Memo600 is standing firmly behind Lil Durk after the Chicago rapper emerged from his federal case without a conviction, while co-defendants tied to YNW face the prospect of lengthy prison time.
The rapper also rejected claims that Durk ever offered money for murders and said he believes divine intervention kept him far away from the entire situation.
The outcome left Memo with mixed emotions. “I was pretty shocked,” he said, adding that he was not entirely surprised by how some of those around the case behaved.
He drew a line, however, between the broader YNW circle and YNW Jam specifically. “Not Jam, though, but YNW,” he said.
That distinction matters because Memo had previously been one of the louder voices insisting Jam was not the type to cooperate with authorities.
He explained that his confidence came from reputation rather than personal history. “Bro, I ain’t never really met him, but I just heard a lot about him and know of him, you know,” he said.
Learning that Jam had incriminated himself hit hard. “I couldn’t believe it. He lost his mind, man,” Memo said.
He pointed to the gap between what Jam was originally facing as a felon with a gun, which he estimated at a few years, and the far more serious exposure that came from his own admissions.
Asked whether Jam simply made a foolish decision, Memo did not hold back. “6,000% for sure,” he said. He suggested Jam may have been trying to follow the example of another cooperating figure in the case without understanding the protections involved.
“He ain’t know what he was doing. He ain’t know about the immunity,” he said, adding that the other man “was smart.”
On the central accusation against Durk, Memo was blunt. When asked whether Durk ever suggested he would pay for killings, he answered, “No, hell no.” He argued the idea made no sense to begin with. “First of all, if y’all love this man like I love him, why should I have to pay y’all to do anything to somebody for him?” he said.
He also questioned the logic of anyone joining a violent mission alongside people they barely know, describing it as a basic street principle. That’s the number one rule in the world, not in Chicago,” he said.
Memo had a direct warning for young people who might read Durk’s legal victory as a sign that anyone can escape consequences.
He stressed that money and resources separate a famous artist from an ordinary kid in the streets, and that anyone attempting to copy that path should expect prison. “Your ass going to jail, shorty,” he said.
Reflecting on his own distance from Durk during the period that produced the federal case, Memo credited a higher power. “Yeah, I feel like that was God. 1,000% that was God,” he said.
With talk of another legal matter for Durk potentially arriving down the line, Memo admitted he has not studied it closely. “I pray to God he beat that, too,” he said, noting he is focused on his own affairs. “I got my own life I got to worry about.”
Memo explained that his absence from Durk’s court dates was not a lack of loyalty. He had been restricted to Georgia while dealing with his own case, which he said involves an alleged conspiracy connected to straw purchases of machine guns.
He denied involvement, saying simply, “It wasn’t me.” He added that the travel restriction has now been lifted. “My motion just got cleared that I could travel around the world now,” he said.
Had he been free to move sooner, his position is clear. “I was there 100% supporting him,” he said. “I definitely would have been at that courthouse.”
