In December 2022, British rapper Pa Salieu was sentenced to 33 months in prison after being convicted of violent disorder and possessing a bottle as an offensive weapon, stemming from a 2018 incident. Now, after serving some 21 months of that sentence, Salieu has been released, his representative confirmed to Pitchfork. The musician also posted on social media, “I been gone for a while but I still made it back to you 👑.”
According to prosecutors, Salieu got into a fight outside of Coventry’s Club M after his friend, Fidel “AP” Glasgow, the grandson of the Specials’ Neville Staple, was stabbed to death at age 21. During the fight, Salieu attacked a man, 23, with a bottle and a tree branch. Salieu was one of 11 men jailed in connection with the fight, but no one has been charged with Glasgow’s murder. Salieu was 21 years old at the time of the fight and 25 when he was sentenced to prison. Back in 2015, Salieu was also handed a suspended sentence for possessing a knife.
Salieu released his standout debut, Send Them to Coventry, in 2020 and followed it with the Afrikan Rebel EP in 2021. He went on to collaborate with FKA twigs, Ibeyi, Aitch, Mura Masa, and others in the years afterward, and was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2021 BRITs. Salieu also made his U.S. TV debut with a performance of “Frontline” on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that same year.
Read about Pa Salieu’s guest verse on FKA twigs’ “Honda” in “The 43 Best Rap Songs of 2022.”
