The Season 9 premiere of Love & Hip Hop New York is titled “Arrested Development.” The title refers to the drug and legal problems that have plagued the relationship of Harlem rapper Juelz Santana and his longtime girlfriend Kimbella Vanderhee. While Juelz is under house arrest at his mother’s condo in Hoboken, Kim (who lives in Englewood with their two children) says, “I’m at home living like a single mother.” She says it’s “unbelievable hard and lonely.”
In this episode, Kim goes to the Hoboken condo for a couples therapy session. The counselor wants to help Juelz transition now that he’s clean and sober. When the therapist asks Juelz if there’s a chance of relapse, Juelz says he never wants to go through withdrawal again which has Kim shaking her head. Although Juelz is “finally clean,” Kim feels like she still doesn’t have him back “because of this case.”
On March 9, 2018, TSA agents at Newark Liberty International Airport discovered a loaded .38-caliber handgun and eight oxycodone pills inside Santana’s carry-on bag. Santana fled the airport. Three days later he turned himself in to the authorities. The 36-year-old was released from custody in April when his mother posted $500,000 bail. He is awaiting a federal trial. If convicted of the two charges — possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and for carrying a firearm on an airplane — Santana faces up to ten years in prison. Santana’s going to have a hard time beating the charges in a federal court which has a 90 percent conviction rate. Love & Hip Hop New York airs Mondays at 8 pm on VH1.
