Our Thoughts On Tory Lanez's 10-Year Sentence

Rapper Tory Lanez has just been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the shooting of Meg The Stallion back in 2020. David, the internet is going crazy right now. A lot of split opinions, and we're going to talk about it. Yeah, this is big news. We're talking about everything from pop cultural websites, urban websites, all the way to CNN and NPR discussing this. Hundreds of thousands, realistically, millions of comments arguing back and forth. Some people thought it was too strong. Some people thought it was too weak. Some people thought it was right in the Andrew, some of the online headlines read fans divided over Tory Lanez 10-year prison sentence because some people are saying, oh man, he just got shot and she just got shot in the foot. Some people are like, what are you talking about? He shot someone in the foot. And I think there's actually a commentary on American culture because it involves two things that everybody loves that are very American, hip hop and guns, and just somebody getting shot. No, and celebrities. These two are celebrities. Usually when something happens, it's usually one celebrity and then someone else that's not a celebrity. But anyways, this is crazy big news because I would say that this is probably the biggest, most famous assault case between two music artists in decades. Right. Because usually, for example, R.I.P., whatever happened to Takeoff and the Migos with Quavo in the shootout, that was involving them and somebody that is not a celebrity, right? Right. So we're going to get into the comment section and we'll give you our analysis. But just to be clear, Tory Lanez just got charged for three felony counts, assault with a semi-automatic firearm, carrying a loaded unregistered firearm in a vehicle and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. Right. So so those are the three counts. That's why I guess it would seem like, you know, he's going to do 10 years or at least he'll probably be in prison for at least seven to eight years. Right. He'll do at least seven point five, I believe, or like seven point eight at this point or whatever given time served. But yeah, I mean, to be honest, Andrew, we are a fan of Tory Lanez music. You know, Megan Thee Stallion, I would say more of a female fan base, but I'm a fan of hers as well. Yeah. And that's why we're talking about I know this has nothing to do with Asians, but a lot of Asians listen to Tory Lanez. Yeah, that's true, because he kind of does this hip hop R&B style that can be very melodic, which I think is actually the style of rap or hip hop that most appeals to Asians. And honestly, his controller remix is like one of my favorite songs of all time. Man, I feel tempted to play it at the end of this video. But anyways, guys, let's be serious here. Yeah. Some people said, oh, my gosh, 10 years is crazy. Somebody saying, no, that's not crazy. He deserves the full 22 years that he potentially could have been capped at. And yeah, I do think a lot of Internet people probably guessed if you would have made me guess they would have he would have got three to six years. So we got 10, but he could have got 22. So it's kind of like in the middle. Is it kind of useless for a lot of non lawyers that have limited details of the case to go about and give our predictions and give our judgment? Or is it fair that this is what the Internet is for? A sentencing comes out and then everybody rushes to be an expert. And it's like, nah, man, he should have been done six years. Oh, he should have done three. Oh, he should have done 15. All of a sudden, everybody is an expert on everything. Yeah, I'm not a lawyer and I don't know all the details. I didn't read 100 pages of the case. OK, but obviously, you know, it was I'm sure the juror, the jury thought long and hard about this. I think a lot of people are commenting on how tribalistic the Internet comments section became. Somebody said the cognitive dissonance of the majority of people on hip hop, Twitter and Instagram makes me so effing mad, literally zero accountability for anything. If it's someone or an artist that they like, that makes dope music. Yeah, it is true. I think that people just want like because if you identify with that artist, you almost feels like that artist represents you. And when a representative of your group or your tribe or of your personality goes down, whether they pass away or they get thrown in jail or become villainized or get canceled, then you feel like, oh, that's canceling me. Is it just the same tribalism that you see in politics right now? Like, for example, you're a fan of Biden. So everything Biden does bad is lessened to you. You're a fan of Trump. Everything that Trump does bad. It's like minuscule or fractionated to you. Right, right, right. Somebody says, you know, I think it's the same thing that makes you great. That is often your downfall. I mean, I think there's a little bit more philosophical. But if you look at an R.I.P. to him to Angus Cloud, Andrew, the actor from Euphoria that recently passed away. He had a very nonchalant apathy about his life that made him such a great character to relate to in the show Euphoria, possibly similar direction that led to his downfall. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you watch Tory Lanez like, you know, I am a fan of his music and I thought he had he has a very, you know, crazy personality. Yeah. He almost seems like completely unleashed in his mind, like he took the limitless pill. You know how he has no limits when it comes to genres, because he'll do like hardcore freestyles on Funkmaster Flex and then he'll make like reggaeton music and then R&B music, the 1980s, like weekend style, like big hair crooning music. Yeah. I mean, I heard a quote. I was watching someone's video and it said like, you know, it was a night of pleasure that turned into a night of pain. And that is often how it happens. Right. You got guns around. You're drunk. You're partying. Something happens. Emotions are running high. You know, I've got emotional while playing sports. Obviously, you know, we don't have guns around. Thankfully, I think substances being underneath the influence. Cars