Not only does the documentary shows the inhumanity of the Browder case, it also sheds light on the false imprisonment of other inmates in the American prison system. One of those inmates who went through a similar experience as Kalief Browder was Hip Hop producer True Master. For those who are not familiar with True Master, he is affiliated with Wu-Tang Clan and has produced several songs for their group, their members, and other famous Hip Hop artist. Just like Browder, True Master was locked up on Rikers Island in New York for a crime he didn’t commit. Also like Browder, he served that time without being granted a trial. Kalief Browder was on Rikers for three years without a trial; True Master was on Rikers for four years without a trial.
After being released in 2015, True Master is finally opening up about his experience and how it impacted his life. He did an interview with Doggie Diamonds and outlined how the NYC police and justice system conspire to have him locked up with no evidence and no justifiable cause. “The only difference between me and the Browder case is I didn’t kill myself,” True Master said during the interview. The respected producer detailed how he was falsely accused of rape, sodomy, and fleeing a courthouse in New York. “They might put in the paper that I beat the rape count, but they don’t put in the paper that I beat the escape count,” he said. “They accused me of escaping a Manhattan courthouse, which is impossible to do.” he continued.
The crazy part of True Master’s case is that not too many people knew about it; including myself. I considered myself a “Wu-Head” and to just now become aware that the man who produced ‘Brooklyn Zoo’ and more of my favorite joints was falsely imprisoned makes me feel uneasy. There wasn’t much publicity surrounding his case. It shows how famous and non famous people can be framed and just shuffled in the system. True Master seemed aware of this fact and elaborated on the matter. “I would say my biggest lesson from all this is number one: I couldn’t go through all this without trying to prevent this from happening to someone else… I never thought about giving up or like Kalief Browder killing myself. Obviously, for me to walk through all this fire and come out with evidence of my innocence of the corruption that exist; is for me to make sure it don’t happen to somebody else or to help someone who is less fortunate.” The less fortunate is usually are the people who get in these situations and True Master continued with that point. “For me to get this far I had to spend a lot of money on lawyers. A lot of people don’t have money to spend on lawyers. A lot of people who are innocent probably wouldn’t been able to do what I did because they might not have the resources or means to pay people to get them that far.”
While promoting the documentary, Jay Z said this is not a political issue but as a “human issue.” It is something he said that “In order for us to move forward, this conversation needs to move forward.” Stories like Kalief Browder and True Master are a couple of popular stories, but there are thousands of smaller ones just like it. ” This stuff needs to be exposed, not just to clear my name but to stop prosecutors from doing this stuff to other people” said True Master. You can watch True Master full interview below.