The attorneys for Lil Durk want the jury to hear part of his 2023 interview with DJ Akademiks during his ongoing murder-for-hire trial.
On Sunday (August 30), the legal team for the Grammy winner — Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg, Brian Steel and Christy O’Connor — requested that the federal judge admit a specific clip from his DJ Akademiks podcast interview, according to a court filing. The clip from Akademiks’ Off the Record shows the rapper, real name Durk Banks, dismissing 6ix9ine’s online antagonism against the Chicago rapper for not enacting revenge for the death of his friend King Von.
Durk’s attitude in this interview, they argue, shows the falsity of the prosecution's theory that public pressure to avenge Von's death motivated Durk to orchestrate a murder plot.
“I just don’t take him serious,” Durk says of 6ix9ine and other online trolls around the 44-minute mark of the video below. “They’re gonna do that, they’re gonna troll. It’s called clickbait.”
“The people I got behind me, the knowledge I got behind me, the leaders I got behind me, I try not to get into it with people,” he continues. “I’m trying to turn all the hate into love.”
The legal team argues that they need to include the clip to prevent the misunderstanding created by the government's excerpt. The lawyers also argue that the clip exhibits Durk’s actual motive, intent, and feelings toward 6ix9ine and public trolling.
Several other excerpts of the same interview have already been approved for use in the trial, but for the other side. The judge in the case has admitted four other excerpts from the interview, including a segment about “snitches and rats,” and cryptic comments about how calls to “slide for Von” have subsided “for some reason.” (The interview was recorded months after the shooting Durk is accused of organizing and paying for).
In addition, an excerpt a different episode of Akademiks’ Off the Record, this one featuring 6ix9ine, was also approved for use as evidence for the prosecution. In that excerpt, the rainbow-haired rapper criticized Durk for not “sliding” for Von.
6ix9ine has relentlessly trolled Durk throughout the case, most recently announcing that he’ll throw a “going-away party” if Durk is found guilty.
Durk is accused of arranging a murder operation of Georgia rapper Quando Rondo — which claimed the life of Rondo’s cousin, Saviay'a Robinson — outside a Beverly Boulevard gas station in August 2022.
Star witness Kacey “Jam” Hester, formerly of Only the Family, testified August 26 that 6ix9ine’s taunting got to Durk.
"He hated it," Hester said. "People was trolling him...it was getting to him. He didn't like it."
