Everyone was in a mood to celebrate on Sunday night at the King of Diamonds strip club in Miami. And while the party was ostensibly to welcome back Lil Wayne after an eight-month stint in prison on a gun charge, for the revelers it felt more like an awards-show red carpet.

Clutching a fat stogie in his hand, wearing a black hoodie, white T-shirt and dark shades and making his way down the red carpet of the “Welcome Home, Tunechi” party, accompanied by two dancers in Las Vegas-worthy glittering outfits, Wayne took a moment to chat with MTV News about how it feels to be free.

“I forgot about yesterday,” he said in his first public comments since his release on Thursday.

Walking along with him was label head Bryan “Baby” Williams, who said the first order of business is … whatever Wayne says it is.

“[Wayne’s] a shot-caller, whatever he wants to do it’s green light,” said Baby. “We just glad he’s home and we just want to pop bottles tonight and have fun.”

Drake, Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross, Cool & Dre, Fat Joe and more helped celebrate Wayne’s freedom during the late-night fete at Miami’s King of Diamonds strip club.

Before Wayne partied, though, he took a moment to reflect on all the support he received during his jail stint.

“I just wanna thank everybody,” he said. “Not only MTV fans, but the fans across the whole world. Most of all, my family. I couldn’t do it without them and I would never do it without them.”

The tireless MC has made it clear he wants to get back to making music as soon as possible. Even before his release, Wayne spit some verses over the phone for Young Money label chief Mack Maine, so he’d have beats ready for him in the studio. His eagerly anticipated Tha Carter IV is tentatively slated for release in early 2011.