Bobby Shmurda, real name Ackquille Pollard, still languishes in jail awaiting trial for a litany of charges relating to his connection to the GS9 crew and their alleged crimes. He has not stayed out of the public eye since then, releasing a few new songs and rapping a few verses via a jailhouse phone. The "Hot Ni*ga" rapper has still remained active with the media, calling into radio stations with his limited phone calls, remaining steadfast in his belief that he is innocent on all accounts. He recently was the subject of a profile by New York Magazine, who spoke to Pollard over a video conference call line normally reserved for lawyers and their clients.
The profile chronicles Shmurda's childhood and his upbringing in Flatbush, where Pollard had multiple run ins with the law on charges varying from marijuana possession to gun possession, but that was tossed out in court after the firearm was found to be not working.
His connection to the GS9 got him tangled up in neighborhood gang-related violence against a rival crew named the BMWs (Brooklyn's Most Wanted) that ended up in several murders and attempted murders. When Pollard was 16, a member of the BMWs killed his friend Tyrief Gary at a block party. The murder still has an impact on Shmurda today.
Pollard maintains his innocence of the charges of conspiracy, gun possession, reckless endangerment and possession of drug paraphernalia. "I'll explain it to all of them. I'm just a young black kid coming from a nasty neighborhood. I made it out, and a lot of people don't want to see that."
The $2 million bail has been a very contentious part of this case as Shmurda points out and blames the severity of the charges on where he lives, rather than who he is.
"It was so crazy with the police," he says. "There's people with ten murders that got $500,000 bail, and I'm not even on an attempted murder."
"I'm guilty for where I live. I was never part of no gang. That's just because of the neighborhood," Pollard says, then hedges in a way that shows how elastic the term has become. "You don't even have to be in the gang to be in the gang. You can probably just grow up in the neighborhood, you part of the gang already."
Epic Records, Shmurda's label has not come to bail the rapper out and he contends if he was with a less corporate label, he would be a free man right now.
"Epic is telling me it's not because of them, it's 'cause of Sony," Epic's parent company, he says. "But I don't know. I felt like if I'd have signed with Rick Ross or signed to 50 Cent, they'd have come and got me. They'd understand me more."
The police believe they have their man in Shmurda.
"There is no question that Ackquille Pollard is the driving force behind the GS9 gang," prosecutor Nigel Farinha said at the December 18 arraignment, "and the organizing figure within this conspiracy."
The trial will be begin on June 25, so we will know which side is correct then.
