Today, AR-Ab was hit with a 45-year federal sentence for conspiracy and distribution of crack cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine.
Federal prosecutors had accused AR-Ab of using his Original Block Hustlaz (OBH) record label as the front for a drug ring that was responsible for at least one murder.
After getting his sentence, AR-Ab suggested the court was punishing him for his lyrics.
“The court, the FBI agents, and the prosecutors don’t understand my culture. 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.”
The Feds disagreed.
"This wasn’t a case against gangsta rap,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Everett R. said. “Mr. West made it clear not just in his lyrics but in his social media that people should be afraid of him and his willingness to resort to violence.”
Earlier this week, AR-Ab's lawyers filed an emergency motion to prevent the family of drug dealer Robert Johnson -- who was murdered by an informant who said AR-Ab paid him in drugs for the hit -- from delivering an impact statement before the sentencing.
They argued that since AR-Ab wasn't charged with the murder it wasn't relevant to his sentencing.
However, the judge shot that down and Johnson's mother sobbed in the court before AR-Ab, who's 38, got his 45 years.