Meek Mill Faces Backlash Over “Free Durk” Post

Lil Durk’s murder-for-hire trial prompted Meek Mill to look well beyond the charges currently before a federal jury. In a lengthy post supporting the Chicago rapper, Meek questioned why so many people close to Durk were killed and argued that the violence surrounding him should also be part of the conversation about how his life reached this point.

“Free Durk,” Meek wrote on X before describing him as “just a innocent kid from Chicago.” He then asked why Durk’s brothers, cousins, and friends were killed “in the greatest country on earth,” recalling a childhood spent playing SEGA, drawing and watching The Lion King. “Yall failed us and blamed us for everything!” he added.

The post drew plenty of criticism, particularly over Meek calling the 33-year-old Durk an “innocent kid” while he is standing trial on federal charges. Others took issue with the larger suggestion that Durk’s background should lessen his responsibility for choices made as an adult. Still, Meek’s argument was not simply that Durk should be viewed as a child. He was questioning how much attention is paid to alleged criminal behavior after years of violence compared with the conditions that preceded it.

Durk’s personal history gives Meek’s argument an obvious emotional foundation. His older brother Dontay “DThang” Banks was fatally shot outside a Chicago-area nightclub in 2021. King Von, one of Durk’s closest collaborators and longtime friends, had been killed in Atlanta the previous year. Other relatives and associates have also died amid the violence surrounding Chicago’s drill scene.

Meek appears to be asking why those deaths are often treated as background once someone like Durk becomes a defendant. His post frames the rapper’s life as one shaped by loss long before prosecutors accused him of helping orchestrate the 2022 shooting that killed Saviay’a “Lul Pab” Robinson, who was traveling with Quando Rondo. Federal prosecutors allege that the attack was retaliation for Von’s killing. Durk has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys have argued that prosecutors are wrongly placing him at the center of actions driven by others.

Check out a few reactions to Meek Mill's post below.