Unconfirmed but confident, he believes the crew’s prospects changed as the surrounding area began to gentrify. While moving substantial weight, they believed that they could fly under the radar. He said that the group did their best to not draw attention to themselves or escalate into violence, adhering to a “no hard drugs” and “non-violence except in unquestionable cases of self-defense” policies over the years.
Muessig recalled what he thinks led to him and his group being involved in a federal investigation. Now facing a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison, Muessig could spend up to 80 years in prison for a nonviolent cannabis charge. Unwilling to provide information against anyone in the operation, he was found guilty. A raid on the house led to two years of uncertainty until Muessig was charged.
In 2019, with his practice in the rearview and trap booming, the walls came crumbling in. The hook that caught most was Muessig admitting, “I may have a law degree, but I think like a criminal.” Courtesy of Dan Muessig The Walls Come Crumbling In The polarizing clip showed Muessig getting folks off for an array of crimes, ranging from pot to sex work to robbery. In 2013, Muessig’s video advertisement went viral. “The weirdest thing I ever did was go to law school,” he said of his life experiences. In time, he passed the bar and had clearance to defend against drug charges and other crimes, including murder, burglary, and assault, calling laws arbitrary. Post-undergrad, with music no longer sustaining him, he entered law school. illicit) market, witnessing people being indicted for their involvement as he further immersed himself. Known as Dos-Noun, Muessig traveled the world with his music while pot sales grew at home, so much so that he became a prominent name in the area’s underground scene, moving substantial amounts of pot.Īlong the way, he began to see the hardships of the legacy (i.e. He said, “Instead of being asked, ‘Hey kid, wash my car,’ it was, ‘Hey kid, run to the store and grab me some blunts.’” In time, Muessig and his crew would form what he described as a “legacy trap.” At the same time, his battle rap career was taking off. Eventually, he got asked to run favors for local legacy operators in Pittsburgh and, later on, in college at Temple University in Philadelphia. “There was always large-scale, organized cannabis trafficking in Squirrel Hill,” he said, adding that it was common to see pot sales going on. “I grew up in nothing but people smoking weed, selling weed,” he told High Times six days before his sentencing. He had been exposed to pot long before high school.
He went to the same high school that produced Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa just a few years later, Taylor Allderdice High School. Likening his upbringing to the movies Kids meets Goodfellas, Muessig said his youth and early adult life was filled with friends skateboarding and tagging, battle rapping and getting involved in pot. Muessig doesn’t deny his involvement in the Orange Box Crew, whose motto was “No Grows Just Bows.” He acknowledges having a history with pot dating back to his early days growing up in the Jewish, urban enclave of Squirrel Hill. The Feds allege that he and his group moved between 220 and 880 pounds of pot in the Pittsburgh area. He finds himself in the predicament over two charges: conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cannabis. Sentenced on March 8, 2022, Muessig faces an uncertain length of time in one of the U.S. By the time you read this, Dan Muessig will have been sentenced to between five to 80 years in federal prison.