The "Free Weezy" campaign officially ended following Lil Wayne's release from Rikers Island after serving an eight-month sentence, and the streamers and balloons from the "Welcome Home Weezy" parties have been taken down. Now, the Young Money captain and his stable of artists can focus on resuming their recording careers.
Earlier this year, Drake released the now-platinum Thank Me Later album only to be followed by labelmate Nicki Minaj with her debut album, Pink Friday, which is also expected to turn out big numbers on next week's Billboard charts. In the coming months, the home that Weezy and Birdman built will show no signs of slowing down with more debut efforts slated to drop in 2011 from Tyga, Lil Chuckee, Shanell and Lil Twist.
Twist didn't sit still while Wayne was away, staying busy recording a litany of material, some of which could see the light of day on his upcoming mixtape project with pop phenomenon Justin Bieber.
"Me and Justin are working on this mixtape," Twist told. "We probably gonna title it Best of Both Worlds [or] Best of Young Rap, Best of Young Pop. We got a few records done."
This past weekend, while walking the red carpet at the American Music Awards, Bieber also confirmed that the pair were working on something together. "Lil Twist is my homey, and we're working on stuff for fun," the teenybopper told.
Twist recently returned to his Atlanta home following some much-needed time with Wayne, his close friend and mentor. According to Twist, the reunion was memorable and emotional.
"My big brother just got home, Weezy F. Baby," Twist told from Atlanta. "We did it real big in Miami as soon as he touched down. I actually missed the show he did with Drake in Vegas, but as soon as he did, we partied like crazy. It was a very emotional and fun moment, man, because everybody was there, the whole Cash Money label and Young Money was there. We did it big, and he was just happy to be home, and it felt good."
Now that Weezy is home, it's back to business. "Right now, I am working on my debut album, Don't Get it Twisted," Twist said. "I actually went back into the album, I was done with it, and I went to Birdman with it, and he loved the album. But I wanted to go back in and get a few more songs by myself. I got a lot of collaborations on the album, so that's what I'm doing right now."