Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III is one of the few albums of 2008 to be both a critical and commercial success. The New Orleans rapper who ended up on many critics' best-of lists for the year sold more than a million copies of III in its first week of release, and went on to sell another million-plus despite the slow economy. The so-called best rapper alive has finally arrived. On Sunday night at the multi-act Power 99 HollaDay Jam, the rabid enthusiasm of the throng gathered at the Susquehanna Bank Center proved it. Kids clung to every leap in Wayne's timbre, every manipulation of mood and meter.

"I am the greatest entertainer the world has ever seen," Lil Wayne told the crowd near the end of his show at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night. In different circumstances, that might seem a bit of a stretch, but in that moment, it would have been difficult to argue the point. Stoked in no small part by Dwayne Carter's own claims, the debate over whether he is the best rapper alive rages on, but at the top of his game, he is the top of the game. After an eight-month prison term on weapons charges and a middling attempt to incorporate rock elements into his sparse, sweaty Southern hip-hop, he headed back to his roots.

The ironically monikered New Orleans hip-hop star Lil Wayne (Dwayne Michael Carter) was arrested Monday in an Atlanta hotel room on charges of drug possession, MTV reports. He was busted with an array of pills including alprazolam (generic Xanax) and hydrocodone as well as "two small burnt joints of marijuana. " Seems a hotel employee narced on Lil when he saw the "Tha Block Is Hot" singer hanging in his room with the alleged substances. The 23-year-old Hot Boy alum's fifth album, Tha Carter II, debuted at No. 2 last year.

Along this strip of Germantown Avenue where business is cheap and quick, prayer is its own commodity. Places of worship have staked their claim amid the take-out food stores, discount shops, abandoned buildings, and blue lights from a police surveillance camera on the corner, near Silver Street. Inside the storefront Philly Open Air Church this mild Wednesday night, the youth-study Bible lesson is on the power of forgiveness, out of the book of Matthew. The circle of nine - mostly teenage boys and young men - sit on worn couches in a conversation that turns to violence.

Lil Wayne once again breathes the sweet, sweet smell of freedom, the Associated Press reports. The Grammy-winning rapper has emerged from famed New York bastille Rikers Island after doing eight months on a gun-possession charge, according to the NYC Department of Corrections. "FREE AT LAST!!!!!!!" the performer's manager, Cortez Bryant , tweeted Thursday morning. Lil Wayne is off to Miami for a big homecoming party Sunday. Life behind bars fazed Weezy not a whit. "I was never scared, worried nor bothered by the situation," he professed Tuesday on Weezythanxyou.

Lil Wayne's love for his people - 25,000 or so of whom packed the sold-out Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden on Friday for the America's Most Wanted music festival, also known as the Weezy & Jeezy Tour - knows no bounds. The prolific and unpredictable New Orleans rapper, who goes by the nickname Weezy F. Baby and was sharing the bill with Atlanta neo-gangsta Young Jeezy, began his headlining portion by explaining three crucial facts about himself to his enraptured, iPhone waving, diverse audience.

RAPPER Lil Wayne was released from prison yesterday after serving eight months of a yearlong sentence for weapons possession. CBS News reports that his buddies are planning an "elegant, extravagant evening of celebration and strippers to welcome him home. " An elegant evening with strippers? Is there any other kind? And wouldn't you know it, Lil has already tweeted (it took him only 6 hours, 40 minutes, post-release, according to TMZ). One of the greatest wordsmiths of the modern hip-hop era wrote, "aaaaaaahhhhhhmmmmm baaaaakkkkkkkkkk.

LIL WAYNE (aka Dwayne Carter), who owned last year's best-selling album and is No. 1 on the pop charts - and seemed like such a nice boy when he appeared on "The View" - pleaded guilty to attempted weapon possession yesterday, and expects to receive a one-year jail sentence. His trial had been set for Jan. 20. Wayne previously had pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing an illegal gun, which carried at least 3 1/2 years in jail upon conviction. He's free on bail while awaiting his February sentencing.

NEW YORK - Lil Wayne is hoping his performance on the MTV Video Music Awards will be so good, fans will rush out and get his new album: He's making it digitally available at midnight after Sunday's show. The rapper said he's the first artist to release an album this way after an awards show. Lil Wayne is up for two VMA awards. "Tha Carter IV" will be available on iTunes, Amazon.com and other digital outlets. The physical album will hit stores Aug. 29.

76ers Notes CHICAGO - The only mistake Lou Williams admits making is even mentioning the Lil Wayne concert at all. After Sunday afternoon's overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings, Williams dropped a helpful little tidbit about the team's Saturday night entertainment and said it absolutely did not affect performance. But on Sunday, a lot of folks begged to differ: a concert the night before an early game? "It was a combination of things, and it doesn't seem we came out ready to play," Williams told the media in Sunday's postgame locker room.

