Courts and Crime
At the rap star's murder-for-hire trial, his defense lawyer Brian Steel called him a poet who paints "pictures with words"
An unreleased music video filmed by Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk was shown to jurors at his Los Angeles murder-for-hire trial Wednesday, with prosecutors claiming it was evidence of a revenge motive and defense lawyer Brian Steel dismissing it as creative speech by a “grief-stricken” poet.
“It was an expression of art that never got released,” Steel said in a courtroom in downtown Los Angeles. The lawyer known for defending high-profile clients including Young Thug and Sean Combs called Banks the “type of genius” who paints “pictures with words” through his music.
Lil Durk, born Durk Banks, filmed the video in January 2021. In it, he appears as himself, reading news coverage of the 2020 shooting death of his close friend and musical protégé King Von in Atlanta. Banks, styled with his then-signature blond dreadlocks, was shown on screens in the courtroom chasing and shooting an actor whom prosecutors say was portraying rival rapper Quando Rondo.
