US rapper Remy Ma was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday (May 13th) for shooting a woman outside a club in New York.

The rapper, whose real name is Remy Smith, was found guilty by a jury in March of assault, weapons possession and attempted coercion charges.

The charges related to an altercation between Smith and her friend, Makeda Barnes-Joseph, which resulted in Barnes-Joseph being shot.

During sentencing, Judge Rena Uviller told Smith that she was "an extremely angry young woman whose anger is completely out of control."

According to Reuters, Smith became emotional after the sentence was delivered, pleading that she had grown up "surrounded by poverty and drugs and violence and failure."

"Remy Ma is not even close to who I really am. I'm not a thug," she said.

"I'm not a threat or a menace to society, and I still have so much to offer."

Smith had planned to marry her fiancé, rapper Papoose, at a small ceremony in Rikers Jail yesterday but the event was postponed when officers discovered Papoose had concealed a handcuff key.

(by Jason Gregory)