don't mix, especially firearms do not mix. And also just your confidence as a celebrity. Oh, I can get away with anything. Oh, every woman wants me. Oh, I'm entitled to this. Things like that. And I think now in a crazy way, just in terms of early quick thoughts, his career is going to end up like a Tracy McGrady, Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Brandon Roy, in the sense where his talent level is like 10 out of 10. And we'll never really get to see where it goes because he's going to have to do like eight years right now. Right. I do think there's some larger Internet dynamics here. Man is fear versus woman is fear. Celebrity fan base versus celebrity fan base. People being falling into celebrity privilege, but people also having a backlash and being sick of celebrity privilege. Right, right, right. And also like Meg, the stallion kind of representing the image of such a strong, independent woman. You know, that's also just you know, she's a big woman, too, but she's very in charge of herself. But then she sort of on the offensive in this case, like in the terms of like pushing for the longer sentence. Yeah. And then Tory representing kind of like your player guy, you know, your dude, classical, toxic, high value. Yeah, male. Right. Somebody says he only got this sentence because of who she is. If he shot any random person, he'd be out in a heartbeat. America is so inconsistent with sentencing, guys. I'm not saying I support Tory Lanez, but how come it just seems like one crime, sometimes way worse, gets way less. And then a crime like this gets way more. So a lot of people, especially internationally, were commenting like, wait, how does the American legal system work? Well, yeah, because I mean, think about it. Somebody can get 30 years in prison for maybe like stealing or frauding people for like, you know, five hundred five million dollars or something like that. Like if you steal that much, but then will you get 30 years if you accidentally kill somebody in like a drunk driving accident? Right. Like I don't I'm not a lawyer. You like judge to judge. I'm not I'm not a lawyer, but not every single. It's not only based on like the amount of destruction caused, I guess. Somebody said, how did Pop Smoke's killer only get four years and then Tory gets 10 years? Obviously, that was not the person who pulled the trigger in Pop Smoke's murder. But yeah, to the point, I mean, it's just like it is it is pretty very well. Let me just put out these facts. And this is not a case against Tory. But I'm just saying after the shooting happened, he did violate a protective order to not be within 100 yards of the sally. He violated that. And then also during the whole trial, he got investigated for an assault case against August Alcina. So it's like he was just he's just kind of like he was just acting kind of wild. You know, he's just kind of having a bad attitude. Somebody said, I think it's so sad. He's so incredibly talented, but he needs to change those bad habits. And he had everything going for him in life. He should get no special privileges. Give him the full 20 years. Somebody said, what did he think he was doing? Handling a water gun? Or he thought he was Looney Tunes? Why does he want to play gangster so bad and treat life like it is a video game? Life is not a game at all. He thought he was going to get away with it 100% and get off scotch free. Yeah. I mean, why did you I do think that he was like acting like essentially nothing was going to happen to acting invincible. Somebody said, you know, he's got to do 85%. So that 2032 album is going to be crazy. Somebody said he's got the street cred now, I guess, but it depends on what happens to him in prison. He is kind of a smaller guy that generally doesn't play well in prison. Yeah. And someone says quotes his lawyer said his lawyer said, I've seen cases that involve death that don't get this amount of years. And which is the crazy thing, Andrew, because his base also defended Casey Anthony, who a lot of people thought was guilty. And she did get off completely for murder. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, the judicial system is not I don't know how to explain it. It's it's different. It's so complicated, right? Like there's a reason why like people try to get things trialed in like certain counties, they try to get moved, they try to kick jurors off. It's not a perfect system at all. But but you know, my hunch is that they gave Tory actually a couple more years, because he's a celebrity, and he has so much influence that if it shows that he gets off for shooting at a another superstar, another multimillionaire, what type of messages that sending sometimes they are trying to make an example out of people, you know, yeah, somebody said, Hey, we got good news and bad news. Good news is we got your payment, buddy. Bad news. They gave you a life. That was a actually a meme. We're gonna play that right now. You know, a lot of people are comparing comparing it to like different cases that happen, whether it's Henry rugs, Alec Baldwin, people are like comparing it to other celebrity cases that went this way or went that way. The truth is, like we said, Andrew, everything is within context. Tory had a lot of multiple prior arrests. Like you said, the way he was like, launching a whole album against Megan Thee Stallion, like with a lot of subliminals that probably played into everything. And also, you know, each of these three felonies counts as some amount of years, like, you know, having an unregistered loaded firearm in the vehicle that right there can get you a couple years, right? That's just a couple years right there. Of course, there was a whole, like legion of people that were against Megan Thee Stallion saying, Dude, she just got shot in the foot. She didn't get shot above the waist. You know, everybody now is a ballistics experts on major artery points and what constitutes as, you know, like that's a constant thing if you shoot them, but no below the knee, there's no way that's attempted murder. Yeah, no, I mean, he didn't get attempted murder, though. Attempted murder, he would even get more years. But I think that I believe the details easy shot at the ground