Rapper T.I. might be getting an early Christmas present this year: an early prison release.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the rapper (real name: Clifford Harris Jr.) is expected to be moved to a halfway house shortly after the first of the year, as he nears the end of his federal prison sentence for illegal firearms possession and for possessing a gun as a convicted felon, officials confirmed Tuesday.

TIP began serving his a year and a day sentence at a low-security prison in Arkansas last May.

"The Bureau of Prisons can do that and typically does it either a month before, or two months before ... as much as six months before the projected release date," his lawyer, Steve Sadow, said. "We are hopeful that T.I. will be placed in a halfway house within the next month or so, which would be about two or three months before his projected release date. We are hopeful for that, we do not have any control over it."

He is expected to be released from Bureau of Prisons custody on March 23, after serving 85 percent of his sentence.

T.I. was targeted by federal agents in 2007 after they arrested his bodyguard, who bought guns from undercover agents, and said they were for the rapper. He then set up a sting where T.I. was caught in the act of trying to purchase machine guns and silencers.