Last October, Lil Durk (AKA Durk Davontay Banks) was arrested and formally charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, alongside other members of the Only The Family (OTF) collective.
The charges stem from an alleged 2022 attempt to murder rapper Quando Rondo—a retaliatory act following the 2020 killing of Durk’s close friend, King Von, by one of Rondo’s associates. While Rondo survived the attempt, his cousin, Lul Pab, was tragically killed during the incident.
Although Durk pleaded not guilty in November, prosecutors added more charges that same month, including one count of conspiracy, one count of using interstate facilities to commit murder-for-hire resulting in death, and one count of using, carrying, and discharging firearms (including a machine gun) in furtherance of a violent crime resulting in death.
The trial has since been delayed to October with a potential life sentence on the line. However, his legal team has a plan to regain Durk’s freedom.
It’s coming down to lyrics
Durk’s attorneys are arguing that the federal government presented the grand jury with misleading evidence: lyrics from one of Durk’s features, written six months before the attempted murder, were portrayed as a confession.
The lyrics were pulled from the track “Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy” with Babyface Ray (officially released three months before the shooting). According to the feds, Durk was “rapping about his revenge.”
“Told me they got an addy (go, go), Got location (go, go), Green light (go, go, go, go, go)/ Look on the news and see your son, You screamin’, ‘No, no’ (p****),” Durk raps on the song.
However, Durk’s legal team has submitted sworn affidavits from producers involved in the track’s creation, confirming that it was recorded in January 2022, which was well before the incident occurred.
“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, wrote. “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,” Durk’s lawyer David Findling said.
Prosecutors also pointed to a specific lyric (“No, no”) which they claim references Quando Rondo’s reaction in a viral news clip where he sees his cousin’s body, but Durk’s team argues that this connection is based on YouTube edits from fans.
“Mr. Banks did not create these videos, and the government has failed to show any nexus between these manufactured video clips and Mr. Banks…The internet users who posted the videos … are apparent ‘fan pages’ maintained by people with no affiliation to Mr. Banks,” Findling said.
As of now, the court has not issued any ruling on the motion to dismiss the charges. One thing, however, is clear: Lil Durk and his legal team are pushing back hard.
