The Bobby Shmurda saga is drawing people in every day as fans wonder if the rapper will ever get a fair and just trial. Most recently, Shmurda’s fellow GS9 member was sentenced to 98 years in prison. That news came after the rapper’s trial was pushed back for legal reasons. In an attempt to gain some type of clemency, Shmurda’s lawyers tried suing the NYPD for targeting the group because of their national popularity. With all attempts at bettering his situation falling through, Shmurda is left in the same state as many of his fans—uncertainty. When recollecting on run-ins where he almost faced death prior to his fame and stardom he simply stated, “I felt like I survived for a reason.”
GQ conducted an exclusive interview in which Shmurda opened up about the lack of evidence in his case, GS9 being targeted by police and how being discovered by an Epic Records A&R executive changed his life.
“This was something that didn’t sound like anything,” he said. “They’re coming in with their own lingo—I’m hearing new words I ain’t never heard in the streets. And they had a swag with ’em that was like: Okay, this is a new era. This is the next generation, clearly.”
Sha Money, the A&R who discovered the GS9 artist, recalled he was mesmerized by Shmurda’s persona. “They were looking like the New York that I know. A lot of artists don’t capture New York no more, but here’s someone in the streets of Brooklyn, in their neighborhood, giving you that raw look, how it really looks.”
Fast forward to 2016 and Shmurda is behind bars for charges related to drugs, guns and murder. GQ released a full timeline of events leading up to the rapper’s arrest and the intricate details of his lifestyle, which allegedly made him prey for the NYPD.
From the NYPD studio raid to the rapper’s life behind bars, the profile illustrates how Shmurda’s art imitated his life and vice versa. Before ending the interview, Shmurda left reporters with this, “That’s going to be a fiction story about this whole experience,” he said. “I gotta say fiction, though. It’s going to be a fiction story.”
For more on Bobby Shmurda’s GQ interview click here.
