GQ Gets the Exclusive With Bobby Shmurda During His First 24 Hours Out of Jail
In a new profile published today by GQ, Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda, who was released from jail on Tuesday after six years behind bars, spends his first day of freedom with senior entertainment editor Frazier Tharpe. Fresh from the private jet his friend Quavo had waiting for him upon his release, Bobby opens up about how he fought to keep a positive mindset despite reaching his lowest of lows in 2016, his hopes for being a role model, and finding a new appreciation for his music career.
In a two-story penthouse in Dumbo, Bobby was also surrounded by rapper Rowdy Rebel, and the rest of his GS9 family—a group the NYPD might characterize as a dangerous threat to their East Flatbush neighborhood, but who for Bobby are the boys he’s known since pre-K.
Two things are readily apparent, upon meeting Bobby. First, as is the case with many young men who spend an extended amount of time inside, he has gotten noticeably swole. But Bobby’s lighthearted spirit remains—seemingly, at least—unchanged.
“My spirit’s always gon’ be up,” he says. “I used to sleep next to people who had 40 to life. People who’ve been in there for 30 years and haven’t laughed—I’d have them crying all day. When you got good energy, no matter where you at, you can bring a smile to someone’s face.”
Still, familiarity and a daily routine of eating, sleeping, lifting, and talking to girls on the phone doesn’t make six straight years a walk in the park—even down to the last days, it would seem. In fact, it was around the time of his plea deal, and the time frame for release that came with it that he experienced what he describes as both his lowest moment, and his reckoning. The moment that broke Bobby Shmurda, he says, wasn’t a fight or his umpteenth night in solitary: It was a fan letter. “It was 2016, I was in the box. A six year-old girl wrote to me, she said I was her favorite rapper…That just let me know the kids are watching me, and I have to be a role model.”
Bobby pauses the conversation to take a FaceTime call from Meek Mill, and the two commiserate over the unfamiliar emotion that Bobby experienced after reading this letter: shame. “I’m done with that [jail] shit,” Bobby vows to Meek, cracking, “I’ll be light-skinned in Jamaica before I go back.” Meek, who has experienced reintegrating into celebrity life after jail a couple of times now, warns Bobby that the next three days are going to feel disorientingly fast.
“I left my godkids. They were four or five when I used to take them all to the store,” Bobby says after hanging up with Meek. “Now it’s been seven years. I used to lie to them, say I was on tour, but kids are smart. I missed out. Even that little half decade of their lives, that’s important to me.”
After his epiphany, Bobby decided to take rapping and his music career seriously: “I didn’t really care too much for it until I went to jail and I seen how the fans were loyal,” he says. “I can’t name a week that I didn’t see at least ten [pieces] of fan mail, throughout the whole bid.”
Going to prison immediately after blowing up made Bobby appreciate just how fortunate rap stardom is—and that it was almost taken from him before he had the chance to fully realize it. Though he refers to 2014 as a “love/hate year,” he acknowledges how the work he put in then set him up to come home to endless opportunities. “Otherwise by now,” he told me, “I’d probably already have a gun and some crack.”
The precise date of Bobby’s parole wasn’t finalized until January. But according to Quavo, plans for his first day out began six months to a year ago on one of their many phone calls.
“He had this dream: A jet, flooded out with his gang, his family, a couple vibes [read: women] for him.” the Migos member says. Quavo is drowsy from pulling an all-nighter to make sure his friend’s morning went exactly how he imagined. But he’s ready to rally at a moment’s notice: “It’s like his birthday today,” he says. “Whatever he wants to do, we’re doing it.”
Read the full interview, “Bobby Shmurda’s First Day Out” by Frazier Tharpe on GQ.com
Featured photo credit: Flo Ngala/GQ
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Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.
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