Notorious street legend Anthony ‘Rooster’ Patterson knows the virtue of patience. He is in the 18th year of a 300 month sentence for marijuana offences in a federal institution in the United States.

He has learned to master himself as the seconds tick into minutes and then bleed into hours, days and eventually years. In such a scenario, ‘Rooster’ shared that patience is its own reward.

“I understand now that the universe has its ways if you can humble yourself and be patient, and trust the process. You will see that will lead us on our path, and we have to be humble, we have to be patient ’cause every man has wants or needs, but not everyone has the patience to achieve those wants and needs,” he said.

He has applied those virtues to a musical project he played an instrumental role in conceptualising, a single called ‘Gettin’ There’, recorded by Lil Hanky Panky and a US-based rapper Kash XO.

“Mi nah look pon the release date dat dem a talk bout, mi just know that freedom is when I get there, whether it is day or night, Monday or a Tuesday, when I get there, I get there. Everything is irrelevant, as long as I get there, that’s the concept behind the single,” Rooster said.

The single will be released on June 2 via all digital download platforms.

However, ‘Rooster’ will have to wait for his personal ‘release date’, and hard-won freedom.

The notorious gangster replied to questions through a legal representative, who relayed the answers to the reporter. He explained how the germ of the ‘Gettin There’ idea came up.

“When the Getting There concept came up, I wanted people to know that patience is the way to achieve certain wants and needs, but you have to humble yourself along the way…this is a message for the youths, go back to school, pursue your dreams, get there,” he said.

Rooster is a well-known figure in the Jamaican criminal underworld because of his close links to Matthews Lane and Tivoli Gardens. He was even prominently featured in the Netflix documentary, Drug Lords, Christopher Coke , Jamaica’s Narco Prince.

In March 2008, he was convicted on charges of conspiring to distribute and possession with intent to distribute over 1,000 kilograms of ganja. The marijuana was reportedly purchased in and shipped from California via air cargo and delivered to the Bronx for sale. According to documents filed in this case, the retail value of each weekly shipment was one million US dollars.

During his incarceration, Rooster has dedicated himself towards his own intellectual enlightenment, becoming bi-lingual (in Spanish), gaining his G.E.D, and completing a paralegal course. These days, he sounds more like an enlightened philosopher rather than a high-level figure in the criminal underworld.

Rooster explained that the reason he even did the single was to assist two of his childhood friends, Jubbie and Marlon, who manage the artistes, Kash Xo from California and Hanky Panky from Germany/Jamaica, respectively, with their careers.

“Mi learn that you can have good music, wonderful music, but the business is stifling, if the street nuh recognize the music, yours will just play for a small minority of people and have no more relevance,” he explained.

“But if we can incorporate the street with the young artistes to guide and counsel them with our ideas and combine with their ideas, we can have something phenomenal. On their own, by themselves, dem a climb a mountain, without no mountain gear, they will never see the top, but with the streets behind them, anything is possible. “

The visuals for the ‘Gettin There’ project will be released on June 2, and feature a scene where a small crowd dons ‘Free Rooster’ shirts.

“When I heard the riddim and vibe and came up with the ‘Gettin There’ concept, I realized that you have to find something special, make a statement…there are people in the federal system who are facing draconian sentences for marijuana while other people are making billions off marijuana,” he said.

Last year, US President Joe Biden signed pardons for about 6,500 people convicted of cannabis possession at the federal level. They left prison without a felony on their record, However, Biden’s pardon does not affect some 3,000 people convicted of higher level marijuana crimes who remain in federal prisons, and as many as 30,000 who are still in prison in several states, according to the advocacy group the Last Prisoner Project. Those numbers do not reflect people with convictions for marijuana possession at the state level.

Marijuana is now fully legal in 19 US states and allowed for medical use in 37. Most states that have legalized marijuana have also moved to expunge the records of nonviolent offenders or issue pardons.

“Marijuana is still scheduled as a classified A1 felony, despite all this, Biden told the attorney general to take into consideration to remove marijuana as a felony drug at the federal level. The system knows its faults, but procrastinate in addressing its faults. Dem a kick the can. The system is still unfair so we have to defend truth, rights and justice wherever we are,” he said.