statement says the singer hopes the public will “allow the American justice system to resolve the matter before jumping to any conclusions.”