Yet Lil Wayne has proved vital in 2016, sounding renewed in a torrent of collaborations, including his work with 2 Chainz in the duo Collegrove, and in scene-stealing appearances on songs by Chance the Rapper and Solange.

On Tuesday, in lieu of new music, Lil Wayne released “Gone ’Til November,” his long-teased prison journals from the eight months in 2010 he spent behind bars at Rikers Island for gun possession. The slim book, printed on lined paper in an approximation of his handwriting, evokes the mind-breaking monotony of jail, with flashes of humor (his go-to snack is a tortilla stuffed with Doritos) and darkness (an inmate with AIDS berates him for being “a junkie”).

At a book signing at the Strand in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday, about 200 fans, diverse in age and appearance, lined up beginning at 3:30 a.m. for a few seconds with the diamond-grilled Lil Wayne, lavishing him with praise and tears as he sipped from his trademark double cup of lean (or syrup, the dangerous prescription cough syrup mixture).

Later that afternoon, in a hotel suite, he was engaged and feisty as he discussed his struggle to remain optimistic and his inability to feign an interest in politics. After obtaining a soap dish in which to ash his collection of chubby blunts, his eyes widened with focus. “Shoot,” he said. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

With this book, were you worried about revisiting a difficult time?

I haven’t read it, and I don’t plan on reading it. I’m not one of those people who revisit things. I don’t remember [expletive]. I could meet the president and forget it. Of course I thought it was because I smoke too much. But somebody told me: “The reason why you don’t remember things is that it’s not the same for you as it is everybody else. Because you are it.”