{"id":1026732,"date":"2026-08-27T04:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T04:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1026732\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T04:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T04:36:17","slug":"lil-durk-trial-jurors-see-redman-video-defense-calls-it-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1026732\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil Durk Trial Jurors See ‘Redman’ Video, Defense Calls It ‘Art’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAn unreleased music video filmed by Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk<\/a> was shown to jurors at his Los Angeles murder-for-hire trial Wednesday, with prosecutors claiming it was evidence of a revenge motive and defense lawyer Brian Steel dismissing it as creative speech by a \u201cgrief-stricken\u201d poet.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was an expression of art that never got released,\u201d Steel said in a courtroom in downtown Los Angeles. The lawyer known for defending high-profile clients including Young Thug<\/a> and Sean Combs<\/a> called Banks the \u201ctype of genius\u201d who paints \u201cpictures with words\u201d through his music.<\/p>\n

\n\tLil Durk, born Durk Banks, filmed the video in January 2021. In it, he appears as himself, reading news coverage of the 2020 shooting death of his close friend and musical prot\u00e9g\u00e9 King Von<\/a> in Atlanta. Banks, styled with his then-signature blond dreadlocks, was shown on screens in the courtroom chasing and shooting an actor whom prosecutors say was portraying rival rapper Quando Rondo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn opening statements Monday<\/a>, prosecutors said Banks blamed Quando Rondo for King Von\u2019s shooting death because the two men were involved in a fistfight outside a hookah lounge on Nov. 6, 2020, seconds before an associate of Quando Rondo\u2019s fatally shot King Von. They said Banks was so \u201cconsumed with revenge\u201d that a year-and-a-half after filming the \u201cRedman\u201d video, Banks allegedly hired a group of hitmen to stalk and kill Quando Rondo, born Tyquian Bowman, in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to prosecutors, Banks paid for the plane tickets, hotel rooms, ski masks, cars, and guns that were used when the men followed Bowman around L.A. on Aug. 19, 2022, and eventually opened fire on his vehicle at a gas station near the Beverly Center mall. Bowman survived, but his cousin Saviay\u2019a Robinson, known as Lul Pab, was fatally struck. Prosecutors say one of the weapons used in the shooting was a semiautomatic firearm modified to function as a machine gun.<\/p>\n

\n\tBanks, 33, has pleaded not guilty. One of his lawyers said in her opening statement that the \u201cAll My Life\u201d rapper \u201chad nothing to do with\u201d the killing and never offered or paid a bounty. On Wednesday, Steel used his cross-examination of FBI Special Agent Jarron Farmby to challenge prosecutors\u2019 decision to cite the unreleased \u201cRedman\u201d video as an overt act in the federal indictment charging Banks with conspiracy, stalking resulting in death, and murder for hire.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tWith Banks watching from the defense table, Steel asked Farmby whether investigators had contacted the video\u2019s producer or videographer about how it was conceived. Farmby said he had not been involved in that part of the investigation. Asked whether anyone had contacted Banks\u2019s record label about the video\u2019s artistic concept, Farmby said he was not aware of such outreach.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou know Durk is a musical artist, a poet, true?\u201d Steel asked after establishing that the professionally produced video used a \u201ctoy gun\u201d and was staged so that \u201cnobody got hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s what he does,\u201d Farmby replied.<\/p>\n

\n\tSteel then turned to Banks\u2019 grief after King Von\u2019s death and some of the messages he exchanged with his associates. He asked whether people mourning a profound loss that \u201csevers their entire being\u201d might become so \u201cgrief-stricken\u201d that they say or do things they would not do after having more time to process the loss. Farmby said that was \u201cpossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawyer also used his line of questioning to suggest prosecutors weren\u2019t giving jurors the whole picture about how Banks processed the tragedy. He claimed investigators discovered communications in which Banks discussed King Von\u2019s death with an associate and said, \u201cYou need a therapist.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\n\tSteel also pointed to a 2021 music video released by Quando Rondo titled \u201cSoul Reaper,\u201d in which a blond-dreadlocked actor resembling Banks is kidnapped at gunpoint and shot.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMr. Bowman never got prosecuted?\u201d Steel asked after eliciting testimony that there were no convictions stemming from King Von\u2019s death. The agent said no.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat was art,\u201d Steel replied.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn opening statements Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Weiner called the case one of \u201crevenge, stalking, and premeditated murder.\u201d He said the evidence would show Banks used coded language to dispatch the group of gunmen. He pointed to an Aug. 18, 2022, text in which Banks wrote, \u201cDon\u2019t book no flights under no names involved wit me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Wednesday, Steel suggested the text had nothing to do with the flights booked using one of his management company\u2019s credit cards for the men charged as his co-defendants in the government\u2019s first indictment. Steel said that at the time, Banks had a friend getting married in Mexico who was expecting his attendance. The lawyer asked the agent if he knew Banks had recently suffered an injury that caused him to cancel his tour in August 2022. The agent said he did not.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe government\u2019s case relies heavily on cooperating witnesses, including Banks\u2019 former employee Kavon \u201cOTF Vonnie\u201d Grant, who has pleaded guilty. Prosecutors said Jerome Kacey \u201cOTF Jam\u201d Hester and Keith Jones also pleaded guilty and are cooperating.<\/p>\n

\n\tBanks\u2019 lawyer Marissa Goldberg told jurors in her opening statement that Grant acted on his own when he organized the August 2022 shooting plot. She said Grant was extremely \u201ctight\u201d with King Von, was with him in Atlanta the night he was killed, and became consumed with a desire for revenge. Banks, by contrast, \u201cchanneled\u201d his anger and frustration into \u201chis artwork,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMr. Banks had nothing to do with it,\u201d Goldberg said. She argued prosecutors have no evidence he paid anyone for the shooting. \u201cThis is a murder-for-hire allegation where nobody gets paid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tAn LAPD detective testified that GPS data from a rented white BMW helped investigators track members of the group to an In-N-Out Burger after the shooting. Surveillance footage and other evidence were then used to identify several suspects.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe judge has ruled that beyond the \u201cRedman\u201d video, jurors will be able to hear lyrics from several of Banks\u2019 songs, including \u201cPissed Me Off,\u201d \u201cWho Want Smoke??,\u201d and \u201cAhhh Ha,\u201d in which he raps, \u201cDon\u2019t respond to shit with Von. I\u2019m like \u2018Fuck it, you trippin\u2019, go get your gun. They droppin\u2019 locations, I\u2019m gettin\u2019 it done. Fuck tweeting, we slidin\u2019, the feds are comin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe use of rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials is controversial, with critics saying the practice chills creative expression and allows prosecutors to distort hyperbolic art in ways that reinforce racist stereotypes.<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tBanks\u2019 trial is expected to last three weeks. His wife India Royale and father Dontay Banks Sr. were in the audience on Wednesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An unreleased music video filmed by Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk was shown to jurors at his Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1026733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[11368,69714,171,152113,147352,410655,28375,67,132,68,80369],"class_list":["post-1026732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-controversy","tag-courts-and-crime","tag-entertainment","tag-king-von","tag-lil-durk","tag-quando-rondo","tag-sean-combs","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-young-thug"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117165620448691456","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1026733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}