Casanova Gives His First Tell-All Interview From Prison

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Casanova is not letting his time behind bars determine his outlook on life. The Brooklyn rapper, who’s currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for racketeering and narcotics offenses, is “fighting my fight,” as he puts it, with a smile on his face. Cas speaks to XXL in his first interview from prison and gets candid about many topics, including his charges, insisting that Tory Lanez is innocent of shooting Megan Thee Stallion despite him being found guilty and connecting with the youth to make the right choices.

While incarcerated at Nevada Southern Detention Center in late January, Casanova was in good spirits as he opened up about the bid he’s doing. He reveals that the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit organization redressing the harms of cannabis criminalization, is helping him try to get home.

In 2023, Casanova was sentenced to 188 months in prison for racketeering and narcotics crimes related to his role in the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation Bloods Gang. As part of the racketeering conspiracy, he participated in a shooting in Florida on July 5, 2020, and a robbery in New York City on Aug. 5, 2018, and conspired to traffic over 100 kilograms of marijuana. He surrendered to authorities in 2020, after being wanted by the FBI.

“I think everybody in the federal system has regrets and I think my regret is not knowing the law,” he tells XXL. “And I don’t mean the regular law. I mean the federal law, because state-wise, I’m good. I could’ve promoted marijuana. To clear this up, I don’t even have a marijuana sale. I don’t have a sale. So, off of Instagram, they just threw out a number and said I was selling this amount of drugs. I don’t have a direct sale. I don’t have none of that. They just seen me promoting marijuana on Instagram and said, ‘Oh yeah, you’re selling marijuana.’ You know, a lot of rappers promote marijuana and they’re not in jail, but again, since I was tied to a gang, they just looked at it like, ‘You know what, let’s wrap this guy up and whatever we have to wrap him up with.’ That’s where the racketeering comes in. Federally, it’s bad, but state-wise, it’s not bad.”

Plenty of rappers have been showing love to Cas since he’s been locked up. According to him, A$AP Rocky, Chris Brown, Fabolous, Bobby Shmurda and Maino, among others. Cas has also kept note of the people who haven’t connected with him on the inside. “The people that didn’t, I kinda got the scope on them,” Casanova shares. “I did a lot for everybody and I always made sure everybody was good in every aspect or form. It feels good to get the love back. As far as family support, my wife is there. She’s walking it down with me.” A true definition of a ride-or-die.

He’s been keeping busy while incarcerated in different ways. Last December, the 38-year-old rhymer dropped the 12-track album I Get I Now. Casanova says the material was recorded before he was arrested in 2020. With the help of his team and EMPIRE, the label behind him, Cas was able to get his music to the fans. Working out, playing chess and speaking to loved ones are also part of his routine. One thing Cas hasn’t done is put his rhymes down on paper. The MC admits he hasn’t “wrote in forever.” Casanova’s goal is to create music with a more positive message once he’s back outside. “Now I kinda believe in manifestation more than ever and I feel like I manifested this on myself, because all my songs are jail-related, gang related or super violent,” he conveys about his music having a direct link to his time in prison. “I kinda manifested this. Words are powerful. I believe in the tongue now. I gotta go more positive when I get out.”

During the conversation, Casanova brought up Tory Lanez unprompted. A friend and collaborator on Cas’ song “2 AM” featuring Davido, Cas believes Tory is innocent of shooting Megan Thee Stallion. Tory was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2023 for shooting Megan in her foot in 2020. The shooting and sentencing, along with any updates that followed, have been a polarizing topic of discussion in hip-hop and beyond.

“Tory Lanez is my inspiration because he’s not giving up the fight,” says Casanova, who also revealed that Tory sent Cas money while in prison. “They say in all the important books, ‘The only thing worth fighting for is your freedom.’ Speaking of Tory Lanez in jail, he’s so strong yet so little. He’s really strong on his innocence. He’s saying that he didn’t do it. And sometime people believe him and sometime people don’t. But, you know, I went through a whole force full of, ‘You still saying this? You still innocent?’ and I had no choice but to say, ‘You know what, I think he’s innocent.'”

However, Casanova understands he could be proven wrong. “I wish him the best and I hope he didn’t do it,” Cas adds. “It would break my heart if he did it. Maybe he’s a good liar, I don’t know.”

As Cas looks ahead at the time he has left to serve—the rapper believes he will do 65 to 70 perfect of his overall 15-year sentence—he has a big goal to achieve inside. Casanova is currently writing a children’s book on making right and wrong decisions. “I just want to reach out to the youth,” he expresses. “I can change two of out 10 people, meaning the youth, then I did my job.” Putting in the work.

Check out Casanova’s entire conversation with XXL below.