Beanie Sigel was shot earlier this morning (Dec. 5) outside of his home in Pleasantville, N.J. The "Feel It in the Air" rapper suffered a gunshot wound to the back and was rushed to a nearby hospital in critical condition, NBC Philadelphia 10 reports. Sigel, whose real name is Dwight Grant, is reportedly still in surgery.
The "altercation" occurred around 10 a.m. after Sigel dropped his children off at school. Sigel's attorney believes the rapper was not intended as a target. One other man was injured.
Sigel was released from prison in August, having spent two years behind bars for tax evasion. He reportedly owed $728,000 in back taxes. His probation for that incident ends tomorrow.
The rapper was arrested in 2012 after police pulled him and a friend over and found codeine syrup, prescription pills and a loaded handgun in the vehicle. Both men were felons and therefore not allowed to possess a loaded firearm. Police also found $4,500 that Sigel claimed he won.
Sigel use to be in Jay-Z's good graces and was even signed to Hova's Roc-A-Fella Records before the two had a falling out, Consequence of Sound reports. He was a chart-topping act in the early 2000s with albums like The Truth in 2000, The Reason in 2001 and The B. Coming in 2005. His last album, This Time, came out in 2012.
"For his longtime fans, then, This Time is poignant, not least of all because Beanie still sounds like himself: one of the hardest-hitting, soulful, and eloquent rappers of the last 15 years," Pitchfork wrote about the album. "The production surrounding him on This Time isn't just cheap-sounding, it's unimaginative, rote and generic, like Beanie prepared his verses ahead of time and then spent an afternoon matching them to random instrumentals sitting on his hard drive."
