Kodak Black begs for a pardon to save him from prison, which pretty much encapsulates hip hop
By: Juwan J. Holmes
Tags: News, Donald Trump, Prison, Justice, Hip Hop

Original Story, Nov. 29, 2020: 23 year old Florida-originating rapper Kodak Black is currently bogged down in a federal prison in Thomson, Illinois. The reason for his latest imprisonment, and longest to date, is the result of a plea agreement he made in November 2019. Kodak — currently known, legally, as Bill K. Kapri — pled guilty to 2 counts of knowingly making a false and fictitious written statement to federal authorities, TMZ reported at the time, receiving just under four years. The statements were made after he was found with a firearm when passing through a U.S. Border & Customs checkpoint when reentering the United States through Canada.

Kodak is currently slated for release on November 3, 2022, but he’s obviously trying to find his way out of prison earlier. For a federal inmate, there’s really only one potential way that’s going to happen: receiving a pardon or clemency from the President.

Well, Kodak’s beginning to make his case. From Complex:

Kodak Black’s legal troubles can be hard to untangle. But he’s taking a chance on quickly unraveling his most pressing case: the federal weapons charge that has him currently imprisoned. Now, the rapper is reaching out to Donald Trump in the hopes that the president can issue him a pardon, freeing Kodak on his way out of office. Kodak vowed to give $1 million to charity in his first year as a free man, should he be pardoned. The rapper tweeted it out in his signature capitalized style, continuing a push to be freed by the lame duck president. “If The President Them Free Me , I’m Gonna Spend 1 million on Charity within The First Year I’m Out. That’s on Everything,” he wrote on Friday. … Kodak’s legal team reportedly reached out to Trump in hopes of getting the rapper’s sentence commuted back in September. In a petition obtained by TMZ, they argued that Kodak was being held in a facility that was more strict than his crimes called for, and added that they found his sentence to be particularly harsh.

The tweet has since been deleted.

Under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, President Donald Trump has the power to completely pardon Kodak or reduce his sentence via commutation — but that would only apply to his federal status.

That could free him from the federal prison system, but would not guarantee him safety from state-level prosecution. His 2016 rape charge remains unresolved, and prosecutors from Florence, South Carolina, can ask that his bond be revoked anytime. Even if he is let out of federal prison, they could haul him back behind bars whenever they choose.

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Additionally, the actual gun possession charges stemming from the federal incident still have to be resolved, and Kodak does not appear to have been sentenced in that case yet. If he were to only receive a reduced or altered sentence by way of commutation, it may not automatically cover that.

Even further, if he remains on parole or probation from any of his slew of previous convictions in the state of Florida from 2015 on, Kodak could be found in violation of those agreements with these acts, regardless of a pardon.

As noted, this is not the first time Kodak has tried to connect with the soon-to-be outgoing President. In addition to the legally formal request in September, XXL notes Kodak’s attempt to share ‘ideas’ with Trump in April:

Back in April, Kodak requested an in-person meeting with Trump. “Tell Donald Trump to pull-up on me, I got a brilliant idea,” Kodak wrote in an open letter directed at №45 posted on Instagram. “I thought of something back in Miami but I dismissed it [’cause] I be thinking I b crazy sometimes. This shit keep following me tho! This ain’t got nothing to do with my wrongful conviction, come see me I got my corona mask on.”

It’s not clear whether Kodak’s previously requested a reprieve through the Office of the Pardon Attorney, a Department of Justice (DOJ) advisory department, as has been custom since the 19th century — but the 45th President has already granted 28 pardons and 16 commutations, mostly of his own volition, without the office’s consult.

With less than eight weeks in office, Trump will surely be ramping up the pen to grant more requests, so Kodak is making his case known at a good time. Publicly guaranteeing a charity donation seems like a far-fetched way to convince a billionaire for help, but it would not be as far-fetched for him to receive some form of reprieve. As HipHopDX notes, “in the United States, it’s customary for lame-duck presidents to pardon — or expunge — non-violent offenders’ prison sentences in accordance with the Constitution.”

But the reasons why Kodak is a prime candidate for Trump-world are more vain. He’s a young, Black male rapper, and we know by now that Trump loves any opportunity to prove that he is, in his warped view, “the best President for African-Americans possibly since Lincoln.”

Being an alleged rapist (like the President) and once arrested on charges of child endangerment hasn’t deterred much of Kodak’s fan base, which includes over 9 million Instagram followers to date. Pleasing those fans would likely increase Trump’s popularity, which would be something he’d like — not just because he loves being the “good guy”, but because it would further improve on his approval rates among men of color for a potential 2024 Presidential run. That was his driving motivation (allegedly) to assist rapper A$AP Rocky, who faced imprisonment abroad last year.

But most key of all, Kodak is a brand, a public image, a token, an opportunity, an investment. In short, he’s a fellow celebrity. Being able to sit in the hyperbolic ‘room’ (huge as the imaginary place would have to be to include both Trump and Kodak) is the most vital part to Kodak’s case. In fact, it’s the only reason this is a potential option for him; any other Black male with priors in sexual assault, child endangerment, violation of parole agreements, and marijuana possession or trafficking, that was caught with a gun, would be lucky to dodge a decades-long imprisonment.

Trump doesn’t care to just help people if it isn’t a PR opportunity or a chance to wield the controlling influence over a young, budding money maker. This is both.

Celebrity-meet-politics influencing is the exact maneuver that got Trump the White House in the first place. It’s become as American as mass incarceration and apple pie. Kodak is looking like the latest bait dangled on the end of the hook.

The list of musicians, largely Black male rappers, to make their case to join forces with a rich, white man — whilst ignoring his clear bigotry and harm to the Black community — continues to expand.

American prisons are inhumane and cruel — illustrated by the fact that part of Kodak’s reasoning for seeking Presidential reprieve is that he faced abusive mistreatment at the hands of correctional staff. Kodak’s lawyer Bradford Cohen claims he has two pending litigation cases on behalf of the rapper. One is against the Bureau of Prisons; the other is seeking damages from the US Marshals Service, the law enforcement agency that worked with Miami-Dade Police to arrest the rapper, for taking a picture of him and sending it to a local reporter without permission.

With the rampant, unfettered spread of COVID-19 throughout American prisons acting as an un-juried death sentence; the inability for many jurisdictions to carry on jury trials; and the continual negative effectiveness of the billion-dollar prison industry; prisons should be freeing more and more people, now more than ever. There’s a reason America imprisons more people than anyone else in the world, and it’s not because the country that claims to be the “land of the free” is serving justice.

But Kodak is far from someone deserving to be at the front of the line to go free. The only reason he is: he’s a famous rapper.