Along this strip of Germantown Avenue where business is cheap and quick, prayer is its own commodity. Places of worship have staked their claim amid the take-out food stores, discount shops, abandoned buildings, and blue lights from a police surveillance camera on the corner, near Silver Street. Inside the storefront Philly Open Air Church this mild Wednesday night, the youth-study Bible lesson is on the power of forgiveness, out of the book of Matthew. The circle of nine - mostly teenage boys and young men - sit on worn couches in a conversation that turns to violence.

FOR SOME, watching naked women slide down a poll is an erotic thrill. For others, it can become tedious. Take Lil Wayne. According to TMZ.com, Wayne has seen so many strippers strip so many times that watching them shed their minimalist clothing no longer provides him the same joie de vivre. So, on Monday he put up $1,000 (winner-take-all) to watch two strippers beat each other up. The event did not take place at the Roman Colosseum with gladiators and lions, but at the King of Diamonds, in Miami.

Diplo has come a long way since he hosted Hollertronix parties at the Ukrainian Club in Northern Liberties in the early '00s. He's gone all the way to 10th and Spring Garden Streets, in fact, where the DJ/producer and BlackBerry salesman played to a sold-out, all-ages crowd Thursday night at Union Transfer. The Mississippi-born, Philadelphia- and Los Angeles-based cultural anthropologist and beat-maker born Wesley Pentz topped an all-local DJ bill that included opener Xaphoon Jones, the nom de rap of Noah Beresin of the hip-pop duo Chiddy Bang, and DJ/producer Dirty South Joe. Jones and Joe warmed up the former Spaghetti Warehouse with the latter, in particular, making the walls quake with booming dubstep and slow-grinding hip-hop.

NEW YORK - Lil Wayne is hoping his performance on the MTV Video Music Awards will be so good, fans will rush out and get his new album: He's making it digitally available at midnight after Sunday's show. The rapper said he's the first artist to release an album this way after an awards show. Lil Wayne is up for two VMA awards. "Tha Carter IV" will be available on iTunes, Amazon.com and other digital outlets. The physical album will hit stores Aug. 29.

First, Donald Trump bid for the White House. Then Alec Baldwin said he wasn't yet running for mayor of New York, but might. Martin Sheen fans urged him to run for president of Ireland. (He isn't.) Now it's Rob Lowe . Sheen's The West Wing costar tells Fox News' Fox & Friends he won't/might enter national politics. He won't because it's nasty: "When I see the [political] discourse, I definitely think it's better to play politicians [on TV] than actually be them," Lowe says.

LOS ANGELES - Chris Brown won a pair of prizes at Sunday's BET Awards. The 21-year-old singer and the night's leading nominee won best male R&B artist and best collaboration for his song "Look At Me Now" with Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes. Nicki Minaj won for best female hip-hop artist. Kanye West won for best male hip-hop artist but wasn't on hand to accept the trophy. Diddy Dirty Money was named best group. Jaden Smith and Willow Smith tied as winners of the Young Stars award.

ANEW YORKER ain't nothing but a New Yorker, ain't nothing but a New Yorker. (Am I really this crazy about New York, or just infatuated about New York's most infamous New Yorker?) A hundred-nineteen years ago, on March 26, 1892, New York's most revered citizen died in my hometown. Yet if I take a stroll down my block as I did on March 26, as I did many, many mornings before, the interment of New York's most infamous New Yorker stands erect across the street from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.

76ers Notes CHICAGO - The only mistake Lou Williams admits making is even mentioning the Lil Wayne concert at all. After Sunday afternoon's overtime loss to the Sacramento Kings, Williams dropped a helpful little tidbit about the team's Saturday night entertainment and said it absolutely did not affect performance. But on Sunday, a lot of folks begged to differ: a concert the night before an early game? "It was a combination of things, and it doesn't seem we came out ready to play," Williams told the media in Sunday's postgame locker room.

76ers Notes Lou Williams wasn't alone in having a subpar game Sunday. He shot just 1 for 12, although the one basket was a three-pointer at the end of regulation that sent the game into overtime. Williams was at a loss for an answer as to why the team didn't play well, although he did mention attending a concert on Saturday night. "It was a combination of things, and it doesn't seem we came out ready to play," he said. "We took a chance last night by going to the Lil Wayne concert.

"I am the greatest entertainer the world has ever seen," Lil Wayne told the crowd near the end of his show at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday night. In different circumstances, that might seem a bit of a stretch, but in that moment, it would have been difficult to argue the point. Stoked in no small part by Dwayne Carter's own claims, the debate over whether he is the best rapper alive rages on, but at the top of his game, he is the top of the game. After an eight-month prison term on weapons charges and a middling attempt to incorporate rock elements into his sparse, sweaty Southern hip-hop, he headed back to his roots.