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Family of Drakeo The Ruler sue promoters of the festival where he was killed

By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 7 February 2022

The family of the late rapper Drakeo The Ruler last week sued Live Nation and other promoters of the LA festival where he was killed last year, accusing them of negligence resulting in wrongful death.

The rapper, real name Darrell Caldwell, was stabbed shortly before he was due to go on stage at the Once Upon A Time In LA event last December. As the show was cancelled, Caldwell was taken to hospital but died as a result of his injuries.

In last week’s lawsuit, lawyers representing Caldwell’s family wrote: “Mr Caldwell’s lynching and eventual death at the hand of a violent mob of purported members of a Los Angeles based Bloods gang, while Mr Caldwell made his way through the backstage area of the Banc Of California [Stadium] performers stage, where he was scheduled to perform just minutes following the violent attack, was a result of a complete and abject failure of all defendants to implement proper safety measures in order to ensure the safety and well being of the artists whom they invited and hired to their music festival”.

“Shortly following Mr Caldwell’s murder”, it went on, “both media reports and social media accounts were set ablaze with scathing criticism regarding the overwhelming gang presence and complete and utter lack of security and law enforcement presence of not only the areas where festival-goers congregated, but the absolute incompetency and lack of care in securing restricted areas where performers were assigned”.

Defendants, the lawsuit alleged, “were completely knowledgeable of the potential dangers posed to both their guests and the performers that they hired based upon numerous past incidents of violence and death at their hip hop events, the prevalence of gang activity that would be present, not only because numerous artists they hired were associated with Los Angeles gangs, but also given the fact that the music festival was being held in South Central Los Angeles, one of the most dangerous areas in the greater Los Angeles region”.

Not only that, it went on, but defendants “were also knowledgeable to the fact that as a result of Mr Caldwell having been falsely accused of being involved with the murder of a member of an Inglewood Bloods gang, he was being targeted by the gang members in order to exact revenge, based upon this false information”.

“Had defendants … placed the safety and wellbeing of its guests and its invited artists ahead of profits”, the lawsuit then claimed, “there would have been an adequate security plan and sufficient security guards and law enforcement presence to have prevented the unnecessary and untimely murder of Drakeo The Ruler, at the hands of over 100 deadly gang members who inexplicably gained access to a restricted area of the venue engaging in an unrelenting and unprevented attack for over ten minutes”.

The litigation is seeking at least $60 million in damages.