The A$AP Rocky Case is Relli Dumb

South by Southwest 2019

Disclaimer: This article is based on publicly available information and personal analysis. It reflects opinions, not definitive facts, and is not intended to defame or mislead. Readers should refer to official court records and verified reports for accuracy. Any errors are unintentional and subject to correction.

A$AP Rocky, real name Rakim Mayers, is currently on trial for allegedly firing a semi-automatic handgun at former friend A$AP Relli (Terell Ephron) during an altercation in 2021. If convicted, he faces up to 24 years in prison—for what looks like a scraped knuckle that looks like it came from a bad skateboard fall.

This case should have never even made it to closing arguments. The only "physical evidence" the prosecution has came from the alleged victim himself, who miraculously discovered shell casings after police found nothing. 

No competent law enforcement agency found any forensic proof of a shooting—no gun, no matching casings, no bullet holes, no injuries consistent with gunfire. But suddenly, Relli walks onto the crime scene days later, and—what do you know!—he just happens to find shell casings.

How many times in history has a crime scene been swept by trained forensic teams only for the victim to waltz back in and conveniently find key evidence? 

Imagine being so lucky that you, and only you, are able to find crucial evidence that trained forensic experts completely missed. Either Relli has supernatural crime scene investigation skills, or—and here’s a wild thought—he planted the shell casings himself.

Just so we’re clear—the gun has not been found. When police raided A$AP Rocky’s house, they seized legally registered firearms, none of which had any connection to this alleged shooting. No matching bullets, no matching casings—nothing.

And Relli’s so-called “injury” doesn’t look like a bullet wound—not even a graze. Just some scrapes on his knuckles, the kind you’d get from falling on pavement, not from dodging gunfire. In fact, the way his knuckles were scraped perfectly aligns with how people naturally brace themselves when they fall.

When you trip and your hands hit the ground, all three knuckles make contact at the same time because they’re pressed against a harder surface, like the pavement. If it had been a bullet-related injury, you’d expect something irregular—an uneven mark, a deeper wound, some kind of tear. Instead, Relli’s hand conveniently has the textbook pattern of a natural floor scrape.

So either Rocky is the first person in history to fire a bullet that scrapes three knuckles in perfect formation without piercing the skin, or—just hear me out—Relli fell, scraped his hand, and decided to call it a shooting.

As if that wasn’t enough, Relli’s testimony has been an absolute disaster. He contradicted himself multiple times, got caught in outright lies, and even forgot key details—like why his girlfriend, who he claimed was close to him, somehow wasn’t captured on CCTV finding the shell casings he conveniently discovered.

During the trial, Relli testified that he returned to the scene with his girlfriend to retrieve those casings and even photographed them around 11:45 PM. Well, no surveillance footage from the area showed that either of them were actually there at that time.

So now, not only is the case built on zero forensic evidence, but the prosecution’s star witness is might be lying about how he found the only so-called “evidence” in the first place.

Even more absurd is the idea that a rapper—who regularly shoots music videos and needs to maintain an image—wouldn't be carrying a prop gun.

Prop guns are real guns that have been modified to fire blanks. They release hot gases but don’t eject projectiles. So what’s more likely: that Rocky, an entertainer who constantly works with prop guns, had one on him for intimidation? Or that he fired a real gun, hit nothing but air, and left behind only one of the most pathetically minor injuries ever presented as a “gunshot wound”?

This trial isn’t about justice. It’s about a bitter ex-friend trying to shake down a millionaire for money. The animosity between Relli and Rocky didn’t begin with this alleged shooting—it started when Relli assumed that Rocky had refused to pay for their late friend A$AP Yams’ funeral. Turns out, Rocky did pay, but by the time Relli found out, he was already too deep in his resentment to back down.

Still bitter over that misunderstanding, Relli started looking for ways to financially benefit from his association with Rocky. He wanted Rocky to support his failed attempts at being an artist manager and push his artist, FullClip Cash, into the industry the same way Rocky helped launch Playboi Carti. 

Rocky, understandably, didn’t oblige—he was dealing with his own legal troubles, including his high-profile arrest in Sweden. So now, he’s suing Rocky for $25,000 in emotional damages. Because, apparently, his knuckles got their feelings hurt.

And thanks to this absolute joke of a case, taxpayers' money is being wasted on a personal vendetta.

Even the judge isn’t buying it. When Relli claimed his “injury” from the shooting, the judge sarcastically responded, “Wow, I’m so glad you’re safe.” That tells you everything about how seriously this case should be taken.

The prosecution is so desperate they’ve resorted to whining about Rihanna bringing her kids to court—as if the sight of two toddlers watching their father fight for his freedom is somehow more outrageous than the fact that the so-called victim “discovered” the only evidence after police, forensic experts, and an entire crime scene investigation team found nothing.

Not a single professional—no detectives, no forensic analysts, no officers—could find a single shred of physical proof linking Rocky to this so-called shooting. But then, like divine intervention, Relli waltzes back to the crime scene and—would you look at that?—finds shell casings just waiting for him. 

Instead of addressing how this case is being held together with perjury and desperation, the prosecution is throwing a tantrum over children sitting in a courtroom.

If your case is so weak that the presence of two babies can derail it, maybe you shouldn’t be wasting taxpayer money pushing a provably fraudulent case in the first place.

The entire prosecution case hinges on:

1. A known liar’s testimony
2. Zero forensic evidence
3. Miraculously discovered shell casings
4. The weakest injury claim in history
5. A clear financial motive

So—What Actually Happened?

Here’s what most likely went down—at least in my opinion, based on the actual facts we have. And since this entire case has been built on speculation, contradictions, and “he said, she said,” I figure I might as well throw my own theory into the mix:

A$AP Rocky, like many rappers who need to maintain a certain image, had a prop gun on him—a real gun that had been modified to fire blanks, which is standard in the entertainment industry. During the argument, he pulled it out to intimidate Relli but never actually shot anything at him, just shot blanks. Prop guns don’t fire real bullets, they only release hot gas.

Relli, being the dramatic instigator he is, likely panicked, stumbled, and fell, scraping his knuckles in the process. The injuries weren’t even treated as gun-related at first because—shocker—they don’t look like gun injuries. The idea that a gunshot could produce scrapes identical to the kind of marks you get when your hand drags against a hard surface is absurd. For that to happen, the gun would have had to gently graze his hand at the exact right angle and velocity to perfectly mimic a natural scrape.

A$AP Relli wanted money. He tried to bully Rocky into financially supporting him and his failed entertainment business. When that didn’t work, he baited him into an altercation, fabricated a shooting story, and planted evidence.

And now he’s burning through his own bank account on legal fees while Rocky is still a millionaire.

At the end of the day, the only miracle Relli hasn’t pulled off yet is getting a real job.

If justice exists, the jury will see this for what it is: a cash grab disguised as a criminal trial. A$AP Rocky shouldn’t just walk free—this case should have never existed in the first place.