AR-AB was one of the most respected battle rappers in Philly
before he was indicted for drug trafficking and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
The crazy thing about his whole story
is how police used his own lyrics and interviews to put him behind bars.
Let’s get into the come-up and career of AR-AB, the King of Philly.
AR-AB grew up in North Philadelphia, one of the worst areas in the city.
His upbringing was pretty different from most rappers
since he grew up in a religious household with strict parents.
But he was still surrounded by crime and poverty and quickly adapted to his environment.
Around 14 or 15, he started getting sucked into the streets
and nothing his parents could do could stop him from going down the wrong path.
He left home at 16
because he was sick of all the rules he had to follow while living under his parent’s roof.
He left regular school and switched to a jobs program and got his plumber’s license,
which allowed him to start working at just 16.
At first, he was working a minimum wage job,
barely bringing in $200 a week.
But one of his younger cousins was already in the streets selling drugs.
He offered Ar-Ab $500 to sell weed for him a couple days a week,
which was twice as much than he was making as a plumber.
So he left his plumbing job and jumped headfirst into the dope game,
leveling up from weed to crack.
His brother saw him making moves and followed suit.
They teamed up and started running the block together.
But they also got in trouble with the law and spent the next few years in and out of jail.
But that aint stop his hustle
and he quickly became one of the biggest drug dealers in North Philly.
At its peak, his block was making around 10 bands a day.
He was always a big dude, so at 17 he was willing to fight anyone,
even the older dudes in the neighborhood.
Plus, he had younger cousins and friends who was shooters, so he knew he was good.
He was cool with the dude who originally ran the block, so he was always able to do his thing.
But one day that guy got killed, leaving a void in the neighborhood.
AR-Ab quickly filled that void, but he brought in a plug from a different hood.
The plug had access to all the right products.
But he aint want to be in the game anymore cause his pops and his brother had just got killed.
So, AR-Ab took over his operation and brought it into his own hood.
But this caused tension with other dudes in his hood because he brought in an outsider.
This led to a bloody war,
which landed AR-Ab in jail for violent crimes, not just drugs.
But by 18 or 19, he already had 5 whips, a two-bedroom house,
and was able to pay his mama’s bills.
So, to him, all the money he was making was worth the brief stints in jail.
But along the way,
he started taking an interest in music and got involved in battle rap.
This attracted the attention of one of the biggest rappers in Philly, Cassidy,
who invited Ar-Ab to join his label Larsiny Family.
But before his career really took off,
both rappers got involved in a murder case that almost cost them their freedom.
On April 15th, 2005,
three men including Cassidy
allegedly fired at three other dudes with pistols and an AK-47
during an argument in the West Oak Lane hood of Philly.
One of the men, Desmond Hawkins was shot in the back and died from his injuries.
Hawkin’s two friends also got shot but survived.
A few weeks later, a warrant was issued for Cassidy’s arrest
on charges of murder, attempted murder, reckless endangerment, aggravated assault,
conspiracy, and weapons possession.
AR-Ab was also identified as one of the men who assisted Cassidy in the shooting
and got arrested as an accomplice.
According to Ar-Ab, some of his own homies snitched on him
and said that he and Cassidy was involved in the shooting.
Cassidy was facing life in prison and the possibility of the death penalty.
AR-Ab was facing a similar sentence.
So, it was looking all bad for them.
But at the last minute,
the case took a turn when the primary witness withdrew his confession.
They still tried to charge Cassidy with third-degree murder,
but they eventually dropped it down to involuntary manslaughter,
along with attempted murder and weapons charges.
So, he got only sentenced for 11 to 23 months
with time served and was released on March 2nd, 2006.
Ar-Ab spent about 2 years fighting the case but was eventually found not guilty.
Once they were both cleared of the charges they got right back to the music grind.
Ar-Ab started appearing as a featured artist on Cassidy’s mixtapes throughout 2007,
including 07-07-07 (Happy Birthday) and Put Ya L in the Sky.
The following year, he dropped his own debut mixtape Welcome to the Trap Street,
which helped build a buzz in the city.
The same year, he and Cassidy appeared on the Cocaine City street DVD,
where they collaborated with a young French Montana on the song City of Dreams.
Then he continued to capitalize off his buzz and dropped back-to-back mixtapes
I See Dead People and Allegheny AB.
In 2010 he founded the Original Block Hustlaz,
a rap group and record label along with fellow rapper Dark Lo.
The crew was around for a few years in the streets already.
But he decided to rebrand it as a music group and team up with his younger brother Lik Moss,
who was also a rapper.
Some of the founding members of OBH
snitched on AR-Ab and Cassidy in the Desmond Hawkins case
and now most of them are serving life in prison on separate murder charges.
So, AR-Ab was learning to take his street mentality and apply it to the music.
But he still had one foot in and one foot out of the drug game.
Around this time, he also started beefing with his former mentor, Cassidy,
claiming that the only reason Cas put him on,
was because he was being extorted and needed protection.
They patched it up years later but, in the meantime, he did his own thing.
Even though he was making waves in the music industry,
he was still a hustler at heart and continued making moves in the streets.
