Lil Durk claims his lyrics are “now being used against him” in the government’s murder-for-hire case against the rapper.
Durk (born Durk Banks) was charged last year for the attempted murder of rival Quando Rondo, allegedly having ordered his own “OTF” crew to murder Rondo. While Rondo survived, his friend Lul Pab was killed in the crossfire.
The rapper previously pleaded not guilty to the charges, while his lawyers attempted to have the case dismissed earlier this month, citing “false evidence” provided to a grand jury.
In a video statement posted on Instagram Wednesday, Lil Durk summarized those recent developments, as well as the government’s attempts to weaponize his verse on Babyface Ray’s song “Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy.”
“The recent developments in Durk’s legal case have brought a harsh truth to light: the government presented false evidence to a grand jury to indict him,” a statement said. “This isn’t justice. That’s a violation of the very system that’s supposed to protect all of us.”
One of the government’s key pieces of evidence against Lil Durk is the verse from “Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy,” which they claim features Lil Durk “rapping about his revenge.”; the song arrived three months after the Quando Rondo shooting in September 2022. “Told me they got an addy (go, go)/ Got location (go, go)/ Green light (go, go, go, go, go),” Durk raps in the song. “Look on the news and see your son/You screamin’, ‘No, no’ (pu–y).”
However, Lil Durk’s legal team presented its own evidence that the verse actually predated the shooting, as it was recorded in January 2022. Just the fact that the government is (once again controversially) using rap lyrics as evidence drew the ire of the rapper and his family.
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“Durk has always used music to tell stories, to express pain to heal — and yet those same lyrics are now being used against him. We refuse to stay silent as Black artists continue to be criminalized for their creativity. Rap is art,” the video continued. “As a family, we are asking the public, the fans and the culture to stand with us. Stand for truth. Stand for fairness. Stand for The Voice.”
“The government told the grand jury that Mr. Banks, through specific lyrics in his music, celebrated and profited from a revenge murder that he had ordered,” David Findling, Durk’s lawyer, said in a filing earlier this month. “That claim is demonstrably false. Unless the government is prosecuting Banks on a theory of extra-sensory prescience, the lyrics could not have soundly informed the grand jury’s finding of probable cause.”
