NEW YORK — Lil Wayne was freed from jail Thursday after serving eight months in a gun case, emerging with a hot new album, well-wishes from a former president and a deepened appreciation for his fans.

“Welcome home, Weezy!” the rap star’s Facebook page proclaimed, using one of his nicknames, after his morning release from the Rikers Island jail complex. He was freed at a location jail officials and his lawyer wouldn’t disclose.

His managers have said he planned to head for his home in Miami, where they’re planning a welcome-home party Sunday.

Lil Wayne, who had the best-selling album of 2008 and won a best rap album Grammy with “Tha Carter III,” kept his career in high gear while locked up for having a loaded gun on his tour bus in 2007.

He started a yearlong sentence in March but got time off for good behavior, despite a disciplinary knock that sent him to solitary for the last month of his term. A charger and headphones for a digital music player were found in his cell in May, jail officials said. The items are considered contraband.