Brian Carenard entered the recreation yard at Napanoch’s Eastern Correctional Facility and braced himself for a battle with a fellow inmate named Hakim. The former was serving a sentence for first-degree assault after shooting at someone in a bar; the latter had been locked up for murder. But that day, their duel was verbal. Rhyming under the name “Catastrophe,” Carenard had forged a reputation via blustering raps like, “I got two or three shooters on record/If you don’t believe me, you can go and check it/So when I tell you it’s hectic, you better respect it.” But as he remembers, “Hakim pretty much embarrassed me that day” by reciting rhymes packed with positive messages and “words I... More >>>