PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania court has denied Meek Mill’s request to be freed from prison and allowed to post bail.

The state’s Superior Court on Tuesday denied the request from lawyers representing the 30-year-old rapper and instead directed a lower court to handle the case.

Mill’s attorneys contend the judge who sentenced the musician refuses to respond to their post-sentencing appeals.

The Philadelphia-native was sentenced this month to two to four years in prison for violating probation on a roughly decade-old gun and drug case. The sentence came despite recommendations from Mill’s probation officer and a prosecutor that Mill not be jailed.

Mill’s legal team previously has asked for his release and for the judge to be recused from his case.