Snoop Dogg’s company and another defendant are seeking dismissal as parties in a wrongful death/negligence lawsuit filed by relatives of Drakeo the Ruler, who was stabbed to death in the backstage area during a star-studded 2021 concert at what was then called Banc of California Stadium in Exposition Park.
Attorneys for Snoop Dogg LLC and Contemporary Services Corp. filed court papers this week with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James I. Montgomery contending that like the other previously dismissed defendants — USC, the Los Angeles Football Club and talent booking company Bobby Dee Presents Inc. — there are no triable issues against SDLLC or the crowd management and event security company.
“Nobody from SDLLC was present at the backstage area at the time of the subject incident,” Snoop Dogg says in a sworn declaration while adding that his company had no authority to manage the backstage area.
The 54-year-old “Gin and Juice” rapper, whose real name is Calvin Cordozar Broadus, was paid $500,000 for a one-hour performance at the festival, according to the SDLLC attorneys’ court papers.
Similarly, the CSC attorneys write in their pleadings that the artists’ entrance, the security checkpoint, the artist parking lot and the backstage area were not owned or controlled by USC or LAFC and so the areas also were not staffed by CSC pursuant to its contract with those entities.
“CSC’s only role at the festival was to provide crowd management services to the LAFC and USC properties…, the CSC attorneys state in their court papers. “Therefore, the fatal incident did not occur in any area of the premises where CSC was contracted to provide crowd management services, and as such, CSC also owed no duty to decedent or plaintiff.”
The 28-year-old Drakeo’s real name was Darrell Caldwell. He was attacked after a fight broke out behind the main stage of the Once Upon A Time in LA music festival on Dec. 18, 2021, and died later at a hospital.
Hearings on the dismissal motions are scheduled in September.
The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include Darrylene Corniel, Drakeo’s mother and the personal representative of his estate, and the hip-hop artist’s only son, a minor. The original complaint was filed in February 2022 and alleges the defendants failed to provide adequate security at the festival.
“Defendants, and each of them, 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 suit states.
Banc of California Stadium is now called BMO Stadium.
Drakeo was a Los Angeles native who released 10 mixtapes since 2015 and put out his first studio album titled “I Am Mr. Mosely” in April 2017. Critics have cited his unique flow and “oddly expressive, poetic word choices.” The Los Angeles Times called him “the most original West Coast stylist in decades.”
Drakeo recorded the mixtape “Thank You For Using GTL” at Men’s Central Jail while awaiting trial in the 2016 killing of a 24-year-old man, according to The Times, which said he was acquitted of murder and attempted murder charges. Drakeo later pleaded to conspiracy charges in connection with the killing and was released in November 2020.