Lil Boosie was on the rise when he was sent away to prison in 2009, but despite five years locked away from society the Louisiana rapper could see an immediate boom in his career.
The Baton Rouge native, whose real name is Torrence Hatch, was released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary on Wednesday night after doing five years for a third-offense marijuana charge.
Things looked bleak for Lil Boosie while he was locked away. Despite a rapidly rising career beforehand, Boosie saw his name drop off when he went behind bars. An album released during his sentence sold poorly without the rapper available to help promote it.
“[Boosie] toured four to five days out of the week,” manager Courtney Scott said in 2011. “That’s where it impacts his family this most.”
But since Lil Boosie went into jail, a number of other big-name rappers showed that prison didn’t mean a death sentence to their careers. For a stretch in 2011, a host of rappers were incarcerated including Lil Boosie, Lil Wayne, TI, and Gucci Mane. Since being released, all of the other rappers have been able to find commercial success , and even raised their profile post-prison.
Lil Boosie is wasting no time in getting his career started again. He has a press conference with Atlantic Records scheduled for March 10, and already appeared on a new track featuring fellow Trill Entertainment performer Webbie, entitled “Show the World.” The song is available to stream through Vibe ‘s website.
Vibe has also been preparing fans for Lil Boosie to return to the rap game, putting together a list of the rapper’s top 10 tracks.
“The reason people are clamoring to see Boosie released from jail is because he’s an incredible rapper, plain and simple,” writes Vibe’s Max Weinstein.
Lil Boosie was originally slated for prison release in May, but was granted an earlier release.
