By: Rory Zeman

Media Production Editor

Jurors in a case involving mega-hit rapper A$ap Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, acquitted Mayers of all charges in a trial for two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic weapon. If the jury had found Mayers guilty, he could have faced up to 24 years in prison.

On Nov. 6, 2021, Mayers and a few others met with A$ap Relli, another member of the Harlem-based hip-hop group A$ap, at a hotel in downtown Los Angeles after Mayers and Relli had been feuding for years. Reli, whose real name is Terrell Ephron, claims that Mayers, after an argument initiated between the two, pulled out a handgun from his waistband. Then, Mayers allegedly shot a round at Reli, lacerating his knuckles. In addition to the criminal case, Ephron is also suing Mayers in civil court over damages from the confrontation. Video surveillance footage of the incident shows that Mayers did in fact pull out a gun and fire it at Ephron. However, Mayers’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina– President Donald Trump’s former lawyer– claims that the gun was a prop gun.

Mayer’s friend Jamel Da’Shawn Phillips known professionally as A$ap Twelvyy, who appears in numerous Rocky music videos and collaborates with the rapper on various projects, testified for Mayers as part of the trial. Phillips testified that Mayers did have a prop gun that Phillips had seen numerous times before the shooting. He also claims that Mayers fired the gun as a warning signal with no actual intention of killing Ephron. During cross-examination, Ephron’s lawyers bombarded Phillips with questions about the firearm and Mayers’s intentions. For instance, the lawyer called into question why a fake gun could be used as a warning signal for anyone, to which Phillips responded, “It’s so loud that you would think it was a real gunshot and move away.” He also claimed that Mayers did not have any bodyguards or other security measures during the confrontation because it was “still COVID era.”

Police did not recover the gun that Mayers used during that day, and found no evidence of a shooting at the scene of the crime. However, days after the event, Ephron brought in two shell cases to the police to be used as evidence in court. Finally, Ephron’s lawyer asked Phillips about his intentions behind testifying and whether the ability of Mayers and Rihanna, superstar pop singer and Mayers’s wife, to ruin his life or use blackmail had any part in it. Phillips responded by affirming his unbiased role as a witness, stating, “I was actually there. I know the truth.”

With the trial’s completion, it has received massive attention on social media, especially considering the frequent attendance of Rihanna at the hearings. Furthermore, Mayers’s latest music video was also a nominee for Music Video of the Year at the 2025 Grammys, and the rapper is also set to be a headliner for LA’s Rolling Loud, a hip-hop festival, in March. Mayers, immediately after the trial, praised his lawyer and the jury for “saving my life.”

(Sources: ABC, CNN, NY Times)