Courts
Darrylene Corniel settled her wrongful death lawsuit against the concert company, but claims brought by the rapper's son and brother remain set for trial next month
The mother of slain rapper Drakeo the Ruler has reached a settlement with Live Nation and several other companies over the fatal stabbing of her son backstage at the Once Upon a Time in L.A. music festival in December 2021.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed in a notice filed with the court, but the agreement was described as conditional, with dismissal contingent on “the satisfactory completion of specified terms to be performed within 45 days.” The language suggests the deal involves obligations that have yet to be fulfilled, potentially including a financial payment. Lawyers for both sides did not respond to requests for comment from Rolling Stone.
Darrylene Corniel, who is the administrator of her son’s estate, sued with claims that her son died “at the hands of a violent mob that was allowed into what should have been a protected and secured area backstage at the music festival.” The other companies involved in her settlement include C3 Presents, Contemporary Services Corporation, Black Tide Events, Bobby Dee Presents, and Hollywood Elite Security.
Drakeo, whose legal name was Darrell Caldwell, was stabbed in the neck by an unidentified assailant shortly before he was scheduled to perform at the festival on Dec. 18, 2021, authorities previously said. He was backstage with his younger brother, Devante Caldwell, a rapper known as Ralfy the Plug, as well as a personal security guard and several members of his Stinc Team music collective.
Corniel previously told Rolling Stone that a crowd surrounded her son around the time that rival rapper YG arrived backstage. No arrests were made, and the investigation appeared to stall for years under the California Highway Patrol, which took the lead on the homicide because the stabbing occurred on state-owned property.
In July, CHP investigators executed a search warrant at a commercial property in Burbank in connection with the killing, a CHP source confirmed to Rolling Stone. The source said YG, whose legal name is Keenon Daequan Ray Jackson, was affiliated with the property and was detained during the search. Jackson was released, and there were no arrests, the source said.
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Corniel’s new settlement does not resolve separate wrongful death claims brought on behalf of Drakeo’s young son, Caiden Caldwell, by the child’s guardian. It also doesn’t resolve the related negligence claims brought by his brother, his bodyguard Alrick David Cooper III, and his friends who were backstage that night. Those consolidated claims remain set for trial next month in Los Angeles.
In deposition testimony submitted in the civil case and first reported by the Los Angeles Times, Cooper claimed he saw Jackson “front and center” during the backstage brawl. Although the man he identified as Jackson was wearing a face mask, Cooper testified that he could see the man’s eyes and was confident of his identification.
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“I was fighting YG and YG’s bodyguard. And then YG produced a knife from his left hand, like out of his left hand, like almost like a movie like it came out of his sleeve or something,” Cooper alleged in the deposition, according to a transcript obtained by Rolling Stone.
Attempts to reach representatives for Jackson were unsuccessful Wednesday. Jackson has not been identified by authorities as a suspect or person of the interest in the killing.