Lil Durk. Photo via publicist
The family of Lil Durk, the Chicago rapper currently in jail awaiting trial on murder-for-hire charges, has shared a new statement ask fans for support as the prosecution continues in their efforts to use Durk's lyrics as evidence. Durk is currently charged with putting a bounty on rival rapper Quando Rondo in 2022; an attempt on Rondo's life was unsuccessful but resulted in the death of Rondo's cousin Saviay'a Robinson.
“Durk has always used music to tell stories, to express pain to heal — and yet those same lyrics are now being used against him," the video says. We refuse to stay silent as Black artists continue to be criminalized for their creativity. Rap is art.”
Not long after Durk's arrest in October 2024, federal authorities pointed to lyrics in the song “Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy” as they added more felony charges. The prosecution claims that Durk was directly referencing Robinson's killing in the song, though Durk's lawyers maintain he wrote the lyrics months before the incident.
Durk's legal team filed a motion to dismiss earlier this month based on their claim that the prosecution relied on "false evidence" in their charges by relying on the lyrics. The video shared by Durk's family echoes this: “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,” the video begins. “This isn’t justice. That’s a violation of the very system that’s supposed to protect all of us.”
In a filing obtained by Billboard, Durk's attorney Drew Findling expanded: “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. 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.”
