A$AP Rocky found not guilty of all gun charges
"Don't Be Dumb" coming soon.
As soon as I heard the jury came to a verdict in the A$AP Rocky trial, I immediately rushed down to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.
He arrived around 4:30 pm with Rihanna arriving shortly after. Once everyone was settled in the courtroom, the not guilty verdict was read. As the courtroom erupted into cheers, Rocky jumped over the bench and hugged Rihanna. This was the outcome I always assumed would happen.
The A$AP Mob rapper, born Rakim Meyers, was facing 24 years in prison. The state charged him with two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm stemming from a 2021 incident outside a Hollywood hotel room with his former childhood friend A$AP Rellie.
Prosecutors originally offered Meyers a plea deal to serve 180 days in jail. The rapper declined, claiming that it would ruin his career. Rocky is currently on the board of this years’ Met Gala as co-chair and is expected to star in a movie alongside Denzel Washington in a Spike Lee joint this summer.
Rocky said the gun was a prop, Rellie said it was real. We never saw the alleged gun, real or prop.
Many were doubtful Rocky would get off — but not me and 50 Cent.
After the verdict was read Rocky, Rihanna, his lawyer Joe Tacopina (aka A$AP Joe), spoke to the press.
“We want to thank God first,” Rocky told the media. “We gotta thank God first. And I really want to thank the jury for making the right decision. I am just so thankful. This is crazy right now. This whole experience has been crazy for the past 4 years. I’m blessed…I’m blessed to be a free man speaking to y’all right now.”
“Bottom line is we’re grateful for the jury they saw through this barrage of a case,” Tacopina followed up. “We said from day one, he was innocent. He turned down a plea for almost no jail time because he was innocent. And I’ve always said the extortion played out live, in color, in court.”
When asked how it felt to lose a childhood friend, Rih stepped in to answer the question for Rocky: “How do you think it feel?”
Tacopina also suggested the district attorney look into pressing charges against Rellie instead.
This was an obvious money grab and I am happy that a family gets to stay together — 24 years in prison is crazy. I had originally assumed since his team turned down the state’s offer they were super confident in their case. A lawyer friend of mine confirmed if the state offered just 180 days, they likely were not confident in the evidence they had and Rocky was correct to decline.
Now that the case is over, expect to catch Rocky on the Rolling Loud California stage in March, Met Gala in May, on the big screen starring in the Spike Lee joint Highest 2 Lowest this summer and the release of his forthcoming project Don’t Be Dumb.