By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Rapper Ja Rule will head to prison this summer — after he wraps recording an album and handles an outstanding tax issue.
The performer, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, pleaded guilty to a weapons possession charge after he was pulled over in his $250,000 Maybach luxury car on the Upper West Side following a show at the Beacon Theatre in 2007.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Richard Carruthers on Wednesday agreed to let Ja Rule begin his expected two-year prison sentence on June 8, about six months after he entered his plea on Dec. 13.
Prosecutors objected to the relatively late sentencing date.
Ja Rule's lawyer, Stacey Richman, said her client was working out a federal tax issue. She did not specify what the issue was but that the late surrender date was requested mostly so Atkins could "complete everything on the tax front."
Richman also said the rapper wanted to finish an album before heading to prison.
Rapper Lil' Wayne was also arrested after the 2007 concert and charged with gun possession. He was released after serving a one-year jail term on the conviction in November 2010.
