Slick Rick’s record
label, Island/Def Jam Music Group, recently hired a Washington lobbyist to argue
the rapper’s case to the White House and to politicians. However, those
efforts have been “temporarily suspended” while other plans are considered
to try to free the rapper from a Florida jail.
Slick Rick has
been held in a detention center in Florida since June. Post 9/11, Immigration
and Naturalization Services have been cracking down on the level of migration
to the US, as well as the existing non-citizens living in the States.
"I have a
wife, kids, a whole family, real estate, a rap career – Slick Rick,"
Rick told AllHipHop.com. "It’s strange that they open such a heavy watch
[against me]. I can’t even fight the case from the street, you know at
this point. We seeing what we can do about that too."
The England born
rapper was ordered to leave the US because he spent five years, from 1991 to
1996, in prison for shooting his cousin.
"I feel like
if this case was judged by the public, this would be an open and shut case,
because my crime was in 1990. I took the law into my own hands. I shouldn’t
have, but I served my time. Even the public as a whole has to see that this
is an injustice. Like I said, there’s other cases that’s worse than
this."