The Hip-Hop life has long had ties with a lifestyle that can get you caught up with the Hip-Hop police, no matter how much we don’t want to admit it. The truth is that the drama in hip hop is a key component and although prison isn’t wished on any man, the ones that beat their cases out of the Hip-Hop genre are glorified, at times helping to push their career. Many rappers have beaten cases fans didn’t believe were possible. We wanted to dive into some cases where the rapper was found not guilty!
Some of the more recent charges against Hip-Hop stars have gotten more and more complicated, specifically with the Diddy case which is still unraveling. Still, we just saw how complicated the Young Thug and YSL case was, so although Thug is home, he plead guilty. YNW Melly is another one, who dealt with a mistrial in his double murder trial, but is still awaiting a new trial. Melly has been in prison since 2019. Lil Durk is currently sitting in prison facing murder for hire charges, which look increasingly hard to fight considering the added OTF gang charges.
And if we go back in the day, Tupac Shakur famously was imprisoned for nine months over sexual assault charges. He was released on $1.4 million bail in 1995 while he appealed the case, so he was never officially found not guilty.
For clarity, Gucci Mane is often mentioned as a rapper found not guilty, but his murder charges related to the 2005 killing of Henry Lee Clark III (aka Pookie Loc) were dropped after prosecutors determined that the shooting was in self defense.
And while Jay-Z famously released the song, “Guilty Until Proven Innocent” with R. Kelly, the rapper actually pleaded guilty to assault charges in that 2021 case, as was hit with probation.
Rappers Found Not Guilty
Snoop Dogg
In 1995, Snoop Dogg was arrested for first-degree murder after his bodyguard killed a rival gang member. The verdict came down as an acquittal due to evidence determining that Snoop and his bodyguard acted in self-defense. The attention helped Snoop have a successful debut album, Doggystyle, which featured the single, “Murder Was The Case,” which was about the trial.
Boosie Bada**
Baton Rouge, Louisiana native Boosie found himself in the courtroom facing accusations of hiring Michael “Marlo Mike” Louding to kill Terry Boyd, a 35-year-old man who was shot and killed in 2009. In 2012, Louding changed his testimony on the stand to say that detectives forced him to make a false confession. That was the prosecution’s only substantial piece of evidence so the jury quickly found Boosie not guilty of first degree murder.
Diddy
Yes, Diddy is preparing for the biggest fight of his life, but Sean Combs has fought against the odds in court and won before. Back on Dec. 28, 1999, alongside then girlfriend Jenifer Lopez, the couple got into a nightclub altercation which ended up with shots ringing out. Three people were shot that night, leading to the arrest of Sean Combs and Bad Boy artist, Shyne. While many still dispute the details of precisely what happened that night, Shyne was found guilty of pulling out a gun and shooting 3 innocent bystanders. Combs was acquitted of all 5 charges after spending 2 months in jail and going to trial, with the help of O.J. Simpson’s defense lawyer Johnnie Cochran.
Shyne was found guilty of first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, and criminal possession of a weapon. Upon his release 8 years later he was deported to Belize.
Irv Gotti & Chris Gotti
When the New York offices of record label Murder Inc. were raided by the FBI on January 3, 2003, the entire Hip-Hop community gasped. Most thought for sure it was an end for Irv Lorenzo, his brother Chris, Ja Rule and everyone else involved with the label. It was alleged that the feds were in search of drugs due to the record label’s connection to former drug kingpin, Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff. The investigation and the trial were an attempt to show a money laundering connection between the label and the Supreme Team crew. They also tried to tie record label to the distribution of drugs and several homicides.
Irv Gotti and his brother faced 20 years in prison for laundering and other crimes. Fortunately both Irv and Chris were found not guilty after 2 days of deliberations, ultimately due to the lack of evidence to tie to the label to the Supreme Team.
The record label rebranded as The Inc. Records, but unfortunately never found it’s groove. Def Jam held off support, artists left the label, and the team was famously in the middle of a beef with rapper 50 Cent. Ja Rule later was convicted of tax evasion and had to serve a two-year prison sentence.
