Lil Wayne

Under the terms of his probation, Wayne is required to perform 360 hours of community service. (He also can’t drink for three years, can’t associate with known criminals and can’t vote, although the last one doesn’t bother him much: “I vote for niggas in the Pro Bowl.”)

On a wintry December afternoon, Wayne is on his way to hour one. He’s due at Miami’s Charles Drew Middle School to give a speech to a class of unsuspecting eighth-graders. In the auditorium, the assistant principal, Mr Dawkins, is excited. “They’re gonna flip out,” he says. “Hell ”“ I’m gonna flip out.”

“What’s poppin’, y’all?” says Wayne when he finally walks onstage an hour and 15 minutes late. “I’m here to talk to y’all about what’s important in life ”“ and that is that you live it to the fullest.” He tells them how he started rapping when he was eight, how he signed a deal at age 11. How as a kid he was lucky, educationwise, because his mom put him in a magnet school and stayed on him about his homework.

Afterward, he takes a few questions: his favourite subject (history); what sports he played growing up (baseball and football); his best song (“I haven’t recorded it yet” ”“ the kids like that one); whether he gets nervous before a show (“I’m literally shaking”); why he looks so much taller on TV (“I really don’t have an answer for that!”). An English teacher praises his vocabulary, and he beams. When it’s over, he signs autographs. Nobody asks about jail.

In the parking lot, Bryant says goodbye to two ladies in brown pantsuits ”“ Wayne’s probation officers. He says he thought it went well: “Wayne was nervous. He hasn’t talked to a school in a long time.” Now, Wayne’s headed home to take a nap. He was at the club until late and he’s still recovering.

Before he went to jail, Wayne chain-smoked blunts like they were Marlboro Lights. (He purportedly used to take his bus instead of flying, because he didn’t like going that long without getting high.) That was on top of his promethazine-laced cough-syrup habit that left him in a thick perma-haze. He could be cold, short-tempered, dismissive, sour. Sometimes his friends didn’t even want to be around him.

Bryant says he’s more patient now. “That was one of the things he wanted to work on in there: Learning to think things through, and not just go off. Lately there’ve been a lot of situations where he might have blown up before, but instead he’s handled it very cool and calm.”

Like what?

“For example, when a hotel reservation is messed up and they don’t have the kind of room he’s accustomed to. The old Wayne would have been, like, ”˜We’re gonna find the nearest city with a suite!’ Now he’s like, ”˜It’s cool, I’ll stay in a king.’”