Will ASAP Rocky’s shooting attempt in LA derail his superstar career?

ASAP Rocky is about to hit the peak of his career — or have the worst year of his life.

The 36-year-old Brooklyn rapper and Rihanna paramour is set to drop his first solo album in nearly a decade and was announced as a co-headliner for Los Angeles’ Rolling Loud festival in March. The self-proclaimed “Fashion Killa” is also slated to serve as celebrity co-chair of the famed Met Gala in New York alongside LeBron James and Pharrell Williams, and he’s starring in a Spike Lee film expected to hit theaters and streaming services this time around . spring.

But his success risks being derailed in the next few weeks if he is convicted in a 2021 shooting in Los Angeles that could send him to prison for nearly 20 years.

Jury selection began Tuesday in a trial in which Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Mayers, faces two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He allegedly shot and wounded Terell Ephron, another founding member of ASAP Mob, the Harlem rap collective that helped launch Mayers’ career.

Mayers has denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyer, Joe Tacopina, has repeatedly attacked what he sees as the weakness of the case in court filings and media appearances.

Nearly a dozen Los Angeles police officers responded to the scene of the 2021 Hollywood shooting but found no evidence of a crime, according to court documents. Ephron later returned to the scene and found two shell casings, but there is no forensic evidence tying Mayers to the shooting and no eyewitnesses other than the victim, Tacopina said.

Ephron’s injuries were consistent with a wound, and Tacopina argued for the first time publicly Tuesday that the weapon involved was actually a “prop gun” that couldn’t fire real bullets.

On Tuesday, prosecutors offered Mayers a deal that would have meant he would receive seven years of probation and serve only six months in prison, but the rapper rejected it. Mayers, who appeared in a knee-length leather trench coat and a black surgical mask, appeared calm as he moved through the courthouse, stopping to thank a passerby for complimenting his jacket.

“The case against Rocky is fundamentally weak,” Tacopina said. “It relies on testimony from people who are not credible, and I believe the defense is very, very strong.”

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to comment on the strength of the evidence in the case.

Prosecutors allege that Mayers shot Ephron, also known as ASAP Relli, after a heated argument over Mayers’ alleged failure to pay for the funeral of another founding member of their group.

Ephron denied being jealous of Mayers’ stardom when he testified at a preliminary hearing last year, but he also said that virtually every member of ASAP Mob except for Mayers is “cracked or bummed.” Several have died from drug overdoses since the group was founded in the late 2000s.

“You are so fake, it’s sad,” Ephron wrote to Mayers in October 2021, according to evidence presented in court last year. “Never forget who introduced you to this life … when I was at my lowest, you looked at me like I was a piece of s—.”

Ephron later acknowledged that Mayers paid for ASAP Josh’s funeral. A month later, Ephron was staying at the Loews Hollywood Hotel when he woke up to missed calls from Mayers and two other founding members of the group: Illijah Ulanga, nicknamed ASAP Illz, and Jamel Phillips, known as ASAP Twelvyy, according to preliminary hearing statements. .

Mayers asked Ephron where he was, then sent a follow-up text that read, “Let’s get to it.”

The group eventually collided on Argyle Avenue near the W Hollywood hotel. In a confrontation partially captured on surveillance video, Ephron said Mayers grabbed him by the collar, pulled a gun from his waistband and pressed it against his old friend’s chest, stomach and head. Ephron testified that he yelled at Mayers to shoot, but the fight stopped as more people walked by.

Ephron said Mayers put the gun in his waistband and started to walk away. Ephron then began screaming insults at Ulanga and Phillips while cursing at Mayers, saying he was “letting him know how everybody feels — because nobody’s brave enough to say how they feel about this man.”

In response, Ephron said, “Rocky turned around and shot me.”

Video of the incident appears to show Mayers holding a gun, but it does not capture the shooting.

At last year’s preliminary hearing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Przelomiec showed a photo of several of Ephron’s fingers ripped raw, apparently the extent of his injuries.

Ephron alleged that Mayers fired three or four shots. He said he later texted the rap star accusing him of trying to kill him. Mayers mocked the accusers and accused Ephron of blackmail, telling him to “stop making up” and “call the cops if I ‘shot’ @ uu weirdo.”

Ephron did just that two days later when he walked into the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollywood station with two casings he said were from the scene, evidence officers in the same department apparently couldn’t find.

Tacopina — who previously defended President Trump against a civil defamation suit by journalist E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of rape — has pointed to the fact that Ephron also filed a civil suit against Mayers, characterizing the entire ordeal as a financial shakeup of Ephron.

On Tuesday, Tacopina said in court that he plans to argue that the gun involved in the incident was a prop and incapable of firing bullets.

“There’s a reason 10 police officers searched and didn’t find casings there,” Tacopina said last week.

The most successful of his sprawling New York rap crew, Mayers rose to fame in 2011 with a style defined by saucy bravado and self-mythologizing reminiscent of old-school legends like Rakim and the Wu-Tang Clan. He quickly found commercial success when he joined Kendrick Lamar as an opener on Drake’s 2012 arena tour. His next two albums, “Long.Live.ASAP” and “At.Long.Last ASAP”, debuted atop the Billboard 200.

In recent years, he has become tabloid celebrity as Mr. Rihanna. The two artists went public with their relationship in 2021. In 2023, they welcomed their first child, RZA Mayers, followed by another son, Riot Rose. Mayers appeared to have successfully transitioned into healthy fatherhood with both underground rap and high-culture recognition, including a famous 2023 Vogue cover that showed him and a pregnant Rihanna walking hand-in-hand down a beach as Mayers held their first child.

It is unclear whether Rihanna will join the lawsuit in support of Mayers. Tacopina referred to it as a “family decision,” and a representative for the “Umbrella” artist did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The lawsuit is not the first time that an encounter with the police has threatened to jeopardize Mayer’s career. He was arrested in 2019 in Sweden after a man alleged that the artist and his entourage had beaten him on the streets of Stockholm. His imprisonment became a minor international incident, with President Trump tweeting: “Give ASAP Rocky his freedom.” Mayers was convicted of assault and given a suspended sentence.

The trial could also provide courtroom fireworks between two bombastic lawyers. Across the hall from the brash and bruised Tacopina, who referred to his thick Brooklyn accent as “ridiculous” in court while speaking to potential jurors Tuesday, the district attorney’s office added one of its heaviest hitmen to the case in Deputy Dist. Atty. John Lewin, who won a murder conviction against notorious New York real estate mogul Robert Durst in 2021.

Neither Lewin nor a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office would comment on the reason for his last-minute addition to the case. He had not been involved in the case before 15 January. Charges were not brought against Mayers until August 2022.

A decorated prosecutor, Lewin normally handles cold cases for the Major Crimes Division, but had been sidelined for years when he was embroiled in a bitter and public feud with former Dist. Atty. George Gascón. Lewin, a political ally of newly elected Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman recently settled a lawsuit against the county that accused Gascón of demoting him in retaliation for criticism of his policies.

“I don’t care,” Tacopina said, laughing when asked about Lewin’s addition to the case last week, daring Hochman to try the case himself.

Times staff writer Matthew Ormseth contributed to this report.