Fresh Out of Jail: Life After a Bid
Remy Ma is out and ready to hit the studio.
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Welcome Back! - After serving six of an eight-year bid for a conviction on assault, illegal weapon possession and attempted coercion the Bronx MC Remy Ma was finally released on July 31. Remy Ma wants to pick-up right where she left off in 2007 in her prime as one of the illest female MC’s to pick up a mic. While she was still incarcerated in March Remy was already starting to prep for her return to the music game. In an interview with Billboard she revealed she reconciled with her former Terror Squad leader Fat Joe. Remy also mention she wanted to work with her current “favorite” rapper Meek Mill, Rick Ross, and possibly even former frenemy Nicki Minaj.Keep clicking to check out how these other artists have made it through their re-entry transition. Things may not be the same, but they can still look up. —Dominique Zonyeé (@DominiqueZonyee) (Photo: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)
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Ja Rule - Ja Rule served almost two years is prison for a 2011 gun charge, when he was released and sent to Federal prison to serve time for tax evasion. He was finally released two months early in May and wasted no time getting acclimated. The former Murder Inc. frontman stared in the for TV movie I’m in love With a Church Girl in June. Followed by releasing an autobiography, Unruly: The Highs and Lows of Becoming a Man in July and announced that he is working on a new album, Genius Loves Company in addition to delving deeper into TV producing.(Photo: Bennett Raglin/BET/Getty Images for BET)
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Young Buck - A 2005 weapons bust coupled with 2012 tax evasion charges sent G-Unit rapper Young Buck to the slammer for 18 months. After being released four-months early the Tennessee MC hit the studio with rappers Waka Flocka Flame and former Guerella co-hort Game. But he didn’t officially make his comeback to music until June 2014 when he reunited with 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo of G-Unit for a long awaited epic reunion. The Squad released their first song in three-years in June and plan to release an album in November.(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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T.I. - T.I. doesn't let his troubles hold him down. He's been locked up several times in his illustrious career, and has continued working throughout, penning lyrics and plotting his returns. After his first stint in 2004, he released Urban Legend and earned a myriad of awards for the project. And amid the drama of those federal weapons charges, he made and released Paper Trail, which pushed 568,000 in its first week, Tip's highest sales debut to date. (Photo: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)
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Tupac Shakur - Before his shocking death in 1996, Tupac spent much of the '90s achieving career heights, as well as getting into and out of hospitals and jail cells. In 1995, after serving a couple of short sentences for assault, he released "Dear Mama," the leading single — and most successful song — off his seminal work, Me Against the World.'Pac was put away again before the full album dropped, though — this time for molestation charges stemming from an alleged sexual assault, but when it did, it debuted at the top slot on the Billboard charts and 'Pac became the first artist to have a No. 1 album while in prison.(Photo: REUTERS/Mike Segar /Landov)
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Beanie Sigel - Currently serving time for tax evasion, Beanie Sigel is sure to have a blueprint for what comes next. He went in for a year-and-a-day sentence in 2004, and in 2005 had an arsenal of his tracks released by Dame Dash Music Group, the critically praised collection known as The B. Coming. After the release of his album, Beans took a yearlong hiatus and then came back with The Solution and a new contract with Roc-A-Fella.He's now on the revived Ruffhouse Records, which dropped his 2012 effort, This Time, just before he had to serve this new bid. (Photo: AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek)
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Da Brat - Da Brat, the first female solo rap act to go platinum, was sent to prison after pleading guilty to aggravated assault for hitting a nightclub hostess in the head with a rum bottle in 2007. Afer her release, she jumped on a "Motivation" remix with Kelly Rowland and Lil Wayne, dropped her own single "Is It Chu" and launched a Web series documenting her re-entry experience called "Brat Chronicles: In Transition." On it, she revealed that her time behind the fence has her wanting to record country music.(Photo: Rick Diamond/Getty Imagesfor Universal)
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Gucci Mane - Gucci Mane's served numerous sentences for various convictions and is currently behind bars for a 183-day bid for getting caught with drugs and a weapon while on probation. He's never been silenced, though. In 2007, after serving time for assault, he dropped his first commercial album, Back to the Trap House; and in 2011, after six months in for battery, recklessness and disorderly conduct, he got right back on his mixtape grind and added Chief Keef to his Brick Squad in 2013.(Photo: Adrian Sidney/PictureGroup)
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Foxy Brown - After a series of arrests, Foxy finally got caught up in 2007 for violating probation. She was sentenced to a year, and when she got out, she had a deal with Koch and a street album, Brooklyn's Don Diva, which hit No. 83 on the Billboard 200, No. 8 on the Independent Albums chart, and No. 5 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.(Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images)
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DMX - DMX's legal struggles are epic, but not more so than his rap career. After serving his first two sentences around 2000 for possession of marijuana and driving without a license — X recovered with barely a beat missed. He released The Great Depression in 2001, and it became his fourth No. 1 entry on the Billboard charts and eventually went triple platinum. And in 2003, he became the first artist to have five consecutive No. 1's with the release of his Grand Champ.(Photo: Toby Canham/Getty Images)
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Tony Yayo - The day after Tony Yayo was released for a weapons conviction, he got additional time for possessing a forged passport. All that time served him, though. Once he was out, he built anticipation for his public homecoming with mixtape appearances and finally released his debut album via a deal with Interscope, Thoughts of a Predicate Felon. The LP moved 214,000 units in its first week.(Photo: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for Motorola)
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Lil Kim - Lil Kim was convicted for holding fast to her ultra-strict no-snitch policy and was given a year-and-a-day to reform. While she was locked up, numerous releases of hers came out, The Naked Truth, which was the first album by a woman to get five mics in The Source; The Dances Remixes, her first compilation album; and Countdown to Lockdown, a BET documentary special about the Queen B. After her release, she made her first public appearance as a presenter at the 2006 MTV VMAs, and then took a musical hiatus until her first mixtape, 2008's Ms. G.O.A.T., helmed by DJ Mister Cee and DJ Whoo Kid.(Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage)
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Shyne - In 2001, Shyne was incarcerated for an infamous nightclub shooting, which occurred in 1999. While inside he met with several labels, and finally landed on a multi-million dollar deal with Def Jam to release an album of songs he recorded before he went in. His team mixed in recordings he made over the phone from Clinton Correctional and the set, Godfather Buried Alive, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard chart in 2004. After his 2009 release, having served approximately eight years, Shyne's been making his way back to music as slowly as he wants to. He first relocated to Jerusalem and studied the Torah for 12 hours a day, and just recently he independently released a full project, the mixtape Gangland, in 2012.(Photo: UPI/Debbie Hill /Landov)
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Royce da 5'9" - Royce da 5'9" had some serious breakthroughs from his time served. After getting arrested for drawing guns on each other, he and D12 member Proof spent the night in neighboring cells talking out their differences. The two managed to mend their friendship, thankfully, before Proof's tragic death in 2006. Not long after, Royce got locked up again, this time for a DUI — and a longer sentence. Since then, he's mended his friendship with Eminem, released several acclaimed projects and helped form Slaughterhouse.(Photo: John Ricard / BET).