{"id":5947,"date":"2025-05-20T18:17:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T18:17:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/lil-durk-isnt-on-trial-for-his-lyrics-or-his-music-feds-say\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T18:17:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T18:17:20","slug":"lil-durk-isnt-on-trial-for-his-lyrics-or-his-music-feds-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/lil-durk-isnt-on-trial-for-his-lyrics-or-his-music-feds-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil Durk Isn’t On Trial For His Lyrics Or His Music, Feds Say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tF<\/span>ederal prosecutors are flatly rejecting Lil Durk<\/a>\u2019s \u201cfalse narrative\u201d that they\u2019re unfairly using his lyrics against him, arguing in court filings that the rapper is indicted because of a \u201cbrazen murder plot\u201d and not because of his music.<\/p>\n

\n\tWeeks after the feds removed all musical references from the case, they urged a federal judge Monday to reject Durk\u2019s bid to dismiss the charges, arguing there are still more than enough in the allegations beyond the now-deleted lyrics.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe indictment charges that defendant directed and financed six hitmen to travel across the country to hunt and kill his rival,\u201d prosecutors write. \u201cDefendant is not on trial for his lyrics or his music; he is on trial because he directed, orchestrated, and financed the brazen murder plot at issue in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDurk (Durk Banks) was arrested in October on murder-for-hire and gun charges over allegations that the Chicago drill star ordered members of his Only the Family (OTF) crew to carry out a 2022 attack on rival rapper Quando Rondo (Tyquian Bowman) that left another man (Saviay\u2019a Robinson) dead.<\/p>\n

\n\tLawyers for the rapper have argued that prosecutors used the lyrics as \u201cfalse evidence\u201d to persuade a grand jury to indict him \u2013 and his family has spoken out that he\u2019s latest rapper to be \u201ccriminalized for their creativity.\u201d The use of rap lyrics as criminal evidence is a controversial practice that has drawn backlash in recent years.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in Monday\u2019s response, prosecutors call Durk\u2019s arguments \u201cmeritless\u201d and \u201cmoot\u201d in light of the new indictment with the lyrics removed, which a grand jury also endorsed.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe [new indictment] makes clear that the grand jury indicted defendant for his conduct, not for his status as a rapper or because of the violent lyrics,\u201d the feds say. \u201cThese allegations make clear that defendant used his power, his wealth, and his control over OTF to exact deadly revenge on his rival.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Durk was first indicted last year, prosecutors cited lyrics from a song called \u201cWonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy,\u201d claiming they referenced the shooting: \u201cTold me they got an addy (go, go)\/ Got location (go, go)\/ Green light (go, go, go, go, go),\u201d Durk raps in the disputed track. \u201cLook on the news and see your son\/You screamin\u2019, \u201cNo, no\u201d (pu\u2013y).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Durk\u2019s lawyers sharply pushed back \u2014 arguing that \u201cWonderful Wayne\u201d could not have referenced the Rondo shooting because the rapper wrote and recorded his verses \u201cseven months before the incident even happened.\u201d In April, prosecutors filed a so-called superseding indictment that removed the lyrics.<\/p>\n

\n\tMonday\u2019s court filing, while focused on the removal of the lyrics, also strongly defends their use in the first place. The feds say Durk has \u201crepeatedly used his pulpit to promote violence\u201d and that the lyrics bear a striking resemblance to the facts of the case.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhether or not defendant\u2019s lyrics about \u2018greenlighting\u2019 a rival were written before or after S.R.\u2019s death, the release of the song after the murder gave defendant\u2019s fans fodder to associate him with the murder \u2014 a claim that defendant himself seemed to admit during an interview on a popular podcast,\u201d the feds write.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to seeking to dismiss the case, Durk is also continuing to seek pre-trial release. Though it was denied by a magistrate judge earlier this month, his attorneys have indicated they will ask a district judge to reconsider the issue. The rapper is currently scheduled to face trial in October.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federal prosecutors are flatly rejecting Lil Durk\u2019s \u201cfalse narrative\u201d that they\u2019re unfairly using his lyrics against him, arguing in court filings that the rapper is indicted because of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3891,1630,4691,1916,2272,593,342],"class_list":["post-5947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-durk","tag-feds","tag-isnt","tag-lil","tag-lyrics","tag-music","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}