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As viewers found out on this week's , Scrapp DeLeon, who pled guilty for marijuana trafficking, will serve five years in prison and 15 years on probation under the condition that he pay a $100,000 fine. Most people still don't know, however, the impact Scrapp's time away has had on him and his family.
In an exclusive interview with VH1, Scrapp's brother, SAS, dishes out the details of what a life without his manager, brother and best friend looks like.
With regards to SAS's music career, Scrapp's time in prison creates new obstacles, as Scrapp was his manager, but the life-changing event also acts as an inspiration for his next mix tape, "If I Don't Lead, Who Will?"
SAS explains, "[My mix tape is] about my trials and tribulations. About how my brother is no longer with us. You know he passed away in 2009. Scrapp DeLeon is no longer with us. He’s actually doing some jail time right now so it’s like everybody is looking at me to lead, so that’s where the title come from. Like, if I don’t lead, who gon’ do it? Who else gon’ do it?"
A big part of this role is acting as a father figure to Scrapp's son, King. King, too young to understand why Scrapp left for an extended period of time, constantly asks SAS when his dad is coming home from work. SAS says, "I tell him all the time, 'you know your daddy love you. You know he can’t wait to see you,' just so he don’t feel like it’s a choice that Scrapp made to be away. I don’t want my nephew to ever feel like that or think like that. I think that growing up, I felt like that about my pops at one point in time, like, damn why he ain’t around?" He admits that leading a family without Scrapp is a challenge, but declares that it's a "small thing to a giant."
While SAS insists he is making it by without his brother, he says the whole situation takes him back to 2012 when the two of them were arrested. "We was separated from each other for about a year," SAS recalls. "[We] couldn’t see each other. We were both in jail. Even when we got out of jail we [were] both on house arrest. Couldn’t see each other, couldn’t talk to each other. That was part of our bond. It['s] like now we['re] going through it all over again. I’m not in jail, but he is."
We spoke to Scrapp and SAS's mother about their arrest and her role in it in the interview below:
This time, the two can and do speak everyday, but SAS (as well as their entire family) still cannot visit Scrapp. SAS explains that people could visit Scrapp while he was in prison in Taliaferro -- where he was sentenced -- but since he was transferred, everyone has been waiting to get approved for visitation. Part of the problem is that a few weeks after they submitted paperwork to get on the visitors list for the first prison Scrapp transferred to, they transferred him again to what SAS notes as his "permanent camp," Macon State Prison, where everyone had to resubmit their paperwork.
As far as SAS knows, all that is required for approval is a background check. He says their family resubmitted their paperwork approximately three weeks prior to this interview and has had yet to hear back from the prison. SAS speculates, "I don’t know if we’re at the bottom of the list or what it is, but it’s taking quite a long time."
And when SAS says "family," he means it in the strictest sense of the word. "In this prison that [Scrapp]’s in right now, they’re so picky. You can’t go see him if you’re not family," he explains. "So if you’re not his wife or his child or his mother or his sister or something like that you can’t go. There’s only one female outside of immediate family that you can see, which is probably your girlfriend or something like that, so whoever he put on the list. I’m not sure if it was Tiarra, Tommie or whoever."
Another huge issue SAS has with the system is Scrapp's placement in a maximum security prison. Maximum security is usually reserved for people who commit crimes such as terrorism, murder or serial rape. Despite only being charged with marijuana trafficking, SAS says "they" placed Scrapp in max because he was thought to be at high-risk since he is a reality show star, and needed the level of security that max provides.
SAS explains that even though many of the people in prison were incarcerated before Scrapp came onto Love & Hip Hop Atlanta, apparently Love & Hip Hop Atlanta is "the main show that they like to watch in the jails and in the prisons. I’ve gotten a couple of calls from people in jail and prison I haven’t talked to in years [who] reached out to me like, 'y’all got everybody in here watching y’all on TV!'"
Despite these setbacks, SAS says Scrapp found companionship and protection soon after getting locked up. "He’s Muslim, so he linked up with the Muslims," SAS explains. "And you know in prison, nobody really mess with the Muslims cause there’s a lot of them and they organize. He was telling me about how when he goes to the shower like 10 guys escort him to the shower. He stands on guard for one of the Muslims in the shower. [They're] protecting each other, watching each other’s back. When it’s time to go to the room, they escort him to his room. So he say it’s real chill. I mean of course he would rather be home, but he’s dealing with it." SAS made it clear that Scrapp's faith has helped him find some positivity in an undoubtably negative situation.
Overall, the fact that Scrapp has to serve such a long sentence of marijuana trafficking doesn't sit well with SAS. He says, "Personally, I feel like they should be more lenient on certain charges, but hey that’s the system. The system’s f--ked up."
