Brooklyn drill rapper Sheff G, who appeared alongside Donald Trump at a campaign rally last year, has been sentenced to five years in prison after admitting he funneled earnings from his music career into gang violence.
The 27-year-old artist, born Michael Williams, will also serve five years of supervised release as part of the sentence handed down on Wednesday. He accepted the prison term in a plea deal earlier this year, pleading guilty to two counts of attempted murder and a conspiracy charge.
Sheff G, whose tracks and videos rack up millions of streams and views, was previously convicted of second-degree gun possession when he was indicted, along with 31 other alleged gang members, including musical collaborator and fellow rapper Sleepy Hallow, for a multitude of gang conspiracy charges.
“This defendant had talent and opportunity, but chose to use them to fuel violence instead of building a better future,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said after the sentencing.
The allegations against Williams had already become public when he appeared onstage with Trump at a May 2024 rally in the Bronx.
According to an Associated Press report at the time, toward the end of his speech in the Bronx, Trump asked his supporters, “Does everybody know Sheff G? Where is Sheff G?” before also introducing Sleepy Hallow.
“President Trump, my man,” Sheff G said as Trump brought him onstage.
“One thing I want to say: They are always going to whisper your accomplishments and shout your failures. Trump is going to shout the wins for all of us.”
Sleepy Hallow reportedly then used Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.”
Trump’s embrace of rappers with criminal records has been regarded as a strategy in which he leans on entertainers rather than political leaders to court Black voters. He has even suggested his own indictments and mugshot have boosted his appeal by casting him as a fellow target of an unjust system, a tactic described as “unbelievably racist”.
U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, the Bronx Democrat, has previously condemned Trump’s desire to appear with people accused of violent crimes as a way to court Black voters, calling it offensive.
“The conflation of communities of color with criminality is a racist trope that Donald Trump repeats,” Torres said.
The Trump campaign was asked at the time whether the president was aware of the charges and whether it was Trump who sought the rappers’ support or the other way around.
“As Sheff G said: ‘They always whisper your accomplishments and shout your failures.’” Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded.
Williams’ sentence could be halved to two and a half years “because of time already served and the possibility of good behaviour”.
The potential early release could be made possible in part by the community service work Williams performed while out on bail.
Most notably, earlier this year, Williams attended the United Nations’ Barbados Consulate, where he spoke out against gun violence both locally and in the Caribbean.
