Lil Durk is usually the one making headlines in the Banks family. The rapper was vocal about his reaction to Kendrick Lamar’s new album, and recently discussed how he wanted to be a better father to his kids. He’s also been busy with music, announcing a new deluxe version of 7220 last week, and being listed as one of the performers for the Kodak Black Day Festival.
Now Lil Durk’s father, who fittingly goes by Big Durk, is in the news. The rapper’s dad was in prison for 25 years for drug dealing and was released a few years ago. In a recent interview with The Chi Podcast, Big Durk claimed that he was offered a more lenient sentence in exchange for information on Larry Hoover, and Durk declined.
According to Big Durk, when prosecutors asked him to snitch, he had a simple response. “I went in my pocket, pulled out the card to my lawyer,” Durk recounted. “I said, ‘Call my lawyer.'” The consequences were dire, but in Durk’s mind it was worth it. “Next thing you know, 26 years later, here I am,” he said. “A free man without telling, without compromising, without being someone I’m not.”
Durk had harsh words for people who take the other route. “Rats, stool pigeons, people who tell things to get out… We don’t live this type of life… We don’t believe in telling, we don’t believe in rats, we don’t believe in stool pigeons,” he said. “So for someone to try to tell you to tell on someone else to save your own neck… You get in this thing to hold your own weight.”
Larry Hoover is the co-founder of the Chicago-based Gangster Disciples. Recently, Kanye West and Drake held a concert to try to get him freed.
Check out more from the interview with Big Durk below.