On May 30, he released “ Turn Myself In,” about surrendering freedom as part of this attempted murder case.
He signed with Def Jam in 2013 and remained there until last year, when he departed for Interscope. As drill was exploding and national attention focused on Chicago rap more generally, Durk’s early singles like “L’s Anthem,” “Sneak Dissin,” and “I’m a Hitta” earmarked him as a potential crossover star.
Though he’s only 26, Durk has been a significant figure in hip-hop for nearly all of this decade. Durk’s attorneys have tried to cast doubt on whether their client can be identified as the shooter, as Churchill admitted that the only time he believes the footage shows Durk shooting is when he’s inside a camouflage-colored Jeep. (Weatherspoon was shot once in the thigh, taken to a nearby hospital, and recovered.) Churchill testified that it’s possible Weatherspoon - who was armed - fired the first shot, after an altercation in the car he was in. Police allege that Durk and Von knew that the victim of the shooting, Alexander Weatherspoon, had $30,000 in cash on him, and he was targeted for a robbery. That shooting took place in the early morning hours of February 5 near the Varsity, a popular restaurant at the intersection of Spring Street and North Avenue in Atlanta. (While prosecutors are arguing that Durk and Von are members of Chicago gangs, Churchill testified Friday that he did not find any evidence to suggest that the shooting in question was gang-related.) The complete list of felony charges against Durk and Von is as follows: criminal attempt to commit murder, aggravated assault, possession of firearm during the commission of a felony, possession of firearm by a convicted felon, and participation in criminal street-gang activity. A judge found probable cause to do so after Jeffrey Churchill, a detective with the Atlanta police, testified that surveillance footage from outside a restaurant shows Durk firing a weapon from inside a vehicle. On Friday Chicago rapper Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Derrick Banks, and DeaVonte Bennett, a Durk protege who raps as King Von, were charged with attempted murder in a Fulton County, Georgia, courtroom. The focus on the maybe-Pusha slights, rather than wherever Drake’s omnivore streak takes him musically, underscores the way Drake the celebrity, in the public arena, consistently eclipses Drake the rapper. There are points on “Omertà,” for example, where Drake adds a halting lilt to his syllables the way Biggie often did. One thing that gets little attention - it’s overshadowed by conversations about the way Drake merges singing to rapping and outshone by the sheer wattage of his celebrity - is how often and how eagerly Drake adopts the cadences and vocal textures of the more popular New York street rappers from the ’90s. Last year, niggas got hot ‘cause they told on me” “Last year, niggas really feel like they rode on me Prince, the Rap-a-Lot founder who helped guide Drake’s career in its early stages, called for a cease-fire, citing some inflammatory future battle grounds that no party involved has yet to specify.) On “Omertà,” Drake raps: If the title wasn’t a dead giveaway, the song is the latest brick in Drake’s wall of Mafia cosplay, which makes it a natural canvas for veiled shots back at Pusha-T, whose beef with Drake culminated in l ast year’s scorched-earth “The Story of Adidon,” in which Pusha revealed that Drake had a son he’d yet to acknowledge publicly. The other, “Omertà,” is the subject of considerably more attention, and a bit more controversy. One, a Rick Ross collaboration called “Money in the Grave,” is mid-tempo comfort food. This batch, which he’s referring to as The Best in the World Pack, features two songs. To celebrate the win, Drake released new music the way he often has in the past: in a multi-single pack, in the middle of the night.
But word was the NBA asked him not to make the trip to Oakland, citing security issues - though some have speculated that the league wanted to ensure the rapper wouldn’t present another on-court distraction.) (He wasn’t in attendance for the clincher, which surprised many viewers. In addition to acting as a pioneer in horny wristwatch technology, Drake used the Raptors’ playoff run as a chance to reestablish himself as the city’s (maybe world’s?) most visible sports fan.
On Thursday, in what could be the last professional basketball game ever played in the city of Oakland, the Toronto Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors to win their first NBA championship.