“The court … don’t understand my culture,” the rapper insisted, after a case that scrutinized his lyrics and social media persona. “We don’t rap about flowers and rainbows. We’re gangsta rappers.”
With his hard-bitten lyrics boasting of drug-world dominance, gangsta rapper AR-Ab earned a legion of dedicated fans in his native Philadelphia and the respect of hip-hop heavyweights like Drake and producer Swizz Beatz.
But it was the truth behind those blistering tracks that sent him to prison Thursday for what could be the rest of his life.
A federal judge sentenced the 38-year-old rapper — whose legal name is Abdul West — to 45 years in prison, a staggering sentence for the tough-talking kingpin convicted in 2019 of turning the record label he founded, Original Block Hustlaz (OBH), into a large-scale North Philadelphia drug-trafficking organization implicated in at least one murder.
But while prosecutors alleged West had ordered the 2017 slaying of a drug-world rival, they did not charge him with that crime, and U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson repeatedly stressed Thursday that it wasn’t a consideration in his sentence.
Nor were West’s provocative lyrics — filled with bluster about his drug dealing and penchant for street justice. Instead, the judge said, the punishment he imposed was for West’s record of “antisocial behavior.”
“You could have been a hero instead of a criminal,” he said. “But you became a drug dealer. You made that decision. That’s why you’re being punished.”
West was unswayed, showing little remorse as he sat next to his lawyer with his arms crossed. When it came time to address the court, he dismissed the proceedings as a farce.
“The court, the FBI agents, and the prosecutors don’t understand my culture,” he said. “We don’t rap about flowers and rainbows. We’re gangsta rappers. We rap about where we grew up. So we rap about drug dealing. We rap about violence.”
