The sales numbers for Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III are positively old-timey—it will be the first album to sell more than 1 million copies in three years, which is practically a generation ago in these download-crazy times.
But Wayne's triumph might be shortlived. The rapper is waiting for a DNA report that may put him behind bars for a minimum of 3-1/2 years. Due any day, the DNA report from the New York medical examiner's office will tell prosecutors whether or not the rapper's genetic material matches traces recovered from a loaded, snazzy, green, .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol. Police say the gun was inside an equally snazzy Louis Vuitton bag that Lil Wayne jettisoned from his lap when cops boarded his tour bus at Columbus Ave. and W. 61st St. on July 22, 2007. Lil Wayne, whose real name was recorded on the arrest report as Dwayne Carter, resisted giving a DNA sample.
A judge ordered otherwise and Lil Wayne complied on May 13 in a hallway at Manhattan Supreme Court, swabbing the inside of his mouth with a cotton swab under the gaze of police.