Lil Wayne Is 'New And Improved' Post-Prison, Mack Maine Says

Lil Wayne is finally out of prison, and according to his close friend, the experience has changed the MC in some significant ways.

During his recent "RapFix Live" sit-down, Young Money chief and longtime Wayne homie Mack Maine laid out some of the habits the superstar spitter picked up in the pen. Maine said the New Orleans rapper, whose inventive lyricism made him one of hip-hop's most respected MCs, turned to literature during his prison bid.

"As far as a change, he's reading more. Before, he didn't really read a lot," Maine said. "He would rather watch it on a movie or something or watch it on television."

Weezy's pre-prison aversion to writing his lyrics on paper, keeping his rhymes in his head instead, has changed as well.

"He's writing. He's writing music now. Everyone knows that Wayne didn't write before he went in," Maine said, adding that it was difficult to commit all of his words to memory while he was locked up. "[He's been] incarcerated for eight months. You can't remember eight months of material up top."

Maine also assured fans they can expect "a new-and-improved, hungry Wayne" who's armed with scholarly skill to back up his innate creativity.

"He's more educated. He was already smart, [but] there's no such thing as too much knowledge," he said. "Expect a smarter Wayne that's writing."

In addition to beefing up his intellect, Maine said the Grammy-winning megastar insisted he was pumping up his physique.

"Honestly, he's been working out, and I can't really tell, because he has a big jumper on. He said he got an eight-pack though," Maine said. "He said he been on his grizzly. He got a situation going on, 'Jersey Shore.' "