Drake ordered to appear in court for XXXTentacion murder trial

Drake has been ordered to appear in court in the current XXXTentacion murder trial.

• READ MORE: XXXTentacion – ‘Bad Vibes Forever’ review: a posthumous record of thin, over-embellished material 

XXXTentacion, real name Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was killed in a shooting aged 20 as he left a car dealership in Miami, Florida in June 2018. The trial for his murder began last week.

In December, the defense team for Dedrick Williams – one of the three suspects on trial for XXXTentacion’s murder – listed various artists including Drake, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Offset and late Migos rapper Takeoff, as potential witnesses.

Now, Billboard reports that defense attorney Mauricio Padilla believes that, because they had previously been feuding, Drake is possibly connected to XXXTentacion’s death. According to a court document obtained by Billboard, Drake was called to appear in court last month but failed to appear on his scheduled deposition date of January 27.

He is now being ordered to appear in court on February 24 via video link. If he fails to appear again, he may be held in contempt of court.

Billboard approached Drake’s representatives for comment but they did not immediately respond.

According to Padilla’s opening arguments, Drake and XXXTentacion’s feud began when the latter believed the former had ripped off his track ‘Look At Me!’ A year later, XXXTentacion posted a story to his Instagram that read, “If anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi,” tagging Drake’s Instagram handle. The post was deleted and XXXtentacion later claimed his account was hacked and four months later, he was murdered.

According to a December court filing, “Onfroy relentlessly taunted Graham on social media making statements about his mother and even posting a picture of a Drake look alike with semen on his face,” following frustrations that Drake didn’t help him when he was in jail from 2016-2017. XXX then allegedly asked DJ Akademiks to repost the photo, escalating the feud.

The filing later accused Drake of having ties to “gang related activities” while naming Somali Canadian rapper Hassan Ali, a “suspected member of the Jungle Bloods Street Gang,” as a possible associate. Drake was publicly connected to Ali via his own Instagram posts.

Elsewhere, Drake also recently made headlines for suggesting that musicians should get “bonuses like athletes” when they reach streaming milestones on Spotify. “[S]o feel free to send me a Lebron sized cheque. I have enough dinner plates,” he said.

The post Drake ordered to appear in court for XXXTentacion murder trial appeared first on NME.