Lil Wayne may be physically separated from his Young Money protégés while he serves [article id="1633428"]out a yearlong sentence in prison[/article], but the New Orleans lyricist is just a phone call away whenever his troops need advice.

Weezy speaks to his star pupils, Drake and Nicki Minaj, on a regular basis. And according to Nicki, the Cash Money Records superstar is still doing well, in spite of his incarceration.

"I speak to Wayne, he's in great spirits," the Queens rapper told MTV News about her boss. "He's hilarious, always making me laugh whenever I talk to him. He's his same self it seems to me -- just even more business-minded. I speak to him often. I know when he comes out, it's gonna be a problem, 'cause he's one of those people that needs to get out his thoughts. So I would imagine he would probably be in the studio for 60 days straight. He'll probably do three albums the day he comes home."

As it stands now, [article id="1643213"]Lil Wayne is approximately halfway[/article] through his one-year term. In March, the rapper pleaded guilty to an attempted gun possession charge, the result of a deal he struck with prosecutors to avoid a harsher penalty. His actual jail term is 10 months, not a calendar year, and if he stays out of trouble -- avoiding infractions for violations like the [article id="1639155"]iPod incident[/article], for instance -- he is expected to be released as early as November.

Should Wayne get out of jail in November, he'd be coming out just in time to oversee the release of [article id="1643272"]Nicki Minaj's debut album[/article]. The femcee announced via Twitter on Thursday that her still-untitled set would arrive November 23. "Yes. It's time. November 23rd," she wrote.

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