Tory Lanez recently made news after announcing that he will be releasing his next studio album, “Peterson,” while serving his 10-year prison sentence for the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion.
However, Lanez isn’t the first MC to do so. For decades, rappers have been dropping studio albums while sitting behind bars, and for some of them, it’s been among their most popular projects.
With that in mind, let’s look back at the rappers who have dropped albums while in prison.
Tupac’s 2Pac third studio album, “Me Against the World,” was released in March 1995 while serving eight months in prison on sexual abuse charges. The record included several hit songs, including “Dear Mama” and “So Many Tears.”
In 2009, the legendary Atlanta rapper was sentenced to one year and one day in prison on a weapons charge. Just months after serving sentence, he and his wife, Tiny, were arrested on drug charges, and T.I. went back behind bars for 11 more months. While in prison, he dropped his seventh studio album, “No Mercy.”
T.I. wasn’t the only rapper to drop an album while in prison in 2010. Lil Wayne had to serve a 10-month prison sentence for gun possession and, in the process, released his eighth studio album, “I Am Not a Human Being.”
Gucci Mane pleaded guilty on multiple counts of possession of a firearm in May 2014, which resulted in him serving nearly three years in federal prison. In 2015, in the middle of his sentence, the Atlanta rapper dropped a trilogy of albums called “Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.”
The beloved Houston MC was sentenced to three years in prison on aggravated assault charges in 2002. Just before he was set to be released, Rap-A-Lot Records released his debut solo album, “The Sweet James Jones Stories.”
While Shyne was serving his 10-year prison sentence on charges of assault, reckless endangerment, and criminal possession of an illegal weapon, he signed a new deal with Def Jam and dropped his sophomore studio album, “Godfather Buried Alive.”
Prodigy technically didn’t release an album while he was in prison; he dropped just a month before he was about to start his sentence. However, it was close enough, so we still included him. The Mobb Deep legend was sentenced to nearly four years in prison in 2007 for illegal possession of a firearm.
Lil Boosie wasn’t able to enjoy the release of his fourth studio album, “Superbad: The Return of Boosie Bad Azz,” due to being sent to prison just a month after the record dropped on weapons and drug charges.
The hardcore Philadelphia rapper dropped his third studio album, “The B. Coming,” through Roc-A-Fella Records in February 2005 while he was in federal prison on weapons charges.
OG G-Unit member Tony Yayo was still able to have some verse on the group’s 2003 debut studio album, “Beg for Mercy,” despite being behind bars on gun possession charges.
Before Tupac was dropping albums behind bars, there was Slick Rick. He dropped his third studio album, properly named “Behind Bars,” while serving a five-year prison sentence on attempted murder charges.
A year after he dropped his second studio album, “Mista Don’t Play: Everythangs Workin,” the Three 6 Mafia rapper served a four-year prison sentence on a gun possession charge. Just months after he went behind bars, he dropped his third studio album, “Layin’ da Smack Down.”
Nearly all of Max B’s discography has been released while he’s been serving a 75-year prison sentence since 2009 on several serious charges, including kidnapping, armed robbery, and felony murder.
Cassidy was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2006 just months after the release of his sophomore studio album, “I’m a Hustla,” which eventually went platinum.
