Toronto rapper Top5 — real name Hassan Ali — managed to outwit Ontario prison officials to secretly film a music video while locked up inside Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton, Ontario. According to newly surfaced documents obtained through a freedom of information request, Ali’s brazen act sparked frustration among correctional officers who scrambled to track down how cellphones kept finding their way into his hands.

Reports from CP24 News reveal that one smuggling attempt was thwarted when guards intercepted a phone hidden inside a visitor’s bra. Despite strict security, photos and videos of Top5 behind bars continued to appear online, leaving staff questioning if even their own security systems had been compromised.

MURDER TRIAL

In November 2022, guards conducted a strip search on Ali while he was awaiting trial for murder but came up empty-handed. Laughing it off, the rapper taunted staff by saying they were “too late,” bragging he had already used the phone to record himself eating cheeseburgers delivered by overnight staff. He even boasted that a music video shot on an iPhone 12 would soon be posted — and that he had flushed the device to evade detection.

While he claimed the footage would surface the following week, the video — showing Ali dressed in prison-issued orange attire performing his song “21 Questions” — didn’t hit social media until June 2023.

PHONE INVESTIGATION IN JAIL SYSTEM

At the time, Ontario’s Solicitor General Michael Kerzner promised a full investigation into how contraband phones kept slipping through the system. However, the heavily redacted investigative report does not confirm whether any guards were disciplined, nor does it reveal how the phones were smuggled in. Top5 later claimed in interviews that he paid a prison guard $10,000 to bring the phone in, but officials have yet to confirm those allegations.

Kerzner recently addressed the issue, defending Ontario’s corrections officers:

“99.9 per cent of everyone that keeps Ontario safe does just that. This is an operational issue, but we will hold everyone to account.”

Top5’s legal saga drew heavy media attention. He was cleared of murder charges in September 2024 related to the tragic shooting of 20-year-old Hashim Omar Hashi, an innocent man killed in a Toronto parking garage. Before his arrest, Ali spent time on the run in California, proclaiming his innocence on social media.

His legal troubles didn’t end there. In January 2025, Ali was arrested again, this time facing charges related to unauthorized possession of a firearm.

TOP5 INCIDENT IN UNITED KINGDOM

Most recently, Ali made headlines in July 2025 after reports surfaced that he had been stabbed in the United Kingdom just hours after attending a Drake concert. Fellow rapper and commentator DJ Akademiks posted on Instagram that he had spoken directly with Top5, confirming he suffered a serious laceration, underwent surgery, and is expected to make a full recovery.

“He lost a lot of blood. He’s going to have a full recovery — that’s a fact,” Akademiks stated.

Meanwhile, cellphone smuggling remains rampant across Canadian prisons. A recent W5 investigation reported over 2,700 cellphone-related seizures in federal institutions during 2023-24 — a 25% increase from the previous year.