ALBANY, NY – Remy Ma, whose meteoric rise as a rap star ended with the shooting of a friend outside a nightclub during a dispute over $3,000, lost an appeal of her eight-year prison sentence Thursday.

The decision by the state’s highest court ended the one-time star’s attempt to overturn assault and weapon possession convictions that her lawyer argued were the result of unfair direction from the trial judge.

The trial judge, state Supreme Court Judge Rena Uviller, had called the rapper “a young woman whose anger is out of control.” At sentencing, Remy Ma — whose real name is Remy Smith — cried over her violent upbringing in poverty in New York City and for her young son and her fiance, rapper Papoose.

The victim, Madeda Joseph, and Remy Ma were celebrating a birthday with friends in July 2007 at the Pizza Bar in Manhattan’s trendy meatpacking district when the rapper accused Joseph of stealing $3,000 from her pocketbook.

Remy Ma, gun in hand, demanded to search Joseph’s purse when they were both in the front seat of the victim’s Cadillac Escalade. Joseph refused, and a struggle began. The gun went off twice, with two bullets hitting Joseph in the abdomen. There was testimony in court that Remy Ma fled without calling for police or medical attention.