Unreleased Lil Durk 'Redman' Video Shown to Jury in Murder-for-Hire Trial
Jurors at Lil Durk's federal murder-for-hire trial in Los Angeles were shown an unreleased music video on Wednesday that prosecutors cite as evidence of a revenge motive — while the rapper's defence lawyer dismissed it as art from a grieving poet.
The video, known as the "Redman" video, was filmed in January 2021 by Durk Banks, the 33-year-old rapper better known as Lil Durk. In it, Banks — wearing his then-signature blond dreadlocks — appears as himself reading news coverage of the November 2020 shooting death of fellow Chicago rapper King Von in Atlanta. The professionally produced clip shows Banks chasing and shooting an actor whom prosecutors say was portraying rival rapper Quando Rondo. The video used a toy gun and was staged so that "nobody got hurt," according to defence lawyer Brian Steel, who established those points while cross-examining FBI Special Agent Jarron Farmby. (Rolling Stone)
Prosecutors said Banks blamed Quando Rondo, born Tyquian Bowman, for King Von's death because the two men had been in a fistfight outside an Atlanta hookah lounge on 6 November 2020 — seconds before an associate of Bowman's fatally shot King Von. The "Redman" video, filmed about two months later, is cited in the federal indictment as an overt act supporting charges of conspiracy, stalking resulting in death, and murder for hire. (Rolling Stone)
Prosecutors alleged that roughly a year and a half after filming the video, Banks was so "consumed with revenge" that he hired a group of men to stalk and kill Bowman in Los Angeles. According to prosecutors, Banks paid for the plane tickets, hotel rooms, ski masks, cars and guns used when the group followed Bowman around Los Angeles on 19 August 2022 and opened fire on his vehicle at a gas station near the Beverly Center mall. Bowman survived. His cousin, Saviay'a Robinson, known as Lul Pab, was fatally struck. Prosecutors say one weapon used was a semiautomatic firearm modified to function as a machine gun. (Rolling Stone)
Banks has pleaded not guilty to all charges. If convicted, he faces life in prison. (Men's Journal)
The defence's strategy on Wednesday was to keep the "Redman" video inside the frame of artistic expression. Steel, the lawyer representing Banks, told the court: "It was an expression of art that never got released." He is a high-profile defence attorney whose previous clients include Young Thug and Sean Combs. Young Thug sent Steel to help represent Banks in the trial. (Rolling Stone; Men's Journal)
During cross-examination, Steel asked Farmby whether investigators had contacted the video's producer or videographer about how the concept was conceived. Farmby said he was not involved in that part of the investigation and was not aware of any outreach to Banks's record label about the video's artistic concept. Steel asked whether Farmby knew that Banks is a musical artist and a poet; Farmby replied, "That's what he does." (Rolling Stone)
Steel also suggested that people mourning a profound loss that "severs their entire being" might become so grief-stricken that they say or do things they would not do after more time to process the loss. Farmby said that was "possible." (Rolling Stone)
Another member of Banks's legal team said in her opening statement that the "All My Life" rapper "had nothing to do with" the killing and never offered or paid a bounty. (Rolling Stone)
The trial continues in federal court in Los Angeles.
