With Lil Durk’s fate now in the hands of a federal jury, Boosie Badazz is looking at a different part of the trial than the verdict Hip Hop is waiting on. His concern is how easily a podcast conversation can follow someone from a studio into a courtroom. The Baton Rouge rapper posted a warning on X Thursday after watching interviews become evidence in several high-profile criminal cases. He argued that artists need to think beyond music when considering what prosecutors might eventually use against them.
“THESE LAST WELL KNOWN CASES THAT HAVE WENT TO TRIAL PODCAST INTERVIEWS HAVE BEEN USED AS CRITICAL EVIDENCE TO TRY N CONVICT THE DEFENDENTS,” Boosie wrote. “WATCH WHAT U SAY ON THESE PODCAST. DONT AWNSER A QUESTION THAT U KNOW CAN JEOPARDIZE YOUR FREEDOM.”
He ended with a comparison that has followed Rap through years of arguments over lyrics and criminal prosecutions. “I THINK ITS MORE DAMAGING THAN THE MUSIC.”
That warning arrives while jurors deliberate in Durk’s federal murder-for-hire trial in Los Angeles. Prosecutors allege that Durk, whose legal name is Durk Banks, helped finance and direct a 2022 plot targeting Quando Rondo. Saviay’a “Lul Pab” Robinson was killed in the shooting. Durk has pleaded not guilty.
Read More: Lil Durk & His Co-Defendants Make A Unified Statement With Courtroom Suits
Podcast Interviews Have Already Entered Two Major Rap Trials
Durk’s case gives Boosie a timely example. As we reported, prosecutors used a clip from Durk’s 2023 appearance on DJ Akademiks’ Off The Record during closing arguments. Akademiks had asked Durk about people telling him to “slide for Von,” referring to calls for retaliation after King Von was killed in 2020.
Durk said he no longer heard those comments. Prosecutors pointed not only to his response, but also to Akademiks’ reaction, arguing that the exchange supported their theory that something had changed after the public pressure. Akademiks later said his facial expressions were for entertainment and denied that they carried the meaning prosecutors assigned to them.
The defense objected to how the government used the interview and sought an emergency hearing after closing arguments. The judge denied that request, leaving the jury to consider the evidence already admitted as it weighs the charges.
Read More: DJ Akademiks & Chud The Builder Go At It Amid Lil Durk Trial
Boosie’s warning also lands less than two weeks after Duane “Keefe D” Davis was convicted of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon in Tupac Shakur’s 1996 killing. Davis’s media appearances and memoir made up a substantial portion of the prosecution’s case, along with recorded conversations with investigators.
Durk’s jury continued deliberating Thursday without a publicly announced verdict as of publication.
