Jadakiss has visited New York City’s Rikers Island — which often comes under scrutiny due to living conditions at the facility — to offer support to prison inmates incarcerated there.
Speaking from the prison, which once held Lil Wayne, Jadakiss explained his reasons for the visit in a post on Instagram.
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“We broke bread with the brothers, we ordered a plethora of cuts and slices, pies for the inmates to enjoy themselves and have some exotic pizzas. We played ball with em, had a mind building session with em. Ya’ll dudes talk about it, we here man. We come in, we didn’t get paid, this ain’t from the White House, this is from the heart. We came in and did it real.”
The prison island in New York is one of America’s most notorious jail facilities and is one of the largest in the world, maintaining a staff of over 9000 people as well as a inmate population of over 10,000.
A number of notable figures from Hip Hop have been held in Rikers Island including Wayne, 2Pac, Ol Dirty Bastard, DMX and Foxy Brown.
RZA and Cappadonna recently recalled visiting ODB while he was held at the facility and performing for their fellow Wu-Tang rapper.
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RZA said, “We had 40oz, Dirty’s eating mad burgers in there too, fuck all that vegetarian shit!”
When asked about the timeframe of the show behind bars, RZA said, “I don’t know, ‘99? Maybe ’99 or 2000, when they first locked him up and shit.”
In 1999, ODB was arrested multiple times and charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance in one case.
Cappadonna also described the performance: “[It was] in the yard, I think it was C-76. The inmates was in the yard with us. They wasn’t locked up, they was standing right there!”
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Lil Wayne famously recorded a verse for a remix of Drake’s “Light Up” while held at Rikers.
Speaking about recording the verse, Wayne said: “Tez [Cortez Bryant] was like, ‘We want you to be on Drake‘s remix.’ I was like, ‘How?’ And he was like, ‘We’re going to do it over the phone.’ I’m like, ‘Shit … I don’t have anything else better to do up in this bitch, so let’s go!’
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He added: “After I finished running it, I was kinda nervous on how it was going to be received. This was the first time that I haven’t been in the studio to hear the playback before a song goes out.”
