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On November 7, rapper Lil Zay Osama was sentenced to 14 months in prison and a $10,000 fine for leaving a modified machine gun in the backseat of an Uber in 2022. The rapper pleaded guilty to the crime back in May 2024.
Born and raised in Chicago, Lil Zay Osama's original name is Isaiah Jaylaun Dukes. His music is also called pain music and explores violence and other negative emotions connected to his upbringing. Feelings like grief, trauma, and survival instinct have gotten priority in his work through the years.
Lil Zay Osama's legal team had originally wanted a seven-month sentence for the rapper, citing the deplorable condition of the Metropolitan Detention Center in which he was housed.
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The prosecution, meanwhile, was seeking a 27-month sentence but Federal Judge Nina Morison finally settled on a 14-month prison term.
What did Lil Zay Osama do?
On September 29, 2022, Lil Zay Osama and his friends were traveling to a recording studio in Queens via an Uber when the driver allegedly noticed the rapper handling a gun. The rapper allegedly forgot his gun inside and left the cab.
The driver notified the authorities and he was arrested shortly. It was reported that Lil Zay Osama's Glock pistol had been modified to function like an automatic machine gun. It allegedly had a device attached at the back, which made the gun fire several rounds with a single trigger press.
Despite being arrested on September 30, 2022, i.e., the day after the incident, the case was in limbo for a long time. Lil Zay Osama was even dismissed shortly after but the court allowed the prosecutors to revisit the case at a later time.
On January 24, 2024, the federal officers rekindled the case and announced an indictment describing the rapper's alleged crime.
"As alleged, Dukes brought a machinegun into our District, and then dangerously left it in the back of a rideshare. This Office, together with our law enforcement partners, will continue to work diligently to protect our communities from such dangerous weapons," commented United States Attorney Breon Peace.
Finally, on May 30, 2024, the rapper admitted to possessing firearms and pleaded guilty. He said (via New York Daily News):
“I knowingly possessed a firearm that was a machine gun in Queens County on Sept. 29, 2022. I know that it was wrong and against the law.”
After the November 7 ruling, U.S. attorney Breon Peace described Lil Zay Osama's crime.
“The defendant knowingly carried a fully automatic weapon — a pistol with a switch device whose only purpose is to make a dangerous weapon all the more deadly — and then carelessly left that gun in the back of a rideshare,” he said (via VIBE).
He concluded by issuing a warning against the possession of illegal firearms.
"Today’s sentence serves as a reminder to anyone who may bring an illegal firearm, especially one that has been modified to increase its lethality, into New York City: There are serious consequences for your reckless actions," said Breon Peace.
During his January 2024 indictment, the rapper was already locked up in his home state Illinois owing to multiple gun charges because of a December 2023 incident involving the robbery of a NYC jewelry shop.
