Lil Durk received a sharp message from prosecutors on Monday in a filing caught by AllHipHop. The rapper had been attempting to dismiss the murder-for-hire charges that have kept him behind bars since October of last year. He cited the indictment referencing his verse on Babyface Ray’s “Wonderful Wayne & Jackie Boy,” despite him writing and recording the lyrics seven months before the shooting that led to the death of Quando Rondo's cousin.
“[Lil Durk] is not on trial for his lyrics or his music; he is on trial because he directed, orchestrated, and financed the brazen murder plot at issue in this case,” U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli wrote in the new filing.
He also alleged that witnesses in the case have been threatened. “The motion fails to cite any legitimate basis to dismiss the indictment or unseal grand jury transcripts, particularly in this murder case where witnesses and their family members have already been threatened,” Essayli added.
Durk originally filed his request to dismiss the charges in late April. At the time, he called for help from his fans after the government seized his unreleased track, "Scoom His Ass." “Durk has always used music to tell stories, to express pain to heal—and yet those same lyrics are now being used against him,” his team further wrote in a statement. “We refuse to stay silent as Black artists continue to be criminalized for their creativity. Rap is art.”
Lil Durk Jail
As for how Durk's been handling life behind bars, he put out an album titled, Deep Thoughts, back in March. Additionally, he revealed during an interview with DJ Akademiks that he's been learning to speak Arabic.
"I've been good, man," Durk said during the phone interview, last month. "Mentally, spiritually, I've been on top of my s**t. I'll be back out there, you hear me? Oh, thank you, I need all the prayers. I appreciate you. […] Yeah, you know, ain't nothing changed, bro. I've just been focused on life, my family and stuff like that. I'm trying to learn to speak Arabic in here. It's a couple of guys in here that know how to speak Arabic fluently. So I'm just learning the different words and tightening up my Arabic. Just getting my knowledge together."
