Bobby Shmurda, ‘Hot Boy,’ ‘Shmoney Dance’ artist, released from prison

Bobby Shmurda has been released from prison.

Shmurda, whose real name is Ackquille Pollard, was conditionally released from Clinton Correctional Facility in New York around 8:30 a.m. EST Tuesday, according to New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, and will be under community supervision until his sentence is completed on Feb. 23, 2026.

According to an interview with Billboard published Monday, Shmurda has secured a ride home from fellow rapper Quavo.

The Migos member, whose real name is Quavious Keyate Marshall, revealed he’ll be picking up Shmurda from prison, following his release on Tuesday.

“I’m going to get my guy,” said Quavo. “I’m personally gonna go pick up Bobby Shmurda. I’m bout to go get him. I’m gonna let him show you how I’m gonna pick him up, yessir.”

And according to Quavo, the viral hip-hop sensation is already looking forward to his return to music.

“It’s gonna be big,” he said.

In 2016, Shmurda, a rapper once on the rise thanks to a viral 2014 music video that popularized the “Shmoney dance,” was sentenced to seven years in prison after a guilty plea on charges he conspired with a violent drug gang (a plea he claimed he was railroaded into taking). According to New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, he is set for a conditional release from prison on Tuesday.

Shmurda thanked his fans “for remaining loyal” throughout his sentence in a message posted on his Instagram Story Monday.

“I love you all and look forward to seeing you all soon,” he added. The rapper also posted a scene from the movie “King of New York” on Instagram Monday and wrote, “How the (expletive) y’all forget about me”

The 26-year-old Shmurda is best known for “Hot Boy,” a gritty hit song with rhymes about gunplay. He and Chad “Rowdy Rebel” Marshall — another hip-hop artist who also pleaded guilty in the same case — gained notoriety with their performance in the “Shmoney Dance” video, which has about 29 million YouTube views as of Monday.

Authorities arrested Shmurda in late 2014 after he left a recording studio near Radio City Music Hall, only days after he performed “Hot Boy” for a national television audience on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Investigators found two handguns and a small amount of crack cocaine in a car in which he was riding, authorities said.

An indictment charged Shmurda and more than 15 defendants with a variety of crimes including murder, attempted murder, assault and drug dealing. Shootings by the gang left one rival dead, injured an innocent bystander sitting on a folding chair outside a Brooklyn home and caused pandemonium outside a nightclub in Miami Beach, Florida, authorities said.

The court papers alleged that Shmurda once fired a gun toward a crowd of people outside a barbershop in Brooklyn. They also said he was present during a 2015 confrontation between rival drug gangs outside a Brooklyn courthouse where shots were fired.

Contributing: Tom Hays, Associated Press

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