Thursday night was one for the books. Kanye West delivered a greatest hits set at the Memorial Coliseum in L.A. and brought out Drake in their first public outing together since patching up their feud. The Free Larry Hoover Benefit concert was made to raise awareness for the incarcerated GD founder, though there’s plenty of criticism surrounding how little mention of Hoover was made during the evening.
Brandon Magnus/Getty Images
As expected, the federal government wasn’t entirely pleased with Ye and Drizzy’s grandiose effort in support of Hoover. According to TMZ, law enforcement officials thought it was in bad taste that the two former enemies held a concert to raise awareness of Larry Hoover’s case. Prosecutors reportedly said that were “surprised” to see both artists push for Hoover’s release, calling Larry the “worst of the worst.”
The Free Larry Hoover concert took place nearly 50 years after Hoover was convicted and sentenced for his alleged role in the shooting death of a man. Prosecutors said Hoover wasn’t the triggerman but he called for the shooting. Hoover was sentenced to 150-200 years in prison for the murder before he was convicted for organized drug crimes after founding the Gangster Disciples. He was sentenced to 6 life sentenced in Supermax prison in 1997.
Those who’ve put their support behind Hoover argued that the lengthy sentence isn’t warranted since he was convicted on federal charges for drug distribution, not murder.
Hoover previously requested a compassionate release over the summer which a judge shut down. This came after Kanye West paraded through the Oval Office with a MAGA hat on attempting to convince Donald Trump to pardon Hoover.