{"id":132057,"date":"2026-08-26T01:09:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/132057\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T01:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T01:09:23","slug":"lil-durk-murder-trial-kpop-demon-hunters-bad-bunny-music-law-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/132057\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil Durk Murder Trial, Kpop Demon Hunters, Bad Bunny: Music Law Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTHE BIG STORY: Two years after he was indicted on murder-for-hire charges, Lil Durk<\/a> finally went to trial in a Los Angeles federal courtroom \u2014 where prosecutors told jurors that the rapper put out a hit on rival Quando Rondo after becoming \u201cconsumed with revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe once-rising Chicago drill rapper stands accused of ordering members of his Only the Family (OTF) label crew to kill rival Rondo in retaliation for the 2020 killing of his close friend and collaborator King Von<\/a>. Rondo was shot at a Los Angeles gas station in 2022 and survived, but another man known as Lul Pab was killed in the crossfire.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"LAS<\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tIn opening statements, Durk\u2019s defense strategy quickly emerged: To pin the murder on co-defendant Kavon \u201cVonnie\u201d Grant. They said Grant had access to Durk\u2019s credit cards and had framed him once he was caught: \u201cHe thought, \u2018Oh man, I\u2019ve got an insurance policy,\u2019\u201d Durk\u2019s attorney told the jury. \u201cI\u2019ve got a big fish I can give them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor more, go read Billboard\u2019s explainer on the case<\/a> and full coverage of the first day<\/a> \u2014 which also featured argument over prosecutor\u2019s controversial decision to use Durk\u2019s rap lyrics as evidence. And stick with Billboard for updates as the trial moves ahead.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019re reading The Legal Beat<\/a>, a weekly newsletter about music law from Billboard Pro, offering you a one-stop cheat sheet of big new cases, important rulings and all the fun stuff in between. To get the newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\tOther top stories this week\u2026\t<\/p>\n

\n\t-Netflix was hit with a trademark lawsuit<\/a> over the massively successful KPop Demon Hunters, filed by a Christian metal band that\u2019s used the name Demon Hunter for decades.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2013Bad Bunny<\/a> won\u2019t be repaid the $500,000 he spent beating a copyright lawsuit over a sample on Un Verano Sin Ti after a judge ruled<\/a> that such a penalty was unwarranted and \u201cwould send the wrong message.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t-A settlement was reached<\/a> in a lawsuit filed over Rihanna<\/a>\u2019s Smurfs movie song, a case that claimed Paramount never paid a songwriter for writing it because it was \u201cmad\u201d at the star for budget overruns.<\/p>\n

\n\t-A California appeals court ruled that a woman who was scammed out of more than $300,000 by a Kenny Chesney<\/a> impersonator can\u2019t sue the country superstar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2013Ariana Grande<\/a> won a court order allowing her to subpoena<\/a> online platforms so that she can unmask the identities of hackers who she says have leaked her unreleased content.<\/p>\n

\n\t-Sony Music filed a copyright case<\/a> against Kroger claiming it illegally used songs by Harry Styles<\/a>, SZA<\/a> and other stars in TikTok and Instagram posts \u2014 the latest in a flood of such cases.<\/p>\n

\n\t-A judge ruled Chris Brown<\/a> must fork over money<\/a> from his R&B Tour concerts with Usher<\/a> to an ex-housekeeper who won a $13 million verdict after she was mauled by the singer\u2019s dog.<\/p>\n

\n\t-Robert Clivill\u00e9s, one of the co-founders of C+C Music Factory, sued rapper Freedom Williams<\/a> over control of the 1990s dance group\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

\n\t-The first week of the Tupac Shakur<\/a> murder trial wrapped up<\/a> after heated testimony and infamous recordings in which defendant Duane \u201cKeffe D\u201d Davis candidly discussed the shooting.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2013Lady Gaga<\/a> won a court ruling dismissing a lawsuit<\/a> that claimed her Mayhem album infringed the trademarks of a surf company that sells a brand of Mayhem surfboards.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2013FKA Twigs<\/a> defeated trademark infringement claims over her stage name, with a judge ruling<\/a> that an indie band named The Twigs forfeited its right to sue due to years of inaction.<\/p>\n

\n\t-A judge refused to dismiss<\/a> a copyright lawsuit filed against T.I.<\/a> by hip-hop producer Sir Jinx over his work on the 2016 Dr. Dre<\/a> collaboration \u201cDope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2013Elton John<\/a> and other celebs were ordered to repay<\/a> a \u00a39.54 million ($13 million) legal bill following the loss of their U.K. hacking lawsuit against the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

\n\t-A California appeals court seemed inclined<\/a> to affirm the dismissal of Jay-Z<\/a>\u2019s extortion and defamation lawsuit against personal injury attorney Tony Buzbee.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2013Los Lobos<\/a> reached a settlement with Sony Music to end a lawsuit<\/a> royalties for \u201cCanci\u00f3n del Mariachi,\u201d the band\u2019s collaboration with Antonio Banderas from the 1995 Western Desperado.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE BIG STORY: Two years after he was indicted on murder-for-hire charges, Lil Durk finally went to trial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7616,12999,1407,4826,67326,195,67327,43342,1408,67328],"class_list":["post-132057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-copyright","tag-genre-hiphop","tag-genre-kpop","tag-genre-latin","tag-genre-rap","tag-k-pop","tag-legal-beat","tag-legal-news","tag-music-news","tag-the-legal-beat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}