Geto Boys’ Bushwick Bill Facing Deportation

When Vh1's Hip Hop Honors paid tribute to Rap-A-Lot Records and its storied founder J. Prince in June, Geto Boys rapper Bushwick Bill was notably absent from the event. Rumors began to swirl that Bill was facing some sort of odd legal trouble and now it's been confirmed that some of those whispers are at least partially true. Bushwick Bill, real name Richard Shaw, is facing potential deportation after being seized by U.S. immigration officials.

While details on specific charges are scarce, it is being widely reported that the rapper appeared at Atlanta Immigration Court on July 15 for an initial deportation hearing. Bill was born in Jamaica in 1966, but was raised in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood before setting up camp in Houston during the '80s.

The Geto Boys were, of course, a quintessential Houston hip-hop group. They pioneered a gritty, Southern version of gangsta rap and Bill often served as an oddball comic foil to his groupmates Scarface and Willie D. He's most known for accidentally shooting himself in the eye during a fight with a girlfriend. Recently, Bill has had a relatively large about-face. He dropped a gospel-based record called 'The Testimony of Redemption' last year and was apparently ordained as a minister.