Beanie Sigel Serving Two Years In Prison For Taxes

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By Rob Markman

Rappers just can't seem to get their finances in order. On Thursday (July 12) Beanie Sigel was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting to a judge that he's failed to keep up with his federal tax returns.

According to Philadelphia's local Fox affiliate, the former Roc-A-Fella rapper is scheduled to report to prison on September 12. Sigel failed to pay more than $728,000 in federal income taxes, reports say. It is estimated that the 38-year-old Philly MC, whose real name is Dwight Grant, earned more than $3 million between 1999 and 2005, but only paid $10,000 in taxes. Things could have been worse for Beans as he was facing up to three years in prison.

Sigel made a name for himself as a part of Jay-Z's famed Roc-A-Fella crew and dropped his debut album The Truth in 1999. While he never achieved the commercial success that many had hoped, Beanie has remained one of hip-hop's most respected lyricists. His career hit a serious speed bump after he was sentenced to a year and a day in prison in October 2004 on weapons charges.

Beans released a total of four solo albums and became the head of State Property, a rap group and record label that he launched himself and that also spawned a clothing line and two films. Despite all of his accomplishments, Sigel says he didn't earn all the money that people thought.

"From the outside looking in, it's like, 'Yo he's getting it,' " Sigel said last July on "RapFix Live" before breaking down the financial splits between him and his business partners at Roc-A-Fella. "The clothing line, it was my idea — the State Property line, I only owned 20 percent of that. It was my idea, I brought that to the table. I brought the movie scripts which led up to all those movies, [with] us that played in it — people don't know we only got SAG wages. We ain't get no money from that."

[url=http://rapfix.mtv.com/2012/07/12/beanie-sigel-serving-two-years-in-prison-for-taxes/]View the full article[/url]