Cassidy
Philadelphia rapper Cassidy, born Barry Reese, was at the height of his career when he faced several charges related to the shooting of Desmond Hawkins and two other associates. Hawkins died, which led to first degree murder charges.
The interesting thing about this case is that Cassidy decided to waive his right to a jury trial, instead opting to fight his case directly with a judge. The gamble paid off. Had Cassidy been convicted of first degree murder he could have faced the death penalty.
The judge instead found the rapper not guilty of first degree murder, but instead found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault. Cassidy was sentenced to 23 months in prison, but since he was in jail from the time of his initial arrest, almost a full year before, most of his sentence was reduced as time served.
Not a full win for the rapper, but considering the possible life sentence, I’m sure he was satisfied.
Freddie Gibbs
Freddie Gibbs got in trouble with the law in Austria after a woman claimed Freddie raped her. Freddie admitted that he met 16 and 17 year-old women (the Austrian age of consent is 14) he then brought them to a hotel. 10 months later in May 2016 the woman claimed he raped her, saying she was intoxicated. Gibbs faced 10 years in prison for an official charge of “sexual abuse of a defenseless or psychologically impaired person.” After spending four months in jail he was able to receive bail but he had to fork over his passport.
Surveillance footage captured the alleged victims before and after the alleged incidents, which helped to eliminate the doubt of mental stability. The 2010 XXL Freshmen, was acquitted on September 30, 2016.
Lil Mosey
Seattle native Lil Mosey, who had the Billboard To 10 hit, “Blueberry Fuego,” was accused of rape due to an incident that occurred January 6, 2020. The alleged rape happened in a cabin in Washington state. A woman identified 3 suspects including Mosey and friend Band Kid Jay. The woman claimed that she arrived at the party with the intention of seeing the rapper, but woke up later after blacking out, realizing that she had been violated while she was unconscious.
Lil Mosey and Band Kid Jay were acquitted three years later in 2023. Mosey’s career has not recovered.
YoungBoy Never Broke Again
YoungBoy has a complicated history with the law with several charges over his rap career. A traffic stop on March 22, 2021, turned into a high-speed pursuit. Ultimately, the police found a gun in the rapper’s vehicle and he was charged with felony gun possession. Due to a prior case in 2017 the rapper was still on probation, so prosecutors looked to waive that probation, which would have lead to an automatic 10 year sentence. However, NBA’s lawyers argued NBA was unaware of the federal warrant and unaware of any weapon in the car, as no viable fingerprints or DNA could place the gun on Youngboy’s person.
On July 15, 2022, he was found not guilty of all charges.
Hurricane Chris
Hurricane Chris, born Christopher Dooley, fatally shoot a man at a Texaco gas station in his hometown of Shreveport, La. Chris, known for his hit, “Ay Bay Bay,” told authorities he was acting in self-defense as he believed the man was trying to rob him. On March 14, 2023, Chris was found not guilty of murder when the jury agreed with the defense attorney that the man who opened Chris’ car door had no good intentions.
A$AP Rocky
A$AP Rocky has been all over the internet for the alleged dispute that took place in April of 2022. The rapper was charged with allegedly shooting A$AP Relli, a former friend, who was part of his rap crew, A$AP MOB. The shooting allegedly occurred at a Hollywood parking garage.
Relli told officers he planned to meet Rocky to discuss differences when the altercation turned violent. Rocky allegedly pulled out a gun and shot Relli in the hand. Rocky was charged with 2 counts of assault with semi-automatic firearm and released on bond.
Just ahead of the trial starting, in late January Rocky rejected a plea deal, signifying that he was confident that he could beat the charges against him.
Relli testified at the trial and pointed out Rocky as the man that shot him. There was also video evidence of Rocky with a gun. However, Rocky’s lawyer alleged the gun was a prop that he started to carry around for protection, A$AP Twelvyy, who was present during the incident also testified to this saying Relli was the aggressor and Rocky shot the prop weapon at the ground to scare Relli.
It took the jury less than an hour to find Rocky not guilty. One of the most interesting details of the case was that bullet fragments or gun powder residue were not initially found at the scene. Relli allegedly returned to the scene on his own and found two bullets, claiming that the officers did not do their due diligence.
