@liltunechi @Forbes
Although I can’t say I was happy to learn Lil Wayne would be doing a one-year bid up at Rikers, I was however looking forward to turning on the radio and NOT hearing a radio play list littered with weezie.  My wishful thinking proved to be more a delusional pipe dream because the truth is I probably haven’t turned on the radio once in that time.   And although Wayne’s protege has done a fine job as a fillin in selling half a million “Thank Me Laters” in week one, there is only one man capable of poisoning the minds of the youth with ill conceived drunk slurred lyrics the way weezie could.  None the less we all wondered what life without Wayne would be like.  After all he’s been in the game from age nine accruing over 300 records in the 18 years since.

Lucky for the pant sagging misguided youth of the world Weezie’s incarceration has not slowed his pace. Already during his jail stint he’s dropped or been featured on no fewer than 23 tracks including a verse on the remix of Drake and Hov’s “Light Up,” which was recorded over the phone from Rikers.  According Forbes.com actually earned more money this year ($20 million) than last ($18 million) but how?

Well the Lil Wayne camp conjured up a well conceived round-the-clock schedule that he maintained in the weeks leading up to his incarceration set him and his team up lovely.  By traveling with a mobile studio it enabled him to record while on the road between cities.  Its reported that he even shot nine music videos in a 48-hour period over Super Bowl weekend.  All this, to ensure that during his absence his team could continue to keep Lil Wayne mania alive and his presence embedded in the minds of fickle young Hip Hop fans.

“We thought that although he would be away from the public eye, it’s so important to keep the audience fed,” says Jeffrey Panzer, executive producer of Wayne’s videos. “You’re as hot as your last hit.”

The master plan was helped along by some quirky legal delays one of which the court ordered to allow for some dental work to remove Wayne’s grills and a second due to a fire at the Manhattan courthouse on sentecing day.

To further keep Wayne embedded ingrained in our minds like one of his played out singles, Weezie joined twitter just prior to his incarceration.  He even launched a website, weezythanxyou.com which occasionally publishes his letters and encourages fans to write him in the hope that he’ll personally thank them in his next submission.

The hope is that when Wayne is finally released his fans will be lathered up for his forthcoming Tha Carter IV. While the marketing plan isn’t fooling anyone its really not supposed to.  Its hip hop after all, if Rick Ross can brush off being outed as a former correction officer without a scratch, Lil Wayne fans won’t give a second thought to hokie marketing schemes.  In a tumultuous industry, artist with selling power like Wayne are a dime a dozen, losing momentum while he’s away could spell a certain career suicide…just ask Shyne.