You can’t handle the tooth!
Rapper Lil Wayne was not sentenced this afternoon in his gun possession case because he needed emergency dental surgery, prosecutors said.
Manhattan Assistant DA Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said prosecutors consented to the delay to ensure that the rapper’s medical health is satisfactory before he serves a year behind bars after pleading guilty to gun possession last year.
The rapper will now be sentenced March 2.
Although his plea deal calls for a year in jail, he could shave that to as little as eight months because of good behavior.
Lil Wayne, 27, pleaded guilty in October to attempted criminal possession of a weapon, admitting he illegally had a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic gun on his tour bus in July 2007.
Police found the weapon when they stopped the bus after a Manhattan concert.
The plea deal calls for him to serve his sentence not in state prison, but in a city jail — the same as rapper Foxy Brown, who spent about eight months in 2007 and 2008 for a probation violation involving a fight she had with manicurists in a nail salon.
Rapper Remy Ma also spent several months in a city jail two years ago while awaiting sentencing for shooting a woman outside a nightclub. She’s now serving an eight-year sentence in state prison.
A rapper since he was a teenager, Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Carter, became known for his voluminous output and collaborations with other artists.
His career has hit a peak in the last two years. His “Tha Carter III” led 2008 album sales with 2.8 million copies sold and featured such hits as the No. 1 smash “Lollipop.” His Grammys include 2008’s best rap solo performance award, for “A Milli.”