A$AP Rocky friend and 'hype man' takes stand in shooting trial

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Hip-hop artist A$AP Rocky began his defense Friday in his assault trial by calling his old friend and “hype man” Jamel Phillips, a rapper in his own right who performs under the name A$AP Twelvyy.

Rocky, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, is accused of brandishing a semiautomatic handgun and pointing it threateningly at another old friend, Terell Ephron, before firing two shots at him. Ephron emerged from the 2021 altercation with nothing more than a few scraped knuckles, minor wounds he says came from one of the bullets grazing his fingers. Mayers says he was carrying a prop gun and that the shots he fired were blanks.

The incident was the culmination of rising tensions between Mayers and Ephron, who met in high school and are members of the A$AP rap collective. Two other members were there with Mayers that night: Phillips and Illijah Ulanga, otherwise known as A$AP Illz.

On Friday, Phillips testified that it was Ephron who started the initial confrontation.

“Relli just grabbed Rocky, just as soon as he seen him,” Phillips told the jury. “I was surprised because, from my understanding, these dudes were supposed to have a conversation.” He later added: “This was a friend of mine. I didn’t understand why his energy was so violent.”

Phillips said that Mayers pulled out the firearm but never pointed it at Ephron. According to Phillips, Ephron dared Mayers: “Shoot that fake ass gun!”

He later said that Mayers hadn’t even pulled the gun out — he merely took hold of it to keep it from falling to the floor after his pants were falling down during the scuffle.

After that first flashpoint, Mayers, Phillips, and Ulanga walked away. Ephron followed behind, shouting angrily at them, insulting them — calling Ulanga a “crackhead,” pointing out that Phillips lived “in the projects.” They turned the corner.

A block later, Phillips said, Ephron caught up to the other three and began punching Ulanga, “at least twice.”

“Rocky shot down with the prop gun to try to scare Relli off,” Phillips testified.

Phillips’ testimony stood in sharp contrast with that of Ephron, both in substance and style. Ephron, who took the stand for the better part of a week, appeared irritated to be in court, especially as the cross-examination wore on. He wore a black zip-up sweatshirt and mumbled frequently, had trouble recalling details of the incident that took place more than three years ago. Some of his answers were vague; some seemed to shift minute by minute. Others strained credulity: he said a tape that Mayers’ attorney tried to play of a phone conversation was a fake, made with the use of artificial intelligence.

Phillips, meanwhile, appeared sharp and alert, smiling calmly at times in his blue suit and tie. He spoke clearly and loudly, so much so that the judge asked him to push the microphone away from his face. He remembered nearly everything, even small details both the night in question and of events prior. He even cracked a few jokes, eliciting laughter from the courtroom.

Called to the scene to investigate reports of shots fired, police found little in the way of physical evidence. The evidence that prosecutors are relying on is frustratingly incomplete: they have snippets of security camera footage of the first incident, in which Mayers and Ephron appear to push each other; for a few seconds, Mayers can be seen holding a gun behind his back, then bringing it around and tucking it into his waistband. They have footage of the shooting itself, but it is without sound and far grainier, the action so far away it is impossible to tell who is who. As for physical evidence, Ephron says he found shell casings after returning to the scene, which police somehow missed when canvassing the area.

Their case, in other words, rests largely on a few seconds of video — played over and over again like the Zapruder film — and the word of Ephron.

Not that the defense’s hand is much stronger. Their prop gun defense was only wheeled out weeks before the trial; there’s no evidence that Mayers or any other witnesses said anything about it until the trial. And the defense team will not be presenting the prop gun itself. It’s unlikely that Mayers himself will testify, and so it will be left mostly up to Phillips to present Mayers’ narrative of events — and to stand up to the prosecutors’ skepticism.

During cross-examination, Deputy District Attorney John Lewin questioned Phillips about the prop gun defense — how, he asked, would carrying a prop gun be an effective deterrent against a violent crime?

“You could scare someone with it,” Phillips offered. “That’s the only thing I have.”

“Can you explain,” Lewin said, “how pulling out a prop gun Relli knows is fake is going to deter anyone?”

“The sound,” Phillips said flatly.

“The sound?” Lewin replied with mock incredulity.

Phillips explained: “It’s so loud that you think it’s a real gunshot, and you would move away.”

Lewin continued to hammer away at Phillips, trying to get him to admit that Mayers was the aggressor and had planned to attack Relli all along. Lewin asked Phillips about photographs taken by investigators of Mayers’ bedroom, where they found three real firearms, as well as ammunition. At one point, Lewin asked about a blanket, and the meaning of the letters on it: “AWGE.” Before Phillips could respond, Mayers, in a rare courtroom outburst, called out: “Don’t say.”

It was a curious moment — a joke, perhaps, or an Easter egg left behind for A$AP Rocky fans watching the trial, which is being livestreamed on various websites. AWGE is the name of a creative label founded by A$AP Rocky. On its website, the About page reads: “Rules… #1 NEVER REVEAL WHAT AWGE MEANS.”

After the jury left for the week, Superior Court Judge Mark Arnold, whose patience is long past the “wearing thin” phase, told Lewin he would only have 90 more minutes when Phillips returns to the stand on Monday.

“They had the victim on the stand for three days!” cried Lewin, sounding wounded. “I’m going through video where the witness is impeaching himself left and right.”

“The reason Relli took so long is because he was so uncooperative,” Arnold said. “This witness is answering the question… Four hours is enough.”

Mayer’s common-law wife, the pop star Rihanna, appeared in court in the afternoon. During a break, the two shared a prolonged embrace in the hallway. If convicted, Mayers faces up to 24 years in prison. The trial is expected to end sometime next week.

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