New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has tasked a controversial rapper who spent seven years in prison for armed robbery to serve as an adviser for his criminal justice team, according to a report from the New York Post.
Mysonne Linen, 49, will sit on the incoming mayor’s transitional “criminal legal system” committee, The Post reported. A Bronx native, Linen was found guilty of armed robbery in connection with two heists in the late 1990s.
“This is a testament to our decades of work advocating on behalf of black and brown communities and our expertise in gun violence prevention, legislative advocacy and criminal justice reform,” Linen wrote in an Instagram post last month after the position was announced. “We are building something different.”
Linen was an up-and-coming rapper when he was convicted for being part of a crew that robbed two cab drivers in The Bronx, according to a New York Daily News article from the time. His conviction came just before the release of his first studio album with Def Jam Records.