Grammy-winning rapper Lil Wayne pleaded guilty to attempted weapon possession in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday -- and is to be sentenced to a year in prison, according to the Associated Press.

The rapper (nee Dwayne M. Carter Jr.), 27, remains free on $30,000 bail. He is set to appear in State Supreme Court in NYC again on Dec. 15.

A sentencing hearing before Justice Charles H. Solomon is scheduled for February.

Police said a gun was found on his tour bus in Manhattan in 2007. He previously had pleaded not guilty to the gun possession charges, which carried a sentence of 3 1/2 years behind bars. His trial had been scheduled to start Jan. 20.

But the rapper ended up signing a plea agreement with prosecutors after police used a DNA profiling technique to tie him to the gun found on the bus.

Lil Wayne is expecting his fourth child. The mother is singer Nivea, 27 (ex-wife to The Dream, Christina Milian`s new husband). It is the third son in about a year for the rapper.
sections: Celebrities