By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A gun found in a tour bus in Manhattan got rapper Lil' Wayne sent to Rikers Island. When he's released this week, a private Department of Corrections bus will take him off the island to an undisclosed location.
The rapper, who's real name is Dwayne Carter, is expected to be released Thursday after serving eight months of a one-year sentence for a gun possession charge. He could have the bus all to himself, according to a Correction spokesman
"It might be individual as we sometimes do with high profile [inmates]," the spokesman, Stephen Morello, said of Carter's ride off of the island.
"We plan to release him sometime on Thursday — early," said Morello, who would not get more specific for security reasons. Officials would not say where the bus would take Carter, who was born in New Orleans but lives in Florida. Typically, inmates are dropped off at a courthouse or precinct near where they live or near where the crime was committed.
Carter has been getting messages to his friends and family through Twitter and via Weezythanxyou.com, the rapper's official blog.
"I think back to when I first arrived and I had no clue of what I'd be experiencing. I was never scared, worried, nor bothered by the situation," Carter, who's been in solitary confinement for nearly a month as punishment for having a contraband MP3 player, wrote on the blog.
The rapper, whose record sales increased while he was behind bars, thanked fans for the thousands of letters he received while incarcerated as inmate No. 02616544L.
"You fans are more than amazing," Carter said. "I will continue to thank you when I'm home."
