Rapper Tee Grizzley reveals how studying law in prison helped his armed robbery case

“First Day Out” is rapper Tee Grizzley’s infamous anthem following his release from prison. A native of Detroit, born Terry Wallace Jr., was released in 2016 after serving 18 months on charges of home invasion. He went from local rapper to mainstream success simply by telling his story. Part of his story is how he used his legal research to help himself.

“I didn’t think I was getting out,” Grizzley said during his appearance on The Million Dollar Worth of Game podcast. “Man, look, I’ve got n–s in there telling me, ‘You better take ten years if they’re trying to give you this.'”

Tee was arrested as a freshman in February 2014 for a series of robberies at Michigan State University. According to reports in the Lansing State Journal, police found nearly $10,000 worth of stolen goods and $10,000 in cash from a dorm. He was released pending an investigation following this arrest.

In July of that year, Tee and two men were arrested for attempting to rob a pawn shop and jewelry store in Lexington, Kentucky. He was initially charged with first-degree robbery, reports Kentucky.com. Authorities said one of the men smashed a glass case containing Rolex watches with a sledgehammer. Their actions were thwarted after the manager arrived and drew his gun. The men gave up at this point and stayed until local police arrived.

He said he sought advice from fellow inmates at the Kentucky prison and later began reading law books about his robbery case. He told hosts Gillie Da King and Wallo267 “we had no guns,” speaking of himself and two co-defendants.

“You said we were armed because of the sledgehammer and s–t, right? So I come to the law book. The first thing I see came to this kind of shit and they’re like, ‘You can only consider something a weapon if they use it to threaten someone and demand something.’ I didn’t tell anyone I was going to hit them with a hammer,” the 28-year-old explained. “I don’t raise it to nobody or nothing. So they can’t say that, that’s a weapon.”

He took the knowledge he learned and presented it to his attorney, which helped reduce his charges.

“I told my attorney that, and my attorney looked surprised, like, ‘No, you’re right.’ I say, ‘Hell, you mean I’m right? They knew that before me,” he recalled. “I can say to my co-defendant, ‘Look, read the law book. Look at every case the same way our shit guy does, and we end up getting out of this motherf—-r.”

Grizzley clarified that he didn’t beat the case, but he helped his robbery charge. When asked why he smashed the glass, he said he told court officials: “They sold my people a fake watch and I wasn’t there and I just wanted to rip some shit up. “

He added: “This is property destruction at best. We didn’t leave the store with nothing. We didn’t try to take nothing.”

Tee’s charge in the case was later reduced to theft by wrongful possession or disposition, for which he received a nine-month prison sentence, according to XXL. He was then extradited to Michigan, where he was charged with two counts of second-degree home invasion in the MSU case. He was sentenced to 18 months to 15 years in prison and was released in October 2016.

On the day he was released, Tee Grizzley recorded “First Day Out,” which has become a hip-hop classic. The track was released a month later and featured on Grizzley’s debut mixtape, My Moment. It inspired the #LebronJamesChallenge, which sees fans mimic the NBA legend and his facial expression while listening to the song at the gym.