Inmates post rap video filmed on phone in cell

TWO PRISONERS filmed themselves making a rap video which they then managed to post online from behind bars. Demehl Thomas and Moysha Shepherd recorded the duet earlier this month to promote an album, which friends are thought to have arranged to be released on iTunes.

Thomas, 25, who uses the stage name Remtrex, is serving time for aggravated burglary, while Shepherd, also 25, was sentenced to four years and nine months for his role as getaway driver in the armed ambush of a prison van three years ago.

Both are serving their sentences at Birmingham Prison, where the footage was shot in a cell on a cellphone and uploaded to YouTube.

The pair wore matching black vests and tracksuit bottoms for their performance in B-wing at the prison, which is privately run by security firm G4S.

At one point during the expletive-laden song, Thomas boasts of making “giant stacks” of drugs and stabbing rivals in the neck. He also describes women as “hoes”.

One line says: “I want a mansion and I want my kids to live good. I don’t want to get locked up or killed in the hood.”

Shepherd raps under the monicker Big Stygs, inspired by mystery racing driver The Stig on BBC show Top Gear. He says: “I can show you (what) damage is. Heads bust and turned into cabbages.”

Another phone appears to be charging in the background of the video, which is for the album’s title track, Goonlyfe.

The footage has been viewed more than 10 000 times.

It is believed Thomas completed the album after being released on licence earlier this year. He was returned to prison in June after breaching the terms of his release.

An insider said the inmates, who are not thought to share a cell, were “sticking two fingers up to the prison regime”, adding: “It’s a disgrace that crooks like these have access to cellphones in prison and don’t give a damn who finds out.”

Gavin Williamson, Tory MP for South Staffordshire, said the fact the prisoners managed to film and release the video was “utterly obscene”, adding: “This activity causes massive amounts of distress to the victims of crime.

“Prisons need more powers to crack down on this sort of behaviour. Often prisoners are hiding SIM cards on their person and the authorities have no powers to search them.”

Labour MP Jenny Chapman, prisons spokeswoman, said the video was a step up from previous reports of inmates posting on Facebook and even joining dating sites.

Thomas was jailed over a burglary in April 2011 and is due to be released in June 2018. Shepherd was sentenced in December 2013 for his role in springing gangster John Anslow from a prison van in Worcestershire the previous year.

Thomas plugged the album on Twitter from prison, with a short video clip in which he says: “Goonlyfe out right now, iTunes. You get me? Right now. I’m locked up. So, if you’re listening right now you’d better go and buy Goonlyfe.”

Unsigned artists can sell their work on iTunes by signing up with a music distribution service. Prison officials were tipped off about the footage last week and raided the pair’s cells, confiscating a charger. The cellphones were not found.

On Monday, Thomas’s R126 album was at No 29 in the rap and hip-hop chart on iTunes, where it had attracted more than 20 reviews and had an average five-star rating. HMP Birmingham director Pete Small said an internal investigation had been launched over the video.

“Like every other prison in the country, it is a constant challenge to detect and seize contraband items such as cellphones,” he added. – Daily Mail

The inmates were ‘sticking two fingers up to the prison regime’