Bobby Shmurda Released From Prison 10 Months Early

Bobby Shmurda is free. TMZ reports the rapper was released from prison just before 8:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, about 10 months earlier than expected. Shmurda will now reportedly be under parole supervision for the next five years until Feb. 23, 2026.

Shmurda, whose real name is Ackquille Jean Pollard, was eligible for early release after New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility’s Time Allowance Committee reviewed his behavior and participation in prison programs. The 26-year-old had been in prison since December 2014 on illegal firearm and conspiracy charges, handed down as part of a major police takedown of his neighborhood crew, GS9. After initially being sentenced to six to seven years, he agreed to a plea deal in September 2016 to conspiracy to possess weapons and possession of a weapon, getting credit for around two years of time served before his sentencing.

THere’s no word on if Quavo picked up Shmurda from prison, as was previously reported by Billboard. The Migos member revealed Monday that he would be giving Shmurda a ride home on Tuesday. “I’m going to get my guy,” Quavo said. “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.”

Shmurda thanked his fans for “remaining loyal” throughout his sentence in a message posted to his Instagram Story on Monday. “I love you all and look forward to seeing you all soon,” he said. The rapper also posted a scene from the movie King of New York on Instagram Monday and wrote, “How the f— y’all forget about me.”

Shmurda is best known for “Hot Boy,” his gritty hit song with rhymes about gunplay. He and Chad “Rowdy Rebel” Marshall — another hip-hop artist who pleaded guilty in the same case — gained notoriety with their “Shmoney Dance” video.

After he was arrested in 2014, leaving a recording studio near Radio City Music Hall, an indictment charged him and more than 15 defendants with various 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 chaos outside a nightclub in Miami Beach, Florida, authorities said. Court papers also alleged the 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 gangs outside a courthouse where shots were fired.

Curiosity has mounted about Shmurda’s potential return to music, thanks to a #FreeBobby campaign on social media, and fans wonder what’s next for the rapper. The Brooklyn native said he doesn’t want to return to the burrow because he’s been through too much there. “I’ll in New York to handle business or do a show, but I don’t want nothing to do with New York,” he told NPR in an interview recorded in 2018.