Cultish MC Max B, currently incarcerated, has had his conviction upheld.

The rapper was sentenced to 75 years in 2009 on charges relating to a robbery at a Holiday Inn that left a man dead. Despite not having been present at the scene, the rapper was convicted of murder, kidnapping, aggravated assault and armed robbery for his role in the incident. AllHipHop report that a New Jersey court has now upheld his conviction, leaving Max with a thirty year wait until he will be eligible for parole. The long stretch isn’t the rapper’s first: he had previously spent 1997-2005 in jail on robbery charges.

The one-time Dipset affiliate built up substantial cult cachet in the latter half of the Noughties. The rapper shared studio space with Cam’ron and Jim Jones, and enjoyed a raised profile as part of the latter’s ill-fated ByrdGang collective (not to mention vicarious acclaim as one of Jones’ principal ghostwriters). After a series of impressive mixtapes (2006’s Million Dollar Baby Radio and 2009’s Quarantine among them). His first full-length proper was 2011’s Vigilante Season: released after he’d begun his sentence, it provided a new entry-point for his distinctive sing-song cadence and street-hardened imagery.

You can listen to this year’s ‘Hold On’, recorded from prison down a phone line, below.