Slick Rick’s legal problems seem to finally be at an end thanks to newly elected New York Governor David Patterson’s full and unconditional pardon on Friday, May 23rd.

The British-born rapper spent five years in prison after having been convicted of shooting his cousin and another man in 1991, both of whom survived. In 2003 he was arrested impisoned by immigration officers and served 17 months in prison based upon a 1997 Immigration and Naturalization Service warrant that no one in the real world seems to understand.

”Mr. Walters has fully served the sentence imposed upon him for his convictions, had an exemplary disciplinary record while in prison and on parole, and has been living without incident in the community for more than 10 years,” Paterson told the AP. “I urge federal immigration officials to once again grant Mr. Walters relief from deportation, so that he is not separated from his many family members who are United States citizens, including his two teenage children.”