The wait for Lil Wayne's 'Tha Carter IV' album is finally over. The fourth installment in Weezy's 'Tha Carter' series went on sale at midnight Monday (Aug. 29), and to celebrate, the Young Money labelhead threw a start-studded album release party at Boulevard 3 nightclub in Hollywood, Calif., directly following the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards.

Although Wayne was a little camera shy, coming off his performance at the Awards Sunday night (Aug. 28), Drake, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, J. Cole and a slew of others were all on hand to help him celebrate the highly-anticipated effort. "It's a Lil Wayne album, you can only expect the best," Drake tells The Boombox. "It's a great night for him and he's the reason I'm here. I'm here for him."

A few hours earlier, Drizzy introduced his mentor at the awards ceremony, opting to go against the script written for him by MTV and speak from the heart. "They tried to get me to read the teleprompter but I had some things I wanted to say so I just kind of did it my own way," he added.

Having been locked up for eight months on New York's Rikers Island, the dreadlocked rapper had plenty of time to write material, but that doesn't mean he kept a hold of it. While he has admitted to scrapping most of the song concepts after he was released and able to listen to some of his competitors, there's no denying that his time behind bars affected his artistry.

"He's just had a little time to think," said Cash Money CEO Ronald "Slim" Williams. "His situation he had and coming back out, doing what he's doing, what he loves to do, you know he had a little time to express things."

No doubt Lil Wayne's biggest competition at this point is himself. His last full-length album, 'Tha Carter III' sold one million copies within one week of its release back in 2008. Though record sales are still taking a hit, due in part to online music piracy, and despite the fact that 'Tha Carter IV' sprung a leak a few days early, Slim is confident that the project will meet the sales of its predecessor. "We're doing more than a million, we don't settle for less."



Watch Lil Wayne's 'How to Love'





Follow @theboombox on Twitter
| Like Us on Facebook | Sign Up for Newsletter

Download Lil Wayne Songs | Buy Lil Wayne Albums

More From TheBoombox