Rapper Lil Wayne has come a long way in a short amount of time since he was sent to Rikers Island to serve a year long in prison bid on weapons charges on March 9th 2010. Fast forward a year later, just last week Wayne premiered his comeback single, “6 Foot 7 Foot,” on March 3rd at MTV.com putting his jail time behind him.

The Inception-themed clip finds him spitting his multi-syllabic flows to imagery that mirror his rhymes. It’s a creative tour de force that hasn’t been this side of a hip-hop video in some time. “If I’m going to shoot a video with you, I really want to capitalize on your bars to make people get the stuff you’re saying,” Director Hype Williams told MTV News about what he said to Wayne. “You shoot great videos, don’t get me wrong. But sometimes people may think you shoot a video that makes it seem like you go for looks, instead of actually getting these people to understand what you’re talking about. You are considered one of the best, and you have to show them why.” He consequently did so. But it’s been a long road back for Dwayne Carter. Here, we retrace his steps leading up to the release of “6 Foot 7 Foot.”

November 4th – Wayne is released from the Rikers Island prison facility after serving eight months of a year-long sentence for attempted gun possession. “Honestly, the first thing that I appreciated when I got out was not having to wear handcuffs,” Wayne told MTV News on the Miami set of the “6 Foot 7 Foot” video. “Other inmates didn’t have to be handcuffed when they [were guilty of] the same things. But it was this special protocol for me that they had to handcuff me.”

November 5th – Weezy wastes no time getting back in the swing of things, as he pops up on stage at Drake’s “Light Dreams and Nightmares” tour finale concert in Vegas. Wayne surprised Drake performing “Miss Me” afterwards telling the crowd, “It feels good to be back. If you love me like I love you, please make some motherf—ing noise.” He quickly exited stage left as the crowd chanted “Weezy!”

November 7th – After making pit stops in Arizona (to finalize his probation in another case) and New Orleans prior to his Vegas show, he officially celebrates his release with a party in Miami at an undisclosed location then to the popular strip club King of Diamonds. “I just wanna thank everybody,” Wayne said on the red carpet before hitting KOD. But despite the celebratory mood, Wayne now feels he rushed back into the mix too quickly. “I was acting kind of shy or whatever,” he says. “I admit, I was overwhelmed that night. I wasn’t ready for no partying. It was too much too soon.”

November 9th – Wayne gets back where he belongs— the studio. A photo of him of him in the recording booth at Miami’s Hit Factory studios, right before he was set to begin a marathon 15 hour session, makes its way online. Videographer DJ Scoob Doo, who was there with Wayne told MTV News: “Wayne picked up right where he left off with a 15-hour recording session of nonstop work. Day two is tonight, and expect more therapy for a game that needs help.”

December 14th – DJ Funkmaster Flex premieres “6 Foot 7 Foot,” Wayne’s first single since being released from prison. The song features Cory Gunz, who was signed to Young Money earlier in the year. “[Wayne] just told me to be me on the record,” Cory Gunz told MTV News. “He didn’t tell me any specific way to write or anything to do, and that’s what I really appreciate. Mack Maine and Slim, they don’t never try to, like, make me do anything that would compromise how I feel about it. They always tell me to be ‘100’ with it and that’s what me and Wayne did — we bodied the record.

December 17th – Eminem is joined on Saturday Night Live by Wayne. Backed by a live band, they perform “No Love,” from Em’s Recovery LP. Then, later in the show, after performing “Won’t Back Down,” Em cedes the stage to Wayne for him to perform “6 Foot 7 Foot.” The song is “super charged” with electric guitars and a live feel . Wayne associate DJ Scoob Doo told MTV News at the time,”The energy in the building is historical and it’s extra special to see everybody fight for position backstage to see Lil Wayne take over SNL.”

February 3rd – With Wiz Khalifa’s “Black And Yellow” serving as the rallying cry for the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are set to play the Greenbay Packers in the Super Bowl the following week, Wayne records a freestyle in support of the Packers dubbed “Green And Yellow.” “What happened was I was watching some of those Steelers on media day, and one of them said, after they was finished doing their interview, ‘Black and yellow, black and yellow’,” Wayne explained. “I was like, ‘You know what? I’m such a Cheesehead, such a Packer fan, I might as well go in there and make ‘Green and Yellow,’ I made it, and we just went viral with it.”

March 3rd – “6 Foot 7 Foot” premieres. Despite its success, weeks earlier Wayne tells MTV News he didn’t plan on that particular video being his first one since being released from prison. “When I came home, first thing I was telling [manager Cortez Bryant], I was like, ‘Let’s capitalize, let’s shoot another video off of [I Am Not A Human Being]’,” he said at the time. “He was like, ‘You know, it might be a little too late right now.’ “Then that’s when I recorded ‘6 Foot 7 Foot,’ and he was like, ‘Let’s shoot a video to that.’ Once people see the ‘6 Foot 7 Foot,’ I guarantee that it’s going to be a game changer.” Turns out, he was right.

Courtesy MTV.com