At the risk of sounding like David Simon, journalism issuffering from a dearth of good court reporters, and seldom has that been moreapparent than this week, when Lil Wayne plead guilty to gun charges in a New York court. It may not be the trial of the century, but it's hard to believe that one of the biggest musicians in the worldis probably going to jail, and the only details we have about the case stemfrom a scant AP report that has been endlessly recycled but never expanded on.
Here’s what we do know, and it’s not much: On paper, it seemed like a casethat would be easy enough to beat. An officer claimed to have spotted Waynedrop a bag containing a revolver out of his tour van. There were at least adozen other people on that van, and apparently there was little other evidencelinking Wayne to the gun. So whywould Wayne plead guilty whenseemingly any good lawyer could cast serious doubts on the charge? Apparently because New York prosecutors were threatening to use a controversial,highly sensitive form of DNA testing they believe could link Wayneto the gun (opponents of this form of DNA testing argue that it's so inaccurate it could link pretty much anything to anyone). If the case had gone to trial and the rapper was found guilty, hewould have faced a much stricter sentence, between three and a half andseven years.
As it is, most reports say Wayne isexpected to do a year in prisonsome reckless headlines are reporting it as factbutwhat they're basing that on is hard to tell. Wayne’ssentencing isn’t until February, which gives his legal team plenty of time towhip up an escape plan (if they didn’t already put one into motion during pleabargaining). If Wayne is sentenced to a yearand again, despite headlinesotherwise, that’s still a big ifhe could get two to four months shaved offfor good behavior.
The sentence likely won’t hurt his career. T.I. has spentmost of this year in jail, and it hasn’t slowed him much; if anything, the sabbaticalwill only make T.I.’s next album seem like that much more of an event. Andfrankly, radio could use a respite from Wayne, who even without a new album ofhis own this year has been recklessly overexposed. Each week brings a new singlefeaturing the rapper; many of the recent ones have been downright awful (ChrisBrown’s vile “Transform Ya,” Shakira’s pandering “Give It Up To Me,” Madonna’s unfortunatelytitled “Revolver.”) By the time Waynegraces Weezer’s new album next month, he’ll have already guested on well over60 tracks this year. Now might be a good time for him to slow down a bit, orrefocus his energies on finishing his own albums instead of hocking a la carteverses.
