When I first learned that Lil Wayne would be appearing live on ESPN, I cringed a little. He may be the wildly popular king of album sales and a hip hop music savant, but he's also notorious for being high out of his mind in public places. For every time Jay-Z has appeared on Charlie Rose or 60 minutes with an eloquent interview showing a mature side of hip hop, Lil Wayne has been zoned out sipping lean while speaking to Rolling Stone, or Blender magazine.

The visions I had of Wayne embarrassing himself as a representative of hip hop were proved wrong yesterday, when (a sober) Wayne showed up on his best behavior. There were no crazy declarations, there was no wifebeater T-shirt, and there was no Styrofoam cup full of prescription drugs (which used to be virtually inseparable with Wayne).

While this one appearance alone doesn't earn him anything, it's definitely a step in the right direction for a man who once seemed to be spiraling into a cliched abyss of drug addicted musicians.



Video courtesy of Sportaphile