The British rapper Pa Salieu has been sentenced to 33 months in prison, BBC News reports. The musician had been convicted of violent disorder and possessing a bottle as an offensive weapon, stemming from a 2018 incident. Salieu was cleared of a second count of violent disorder.
According to prosecutors, Salieu took part in a fight that occurred outside Coventry’s Club M after Salieu’s friend Fidel “AP” Glasgow was stabbed to death at age 21. During the fight, he apparently used a bottle and a tree branch to attack a 23-year-old man. Salieu—who is now 25 years old and was 21 at the time of the incident—was one of nine men charged in connection with the fight. No one has been charged with the murder of Glasgow, who was the grandson of the Specials’ Neville Staple.
Salieu was handed a suspended sentence in 2015 for possessing a knife, The Guardian notes. Years later, he began to focus on music, releasing his acclaimed debut, Send Them to Coventry, in 2020. He has since collaborated with FKA twigs, Ibeyi, Slowthai, Aitch, Mura Masa, Protoje, Backroad Gee, and others. He was also nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2021 BRITs.
Representatives for Pa Salieu offered no comment when reached by Pitchfork.
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