Lil Zay Osama is facing up to 20 years in prison after being indicted on gun charges.
The Chicago rapper (real name Isaiah Jaylaun Dukes) was arrested in September 2022 after he left a machine gun in the backseat of an Uber.
When the driver picked up Lil Zay and some friends from a Manhattan hotel, he noticed that the rapper had a gun which was then left behind in the vehicle, causing the Uber employee to phone the police.
While the weapon in question is a Glock pistol, it has been modified with a device that converts the gun into an automatic weapon.
New York authorities determined the weapon counted as an automatic weapon as it can “fire more than one round with a single function of the trigger.”
Lil Zay has been indicted for possession of an unregistered machine gun. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years behind bars, per The Messenger.
The 26-year-old rapper is already being held in custody but in Illinois regarding a different case.
He was arrested in Chicago in December and charged with possession of a loaded machine gun, theft of stolen goods exceeding $10,000 but not more than $100,000, and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number.
The police arrested Zay and two friends after they received information regarding a vehicle connected to a man who was wanted in suspicion of an armed robbery at a jewelry store. It was not established if Zay was the party being investigated for the armed robbery.
The trio initially led the police on a chase with a helicopter deployed to track them down.
It was reported that police found a loaded Glock 29 with a laser, an extended magazine and a switch that converts the weapon into a fully automatic machine gun and a loaded Glock 19 with a fifty-round drum magazine and a defaced serial number inside their vehicle.
The Chicago drill artist had previously asked for help from the likes of JAY-Z and Kim Kardashian in helping secure his release from prison relating to the 2022 charge.
He wrote on Instagram: “I Need Jayz Help.It’s crazy i thought people would say free me hoping i do better and wish the best. yall really in the comments and on blogs saying 20 and 30 plus ima get and yall hope i get time im dum and etc.
“Don’t believe everything u hear i been out here i know how to move dont believe everything u hear.”
If we don’t start to realize that this country will eventually come with some piece of legislation regarding gun reform and it will disproportionately affect black and brown people, while filling up prisons utilizing longer prison sentences we are in a world of trouble. And it will more than likely be supported by community outreach and legislative caucuses like the ’94 Crime Bill. We asked for it then, and enough of us in the future will press for it later until the next generation realizes how devastating it all was. We gotta smarten up.
Hip hop culture rewards it. I can see before the 2010s. That was a serious tense atmosphere, but to still be glorifying being a killer or a reckless madman? And then wonder why our youths are ready for death at a moment’s notice? Stop perform preaching and looking to make money off of pushing these destructive agendas. Stop promoting records about drug dealing, reckless killing or worse and things will change. People move to do what they get props for. Should be no props for selling your community down the drain with ill behavior to make dollars or clout.
This mf leaves a moded pistol in an uber. In New York, of all places. Then catches another weapon charge in another state. This dude is gonna be proof the legal system rewards stupidity every day