In his fight for prison reform, Pusha T spotlights the 'domino effect' of mass incarceration
As hip-hop figures take center stage in the fight for criminal justice reform, rapper Pusha T is setting his sights on helping those who are already behind bars, with dim hopes of coming home.
The musician, who is known for hits like “If You Know You Know” and “Good Goodbye,” has released a new single, "Coming Home," in collaboration with Lauryn Hill, to bring attention to the plight of families impacted by the absence of loved ones due to mass incarceration.
The song’s release last week coincided with the launch of the rapper’s "Third Strike Coming Home Campaign," in partnership with Brittany K. Barnett’s Buried Alive Project and MiAngel Cody’s The Decarceration Collective. The initiative seeks to support incarcerated men and women who are serving life sentences as a result of various state and federal tough-on-crime bills passed decades ago.
These laws introduced mandatory minimum sentencing -- often 25 years to life -- for repeat offenses that often included drug convictions.
"Talking without action is not going to do it for me, and it's not going to get anybody home," Pusha T, whose given name is Terrence Thornton, told ABC News. "Everybody knows it's wrong at this point...we have to get these people home."
The musician’s new campaign aims to raise funds to get legal support for those serving life sentences. It also hopes to help them reenter society and get them “basic essentials to step back into the world,” he said. The federal three strikes rule was part of the now-controversial 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Initially written by then-Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and signed into law by President Bill Clinton, it was created to address a rise in violent crimes.
In part, the law helped pay for new federal prisons if states agreed to force offenders to serve 85% of their sentence, as opposed to allowing them out early on parole.
Amid more recent calls for criminal justice reform, politicians, including Biden, have come under fire for their roles in passing tough-on-crime legislation.
"This is ruining the family structure,” Pusha T said, calling that breakdown “a domino effect.”
"Everyone involved in making those laws and passing those laws has damn near expressed regret and wrongdoing…how could we not go back and at least fix everything?" he added.
The U.S. “war on drugs” in the ‘80s and ‘90s also resulted in mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses that sometimes resulted in life sentences for first-time offenders.
One of those offenders was Tony Lewis Sr., who has been serving a sentence of life without parole in a Maryland federal prison since 1989 for his involvement in a Washington, D.C., drug ring in the '80s. Lewis was 26 at the time of his sentencing, and is now 56 years old.
"Before Obama, we had Eric B. or Tony Lewis out in D.C. The 80's kingpins, gotta free them. All these faces, they ain't believe in. If no child's left, then how can we leave them?” Pusha T raps in “Coming Home.”
The rapper met Lewis Sr.'s son, Tony Lewis Jr., a Washington, D.C., activist and re-entry expert for people getting out of prison, at a concert a few years ago. The younger Lewis, who is now 39, was only 9 years old when his father went to prison, and told ABC News that his life sentence “set forth a series of events where my mother started to battle severe mental illness and economically our situation changed.
"The trauma and the stress and living in a community where drugs and violence are prevalent -- I was able to navigate through that but many of my peers were not,” he said.
Pusha T built a partnership with Lewis Jr. and got him involved with his work with My Brother's Keeper -- an initiative launched by President Obama in 2012 to address the opportunity gap for young men of color.
The rapper said that Lewis' story, which is documented in his book “Slugg: A Boy's Life in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” was “always extremely special to me” and one of the inspirations behind "Coming Home.”
"We never speak in terms of fathers, grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers," the rapper said. "We never speak in a family sense and I think everyone seems more focused on stats and numbers. If people just thought about it and spoke about it more in a family sense maybe the sensitivity and the compassion would come back to the issue."
Lewis Jr., who had no idea that his father would be mentioned in Pusha T’s song, told ABC News that hearing it for the first time "brought tears to my eyes."
Although his father has not had the chance to listen to it yet, Lewis said that he sent him the lyrics and he was "completely blown away. He was floored."
Legendary singer and rapper Lauryn Hill, who had not released new music or granted a collaboration in years, agreed to be featured on the track, a surreal feeling for both Lewis and Pusha T.
"It was a milestone in my career to have a record with [Lauryn Hill], and that’s just it," he said. "It wasn’t even on my bucket list because it was such a dream."
