A guy who was just sentenced to 26 years in prison for killing a drug dealer is a former YouTube rap star

Lemz's music videos have millions of views on the site, becoming only more popular since his conviction.
In one song, he longs for popularity on the site.
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Earlier this month, Taleb Hussain was sentenced to a minimum of 26 years in prison for killing a man named Przemyslaw Golimowski in an apparent dispute over a drug deal gone wrong.

It was reported like any other sad murder in a "bad" area of Birmingham, England. The BBC ran a short item on it , and tabloids like The Daily Mail reported the more gruesome details for its audience. Hussain was sentenced along with four other men convicted in the killing.

But as the British media later realized, Hussain wasn't just another violent criminal involved in drug gangs. He was Lemz, a YouTube star with millions of views for his rap music videos.

As Lemz, Hussain released several music videos and singles with Link Up TV , a popular YouTube channel that features independent British hop-hop artists. His videos usually show him partying with women , wearing designer clothing, and rapping in front of expensive cars .

On Tuesday, the Daily Mail apparently discovered his rap career and updated its article about him to feature his songs. One of his videos, for the song "On My Own," had around 700,000 views and featured him apparently bragging about selling drugs.

Since his sentencing, he's become only more popular. The song now has more than 3 million views on YouTube.

One of Hussain's most popular songs is "Behind Barz," about the difficulty of telling the outside world what it's like to be in prison.

In it, he pines for his music career to go viral .

"I need a million views, huh," he raps. "I need a million views."