Maino Breaks Down Becoming A “Monster” While Locked Up In Rikers

“This was extreme hell. Not only are you in prison, but you’re in the prison in the prison.”

(AllHipHop News) Angie Martinez continues to sit down with representatives of the culture for her new WE tv series Untold Stories of Hip Hop. Thursday night’s episode will highlight Bedford-Stuyvesant rapper Maino.

The “All Again” rhymer discusses his time behind bars in NYC’s infamous Rikers Island jail complex. Maino recalls the traumatic experience of being confined alone while incarcerated as a teenager.

“I was put in the wildest building in America, and I was feeling myself becoming worse,” Maino tells Martinez. “I feel like they set it up that way. You become this monster. This is the era when slicing was at an all-time high, so I got involved in that.”

The New Yorker born Jermaine John Coleman also explains, “They put me in solitary. I spent nine months in solitary. I couldn’t understand. Like, ‘You’re gonna leave me in this one room all day, every day, for months?’”

When Angie asked Maino how he was able to avoid going crazy after ultimately spending two years in solitary confinement, the 46-year-old Brooklyn native responds, “Maybe I am. Maybe I ain’t got my dome straight.”

Untold Stories of Hip Hop airs Thursdays at 10 pm ET/9 CT on WE tv. In addition, this week’s show features Maino exposing new details about his romance with Lil Kim as well as Queen Latifah revealing her personal #MeToo moment.