LIL WAYNE IS FREE AT LAST!

Rapper Lil Wayne was sprung from jail Thursday after eight not-so-hard months at Rikers Island.
But the rapper, whose real name is Dwayne Carter and answers to the nickname Weezy, isn't completely free of legal troubles.

He has to make a pit stop in Arizona to sign paperwork stemming from a 2008 drug case, his lawyer James Tilson told XXLmag.com.

Wayne will then have to start a 36-month probation term. That unsupervised probation will be transferred to his home state of Florida.

A big "Welcome Home, Weezy" bash already is planned when the "Lollipop" rapper returns to Miami this weekend, and New York hip-hop radio station Hot 97 is giving away passes.

For fans eager to witness the first post-prison Weezy performance, they might not have to wait very long.

Wayne is also expected to jump onto the stage in Las Vegas, where his Young Money Entertainment protégé Drake is performing at the Hard Rock Hotel on Saturday night.

Drake hinted at the surprise in a recent interview.

"I would just advise you to book a ticket out there. If you can get tickets to that show on the 6th, I would strongly advise it," Drake told MTV.

He was locked up in New York on a gun possession charge.

Wayne spent a good portion of the past eight months writing letters to his fans that a blogger posted on his site, WeezyThanxYou.com, and he released a chart-topping album, "I Am Not a Human Being," on his 28th birthday.

He did run into some trouble when Correction Department officers caught him with headphones and a charger for an MP3 player back in May.

As a result, he spent the last month of his sentence in Rikers Island's version of solitary confinement. He was initially given a one-year sentence, but it was shortened for good behavior.

On Tuesday, Wayne took time to thank his supportive fans in a letter posted on his blog, and left them one final jail message.

"I vow to continue to be me. ... I don't have to change for no one but God," he wrote. "I will be the same Martian I was when I left, just better."