CHICAGO (Billboard) - Rapper T.I. got an early Christmas present Tuesday after authorities released him from a federal prison in Arkansas nearly seven months into a 366-day term.

His attorney, Steve Sadow, told the website xxlmag.com that T.I.would report to a halfway house in the Atlanta area later in the day to begin a stay of two or three months.

T.I., 28, was arrested after trying to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers from undercover federal agents in 2007. That came after the rapper's best friend was killed following a party in Cincinnati in 2006. The rapper has said the bullets that killed his friend were meant for him.