The Takeover
Pooh Shiesty is moving with a new level of focus and purpose since being released from prison five months ago. Armed with his forthcoming album, the rapper’s CEO state of mind is shaping his next run.
Words: Georgette Cline
For Pooh Shiesty, freedom isn’t something abstract or philosophical. It’s tangible. Waking up early, opening his own refrigerator, lying in his own bed, and sitting in the quiet without interruption. After spending over four years behind bars, the Memphis rapper has a newfound appreciation for his daily routine. His days are structured around reflection, discipline and creating the music that will carry him through the next chapter of his life.
“Sometimes I just be laying here in the dark,” Pooh Shiesty tells XXL last November via Zoom, during his very first interview since being released from prison on Oct. 6, 2025. “No phone, no nothing, you know? Just freedom, just space and privacy.”
The 26-year-old multiplatinum-selling artist feels blessed that he’s able to get back in the booth and move at his own pace instead of one directed by orders from COs. Not everyone who serves time gets a second chance to be back outside. After pleading guilty in 2022, to conspiring to possess firearms in furtherance of violent and drug trafficking crimes for a robbery and shooting that occurred in July of 2020, he was sentenced to five years and three months in prison. Late last year, he made his way back home, this time, securing a residence in Texas.
For someone whose life once moved at a relentless pace—studio sessions, performances and travel—the quiet moments now feel essential. Pooh is on home confinement, which requires a certain kind of self-discipline. He can do as he pleases, but within reason.
Pooh describes what his days usually look like, starting at 5:30 a.m. “I like to get up early, sit back and think, or I stay up all the way towards early and sleep,” he mentions. “During the day, I work out, write music, make music, record, and keep planning.”
That mindset defines the current space he’s in. Life has slowed down in ways that allow him to make time for things he once took for granted.
Building a Creative Space
Making music has always been central to Pooh Shiesty’s rap identity, and he’s recreated the environment he needs to stay productive.
“I got a studio,” he says. “I had a studio my engineer brought with him down here where I’m at. I got a studio I ordered. It’s like a mobile studio. Then I got studios I go to, too, that’s out here when I get my passes or whatever.”
His time in the Lone Star State gave him the calm setting he needed to refocus. “In Texas, it felt like I had a good judgment, you know? I picked the right place. It’s cool, it’s collected, calm. It’s just chill. It’s what I wanted, what I imagined being in there [in prison].”
That atmosphere—void of some of the distractions that once clouded his view—allows him to stay locked in creatively.
A New Approach to Recording
Before his incarceration, the rapper relied heavily on punching in when making music. His 2021 mixtape, Shiesty Season, and the Lil Durk-assisted, eight-times platinum hit “Back in Blood” highlight that approach.
“Before I went to jail, I wasn’t writing at all,” he admits. “I was just punching in and just going to the microphone.” That changed dramatically once he was inside. “But when I went in, I just been writing, writing, writing, writing, like, whatever free time I get to the point to where, you know, I got raps that’s taller than me, that’s up to my hips.”
Those stacks of lyrics became the inspiration for what would eventually become his first day out track. But prison life also meant constant movement and restrictions that made it hard to hold onto everything he created.
“But I was being moved so much that I had so much property that wasn’t allowed, like, I was exceeding the limit,” he explains. “So, a lot of my property ended up getting took. Not by nobody or no inmates or nothing, but by just it being too much, you know? So, you might get a person that ain’t willing to help you or whatever, he throw away everything.”
At one point, he lost almost all of the lyrics he wrote. “So, I had that happen to me, like a year-and-a-half before I finna get out. So I had to start all the way over, for real.” The setback forced him to put an end to a unique strategy. “I had a plan for every rap. I was just gonna come home, go to the studio, put all my raps on my wall. And as I recorded, I was gonna take it down until the wall clear.”
With that plan gone, he starting writing from scratch again. “So, now I’m going extra hard,” he insists. “I ain’t going to sleep unless I make like three songs, even if it ain’t fully verses on there or it just a hook or whatever, but I gotta have, like, three different type of songs and flows and styles.”
He showcases all of that on “FDO,” the first song he released since coming home. The five-minute, no-hook track finds Mr. Pooh unleashing a heavy arsenal of quotables fresh out the Feds. “When you meet me, you gon’ get real motivated, same day,” he boasts on the song, released on Dec. 12, 2025, and produced by his longtime producer TP 808s. “FDO” climbed to No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, reached more than 34 million Spotify streams, and its accompanying music video, in which he flexes his rose gold car collection, has more than 45 million YouTube views.
He just copped a $500,000 2026 Mercedes-Maybach S 680 4MATIC to celebrate “FDO” going No. 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. That’s some serious motivation moving into his debut album, set for release later this year through 1017 Global Music/Atlantic Records.
Bringing More Energy Back to Rap
Pooh Shiesty’s mission isn’t just releasing music—it���s restoring a certain feeling to the genre. “I want that assertiveness, the aggressiveness,” he maintains. “It’s like music was getting a little too passive for me. I need to be in that mode to where you feeling what I’m saying, and if even you don’t understand what I’m saying, you can feel it because you know my situation.”
That energy helped define his early rise with tracks like “Hell Night” with Big30 and remains central to his vision moving forward.
Evolving After Five Years
It’s been five years since fans last heard a full project from him, and he knows expectations are high. “I need to get this new music out here because Shiesty Season, don’t get me wrong, it’s some timeless music on there, but I think this [new music] is a little bit different,” Pooh reveals. Time and experience have changed him.
