10:47 AM PT: Video surfaced on social media showing Kanye West arriving at the Los Angeles courthouse.
Kanye West made a surprise appearance Thursday at Lil Durk’s federal trial, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation. Ye is currently inside the downtown Los Angeles courthouse, where Durk’s murder-for-hire case is playing out.
Kanye was seated in the second row, dressed entirely in black including leather pants. He arrived wearing black sunglasses but removed them once he sat down.
The appearance comes just days after Machine Gun Kelly showed up at the trial Monday in an overflow room to follow the proceedings. MGK and Durk have history together. MGK played guitar during Durk’s 2023 Amazon Music Live performance.
Kanye and Durk have collaborated multiple times. Durk has features on Kanye’s albums “Donda,” “VULTURES 1,” and “VULTURES 2.”
Durk has been in federal custody since his October 2024 arrest in connection with an alleged murder-for-hire plot. Federal prosecutors allege Durk sought revenge after his friend and fellow rapper King Von was fatally shot in 2020 outside an Atlanta hookah lounge. They claim members of Durk’s crew later targeted rapper Quando Rondo in California in 2022. Quando survived the attack, but his cousin, Lul Pab, was killed.
Durk has denied wrongdoing and remains in federal custody.
This isn’t Kanye’s first courtroom appearance in support of a fellow artist. He showed up to Diddy’s sex trafficking and RICO proceedings in New York City last summer.
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