A security guard working with Drakeo The Ruler told court officials that rapper YG was “front and center” and armed with a knife during a backstage brawl at a Los Angeles-themed music festival that took the South Central rapper’s life in December 2021, according to newly available court documents.
The filings, first obtained by the Los Angeles Times, include excerpts from the deposition of former security guard Alrick David Cooper III, who testified under oath in March 2025 that he saw YG and two other men brandish knives and make slashing motions toward him and Drakeo The Ruler (legal name Darrell Caldwell Jr.). He was fatally stabbed in the neck backstage at the Once Upon a Time in L.A. festival at Banc of California Stadium and died early the next morning at a nearby hospital.
Cooper is an original plaintiff in an ongoing civil suit filed by the Caldwell estate against Live Nation Entertainment Inc.; an LLC related to Snoop Dogg that helped throw the event; and various promoters, accusing all parties of failing to protect Drakeo as he made his way to the stage to perform a 20-minute set at 8:30 p.m. that evening. The documents included Drakeo’s contract, which revealed he was paid $50,000 to perform.
In the first amended complaint, filed in 2023, Cooper claimed he was the only person frisked by security when entering the backstage area that night, and that he witnessed other large SUVs pass through security without being searched. Cooper provided further information about that fatal night in a March 19, 2025 deposition, partial excerpts of which were included in a June 2026 court filing that attempted to persuade a California judge to keep the suit alive.
Cooper stated that he knew the two artists were in a feud, saying Drakeo had recently dropped a song titled “Ingleweird,” dissing “The entire city of Inglewood.” He also brought up a 2021 interview that YG (born Keenon Jackson) did on the No Jumper podcast that allegedly alluded to a feud with Drakeo, with YG hinting that any problems they have will be settled offline.
He continued by stating that it wasn’t the first time he’s had to diffuse a fight between YG and Drakeo, testifying under oath that he’d had to break up an altercation after the two men ran into each other leaving a studio in L.A. one night. YG allegedly approached Drakeo and said, “What’s up with all that internet stuff?”
Cooper stated to court reporters that during the melee he only recognized one person: YG. And that he could tell it was YG because he’d worked near him in the past and recognized his “hazel eyes,” according to the deposition transcript.
Cooper also stated that security for the venue actively helped the attackers by blocking off passageways where Drakeo and his crew could have escaped.
News of these filings comes on the heels of YG being briefly detained on the morning of July 23, while officers with the California Highway Patrol searched YG’s studio to collect evidence related to the murder of Drakeo The Ruler, which was originally reported by TMZ. This was on the morning YG and The Game appeared on the webcast series Verzuz, and a Complex Magazine takeover that included a reimagined cover issue titled “Bomplex,” celebrating the Bloods and the gang’s relationship to the city of L.A.
"What's up with all that internet stuff?"