“You gotta think about it,” he continues. “That was, like, five years ago exactly. I evolve and adapt every day and get better and better and grow up every day, so y’all ain’t really heard nothing in five years except for that ‘Federal Contraband [2].’” In 2023, Pooh dropped the song while locked up. And in case anyone forgot: “I experienced what I be rappin’, sh*t ain’t on me, it’s in me,” he delivers on the song. There’s no denying that.
Faith, Family and Music as Motivation
During the toughest moments inside, Pooh Shiesty leaned heavily on faith, family and music.
“You got all three of them,” he conveys. “Faith, being blessed, knowing that I’m blessed and the situation could be way worse.”
Spirituality became a deeper part of his life. “I believe in God most definitely,” Shiesty says. “Wouldn’t be here talking to you without God.” He spent a lot of time reading scripture and praying. “I was reading the Bible, you know, I love the Bible. I love the book. I was praying a lot, too. I always prayed, you know? And when I pray, I like talk to him, you know? I just try to get a connection with him.”
That connection grew stronger over time. “I know me being on the streets, from me going in there to coming out now, I can say my connection with God is way closer than what it was.”
He also watched the people around him grow older while he was away. “My family, watching them grow up, everybody that was just, that was 10 years old, they 15 now. Everybody that was 15 years old, 20 now. They growing up and they need me.”
His grandmother, in particular, has helped shape his worldview. A big Christian, according to Pooh, she showed him how to be strong and how to get up and work. When he first came home last October, a video of him and his grandmother went viral because she wasn’t too fond of his dreadlocks. “She like, ‘Get them snakes up out your head,’ you know?” he remembers with a laugh. As “Grandma’s baby,” Pooh knows that she accepts him for who he is, but he might make the change for her and cut them off. “Yeah, at some point,” he adds.
He admired the longstanding marriage between his grandparents, especially after his grandfather passed away while he was incarcerated. “She was hurt,” he recalls. “She was tore up, but she kept it all together. She a real smart lady. I love her.”
But above all, music kept his mind active. “Music, of course, was like 90 percent of my bid,” he states. “If we just talking about being in the inside or whatever.” Even while locked up, he stayed tapped into the rap world, listening to artists like EST Gee, Big30 and Kevin Gates through a tablet, radio or old-school mp3 player. He also gravitated toward motivational books like The 33 Strategies of War and Rich Dad Poor Dad.
A Clearer Mind
Sobriety has also transformed Shiesty’s life. His past lean use affected him in different ways, but now he’s living cleaner. “My appetite got way better,” he admits. “I used to be tore up to the point where I barely can eat nothing or I’ll go all day without eating.” Now the difference is obvious. “I can eat way better, got a better appetite, got a clear mind, I can see clear. Make a lot of rational decisions now.”
Friends and fans even notice the change in his appearance. “I’m glowing now,” he laughs. “They be saying I’m glowing now.”
The transformation goes deeper than physical health. “I’m way smarter, way faster, way more business-oriented,” he says.
Building Something Bigger
Looking ahead, Shiesty is expanding his ambitions beyond music. His CMO brand reflects that broader vision. The rhymer is a CEO and moving accordingly.
“CMO, that’s the brand,” he explains. “That’s the image. That’s the new way we pushing with trying to start these reform groups and these nonprofits and this record label.” The acronym carries multiple meanings. “CMO stand for Can’t Miss Opportunities or Chasing More Opportunities. Certified Members Only.”
The nonprofit side is particularly important to him. “That’s what we’re on right now,” he divulges. “We trying to help these kids and better their future and clean up the community.” Shiesty also plans to build a roster for his label. “I got a couple artists in mind,” he affirms. “Since I been out, I been just sitting back and looking.” Some of those artists are people he knew before prison, while others are individuals he met during his time inside.
“I got a couple artists that I met incarcerated,” Pooh details. “The best talents be in there.” If everything aligns, he’s ready to bring them into the fold.
The Road Ahead
His future is about going up—personally, creatively and professionally. “Man, long-term goals is just elevating, period,” Pooh expresses. “Being able to go tour, being able to drop this music, being able to just perform and pop out and, you know, just take back over.” He doesn’t hesitate when talking about what’s to come. “2026 is the takeover year.”
His future is about going up—personally, creatively and professionally. “Man, long-term goals is just elevating, period,” Pooh expresses. “Being able to go tour, being able to drop this music, being able to just perform and pop out and, you know, just take back over.” He doesn’t hesitate when talking about what’s to come. “2026 is the takeover year.”
Since February, Pooh has been teasing new music across social media. Snippets of solo material, plus collabs with fellow Memphis rapper K. Carbon (he may appear on her forthcoming track “Ouuuu Sh*tt”) and rising rapper Trim (the “Boat Remix” arrives March 20) prove Mr. Pooh has been active. There could be a drop with longtime friend Big30 on the horizon as well. With the success of “FDO” like a super-charged battery in his back, what he’s cooking up for his debut album will be worth the wait.
While his excitement for an album sure to have rap fans and the streets talking is palpable, Pooh Shiesty hasn’t forgotten those still behind bars. “Everybody still locked up, incarcerated, you know, y’all ain’t missing nothing out here, but a new iPhone. Keep y’all head up. Stay out the way. Stay away from the 4Gs. Get through that time, keep y’all chin up. Free everybody locked down doing calendars. Big Blrrrd.”
With that message in mind, one thing is clear: Shiesty Season is here.
Listen to Pooh Shiesty’s Shiesty Season Album