That later lead him to getting shot multiple times before ending up in prison on a drug charge.
In 2011, AR-Ab got shot a total of 13 times on two separate occasions.
The first time he got shot three times and made a quick recovery.
But a few months later he got shot again and was hit a total of 10 times.
He was selling someone some crack in the Kensington neighborhood.
He made the drop, then got back in the car with his cousin
and a dude who plugged him with the buyer.
Ab was driving but he was drinking Ciroq and high off Percs and lean,
so he wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings as much as he should have been.
As they was driving, someone pulled up alongside the car and started letting off shots.
At first, he thought it was the dude in the backseat who pulled the trigger.
But then he looked over and realized that it was someone in another vehicle next to him.
He looked down and realized he got hit, so he drove himself to the hospital.
He was hit 10 times and tweeted a picture from his hospital bed with the caption
“10 shots couldn't stop me!!!”.
He got shot twice in the stomach, twice in the hand, five times in the butt,
and once in the thigh.
What’s crazy is, he did so much dirt just in the past few months,
that he ain’t even know who shot him.
He eventually made a full recovery but had to relearn how to walk.
After the shooting, he caught a couple lucky breaks that helped further his career.
While he was in the hospital, legendary producer Swizz Beats
reached out to him and wanted to work.
They collab’d on the track The Bottom in 2012.
He also dropped his fifth mixtape Who Harder Than Me 2 later that year,
which featured production from Swizz and guest appearances from another Philly legend, Freeway.
Around the same time, Ar-Ab also attracted Birdman’s attention,
who wanted to sign him to Cash Money.
But the deal wasn’t exactly what he wanted, so he turned it down.
That same year, Ar-Ab lost his grandmother and then his mother the following month.
He described this as one of the most traumatic moments of his life
and it led him further down the wrong path.
At the time, he was facing multiple charges for drugs and guns
after getting involved in a huge drug trafficking ring a few years before.
On April 13th, 2013, he tweeted about how his past crimes caught up to him.
A few days later
his videographer confirmed that Ar-Ab was turning himself into authorities.
He was booked for a charge related to selling crack cocaine,
which carried up to a three-year sentence.
But he was able to get the sentence reduced to 18 months, after agreeing to participate in a boot camp program.
He was then paroled in November 2014.
After he got out,
he got right back to making music and dropped a mixtape called Mud Musik 2,
followed by Who Harder Than Me 3.
But instead of linking up with other rappers in his city,
Ab got into a public beef with one of the biggest artists in the city, Meek Mill.
The beef actually started with Drake,
who named dropped Ar-Ab on the Meek Mill diss track back to back, where he rapped
“I drove here in the Wraith playin' AR-Ab”.
Ab later addressed the bar in an interview with DJ Vlad, saying he wasn’t signed to OVO,
but he was disappointed in Meek’s response track.
After hearing the interview, Meek went on stage at a performance in Camden, New Jersey,
and said: “F*** AR-Ab” for siding with Drake over him.
F*** AR-AB
Ar-Ab clapped back with his own version of Back to Back where he dissed Meek
and threatened to send his shooters.
Meek’s cousin Omelly then took shots at Ar-Ab with his own Back to Back Freestyle.
Ab responded by going on Vlad TV again and claimed Meek was scared to diss him
and that Omelly was the softest out of all of the Dream chasers.
Allegedly, there was also confrontations behind the scenes that resulted in violence.
But Ab and Meek eventually squashed their beef in January 2016
after hopping on the phone and talking it out like men.
Ar-Ab continued to grind and dropped back to back mixtapes throughout 2017
called Protocol Volume 1-4.
But despite his obvious lyrical talent,
AR-Ab just couldn’t escape the temptations of the streets
and ended up getting caught up in a major indictment that led to a 45-year sentence.
In October 2018,
Ar-Ab and 8 other men were arrested and accused
of running a massive drug trafficking ring throughout North Philly.
His charges included conspiracy, possession, and distribution of cocaine, crack,
methamphetamine, and heroin.
He was accused of turning his record label OBH into a large-scale drug ring
and obtaining several high-end properties throughout Philadelphia to protect the supply.
They also accused him of ordering the murder of a competitor in 2017
but did not actually charge him with that crime.
During the trial, prosecutors used his own lyrics and posts on social media
to prove that he not only committed the crimes but bragged about them frequently.
After his arrest, many fans went back and peeped
how often Ar-Ab talked about his activities in interviews and on social media.
Many assumed his drug-dealing days were over since he was so open about his crimes.
But it looks like he just thought he was untouchable and couldn’t help but brag about his involvement.
On November 19th, 2019,
Ar-Ab was found guilty of multiple counts of conspiracy and distribution of crack cocaine,
heroin, and methamphetamine in federal court.
About 18 months later he was officially sentenced to 45 years in prison
and began his sentence at Allenwood Penitentiary in White Deer, Pennsylvania.
Ar-Ab is another example of when being too real can go wrong.
He had a lot of lyrical ability and could have taken over the rap game
if he put his mind to it.
But he couldn’t escape the temptations of the drug game
and it ended up costing him his freedom.