Jurors in Lil Durk’s Los Angeles murder-for-hire trial were shown an unreleased 2021 music video, “Redman”, which prosecutors argue supports their claim that the rapper was motivated by revenge after the killing of his friend King Von. Defence lawyer Brian Steel said the staged video was artistic expression by a grieving musician, not evidence of criminal intent, making its interpretation a central point in the trial.

Prosecutors allege Durk Banks, 33, financed a 2022 attack on rival rapper Quando Rondo in Los Angeles, during which Rondo survived but his cousin Saviay’a Robinson was killed. Banks has pleaded not guilty; his lawyers deny he offered or paid any bounty, while Steel questioned whether investigators properly examined the video’s creative context and Banks’s grief following King Von’s death.