Rihanna Gives Thanks Following A$AP Rocky Not Guilty Verdict: ‘The Glory Belongs to God and God Alone’
A$AP Rocky jumped into Rihanna‘s arms after a jury acquitted him on both counts in the shooting case involving his former friend A$AP Relli (Terrell Ephron). A short time later, it was RihRih who was jumping for joy while celebrating the verdict, writing in her Instagram Story, “THE GLORY BELONGS TO GOD AND GOD ALONE! THANKFUL, HUMBLED BY HIS MERCY!”
She ended the post with a prayer hands emoji.
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The singer, 36, was on hand for the final days of the four-week trial in which Rocky (born Rakim Mayers) was facing significant prison time tied to an incident that took place in November 2021 in which he was accused of firing a handgun twice at Relli near a Hollywood hotel. The 36-year-old rapper was arrested in Los Angeles in April 2022 and hit with two felony counts of assault with a firearm and was facing a maximum of 24 years in prison.
After deliberating for around three hours, the jury returned its not guilty verdict on Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 18), prompting Rocky to jump over the railing into the arms of an ecstatic Rihanna, with whom he shares two young children, RZA, 2 and Riot, 1. Rocky also took to his socials to celebrate the end of the long-running case, writing on X “DON’T BE DUMB,” a seeming reference to his delayed fourth album of the same name that was slated to drop last August.
At the time, Rocky posted on X that “LEAKS & SAMPLE CLEARANCES ARE DISRUPTING THE ALBUM. ITS BEEN 6 YEARS & I WANNA MAKE THE BEST ALBUM EVER. IM SORRY FOR THE WAIT,” explaining the delay in releasing his follow-up to 2018’s Testing album. In a Billboard cover story last summer, Rocky said the delayed album was slated to feature frequent collaborator and friend Tyler, The Creator and former Smiths singer Morrissey, as well as an A-list roster of producers, including Pharrell Williams, Mike Dean, Hitkidd, Madlib, Metro Boomin and The Alchemist. “I sat and I played the album for Tim Burton, and he was f—ing with it heavy,” he said, adding that the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice director was “rocking his head” while listening. “He’s like, ‘Wow! I didn’t know you made that kind of music!’”
Though the official track list has not been revealed yet, Don’t Be Dumb has been preceded by a number of singles, including “Highjack,” “Tailor Swif” and “Ruby Rosary.”
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