Wow, George W. Bush is planning to go out with a bang... It has been heard that among his list of presidential pardons – {released publicly yesterday} -- the 43rd President of the United States commuted the sentence of rapper/producer John Forte, who has been in prison for the past few years for transporting drugs. You might remember Forte from being associated with the fugees. Well Forte whose real name is John Edward Forte, was arrested at Newark International Airport in 2000 for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to distribute. Police discovered the Fugees-cohort with two briefcases filled with liquid cocaine, which they estimated were worth $1.4 million.
The rapper/producer, who co-wrote two songs on the Fugee's 1996 breakthrough, 'The Score' and was also signed to Columbia Records at the time, was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 14 years and was serving time in Fort Dix, New Jersey. Forte quotes "I allowed elements to be near me -- not drugs but people," he told 'Rolling Stone' in 2002. "That's what caught me up. I was too accessible. I was too here, I was too there. The price the government wants me to pay for that is fourteen years." Luckily for Forte, he will be released December 22 after serving just over seven years. According to published reports, he must serve five years of supervised probation.A native of the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, but after a chance meeting with Lauryn Hill led him to join The Fugees' Refugee Camp Crew, and there so history was made. Well , I just hope that that little hiatus gave him some wisdom to not be as volatile as in the past, it's funny that Forte and my brother Derek will both be released from prison on the same day. I hope they also release the part of the past that put them there and is not worth ever looking back on ..........Good luck to them both! they are both my brothers in Gods eyes.
