Like Samuel Pepys, Thomas de Quincey and Henry David Thoreau before him, Lil Wayne is writing a memoir. The rapper has signed a deal for a book that will look back on his eight-month stint at Rikers Island prison.
Gone Till November will be published on 28 November, about three years after Wayne pleaded guilty on weapons charges stemming from an incident in New York. Following numerous delays , Lil Wayne spent much of 2010 behind bars. "I [am] the same Martian I was when I left, just better," he said when he was released. "I was never scared, worried nor bothered by the situation."
The memoir will be based on Wayne's prison diary. "He kept detailed journals of his inner and outer life while he was on Rikers Island, and they certainly tell a story," said Ben Greenberg, executive editor at Grand Central Publishing. While inside, Lil Wayne also became a voracious correspondent, answering fan letters on the blog Weezy Thanx You. "I laughed with some of you, reasoned with some of you, and even cried with some of you," he wrote in his final public letter. "I never imagined how much impact my words and life can have."
Lil Wayne's most successful album, 2008's Tha Carter III, sold more than a million copies in its first week. Last year's follow-up, Tha Carter IV, is nominated for five awards at this year's Grammys.