by her foot and then her foot got the the bullet like shrapnel, like hit her foot. So basically, you should have someone's feet on the street. I mean, what are you trying to do? You know, a lot of people are saying, Well, murderers and rapists get less time. I don't actually know if that's true. I don't really see depends on the level of guys. There's like different levels of crime, like there's different levels of murder. There's different levels of rape. There's also different levels of assault. So it all just like burns when you get treated for actual temperature burns. There's different degrees, right? And you know, it's so contextual, guys. But of course, everybody on the Internet nowadays was like 17 years old is a legal expert. Somebody said, I can't believe the letter that Iggy Azalea asked the judge to give him leniency didn't give him a pardon. Obviously, this is a joke because Iggy Azalea wrote the judge on his behalf saying like, please lighten the sentence and people are like, Yeah, I'm shocked an Australian rapper writing something for a Canadian rapper to an American judge didn't do anything. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. Um, a lot of people were talking about the war between team male and team female that may have impacted like opinions on this because Megan Thee Stallion fans overwhelmingly are, you know, for even more harsher punishments. And it seems like Tory Lanez fans overwhelmingly, maybe not for zero punishment, but want lesser punishments. Yes. Yes. Is this just like a fan base thing? People are looking at the same facts, the same list and feeling very differently about it. A lot of people are saying dude, rap is so washed and low vibration in 2023. It's completely degenerate. It's full of criminals or people who aren't even criminals but think being a criminal is cool. All the artistry is gone. I just hate it. It's so disgusting. Where did all the artistry go? I used to love all the great artists like Lauryn Hill, etc, etc. There was a ton of comments on this. Um, you know, this is not like just a conservative comment. Like even older rap listeners and Charlemagne has echoed this recently saying that where hip hop is that right now for the last five, what 510 years? Extremely what? Low vibrational. Yeah. Uh, I mean, people criticizing it for being stupid music. I agree. I agree. I don't like a lot of the rap. I'm actually listening to a lot more. Um, like dance hall, reggaeton, Afro beat, Afro beats. Like I think the music coming out of Africa is really cool. It's soothing. It's a little, it's more positive. It's less violent. I mean, I still like rap. I still like Tory's music, even though he did talk about guns, drugs. Well, he kind of had like all across the spectrum. Yeah. He kind of switch. He kind of would kind of code switch. And then he was very chameleon, like in songs about women, like love songs. He might also tie in some gangster lines too, but either way it was enjoyable music. I'm not going to lie. I, I'm a fan of toys music. I think that there is still a lot of positive message based rap right now, but it's not just charting as well. Right. Whether that's Jay Cole or Kendrick or Russ or but, but it's just like, seems like where the dominant narrative is, is, Oh, if you can't play it at a party, you can't play it at a club. You can't play it at a strip club. Then it's not cool. Right. It's not catchy enough. It's not wavy enough. Somebody said asking for preferential treatment while having facial and necular tattoos is wild. Listen guys. I mean, it's 2023, but yeah, obviously your image matters. People try to turn this into a gun law discussion saying, well, clearly tougher gun laws in California wouldn't have prevented this because he was still able to get his hands on unregistered firearm. And of course there were conspiracies surrounding Def Jam and Jay-Z and potentially their connection with the FBI, getting him harder sentences and all these things. And these are all like the, to be honest, fun, but completely unfounded things to explore down the rabbit hole. Right. Anyway, we can discuss this forever. We are not a channel that discusses these things in depth. Um, but you know, this is a case that is just on everybody's minds. Um, do you have any major takeaways? I think for me, it's that, uh, you know, it's very interesting. I think an underrated element is the fact that it's superstar on superstar. And it's, it's black superstar, black superstar, black superstar on black superstar. They're both super rich. They both have the backing of very, very powerful people that are very, very connected. It changes it. Um, anytime you have a dynamic in a courtroom where a powerful person is going against a unpowerful person, uh, the powerful person has the leverage advantage, right. But it's powerful versus powerful. Yeah. I mean, uh, I, I think it is an interesting case. I mean, my personal opinion on his sentencing, I think he deserves at least like six years. I don't know if he deserves to do all 10. Hopefully he's out on parole after seven, seven and a half, whatever. I, but ultimately if he did the crime and everybody did their job, the prosecutor, the defendant did their job. The jury did the job. The judge did the job. Then I trust it. Or at least I'm just going to be like, whatever, you know, I'm not going to get emotional about this. Um, I will enjoy Tory Lanez music probably still, but at the end of the day, you know, I'm not, if he did the crime, he did the crime, man. And we have to come down hard on people, especially people who are influential. This kind of reminds me a little bit of the Kyson at situation where Kyson at accidentally incites a riot in union square of a bunch of youth, you know, and nobody got killed, but things got damaged. Things got wrecked in a couple of people got hurt. So, uh, I think Kyson at, for example, should pay a fine. I don't know if he should go to jail. I think you should pay a fine, you know? So I think you just have to do things right. So you're saying to incentivize people who are influential to not influence everybody else to do negative things. Exactly. There are more and more influential people in this world. There are more and more influencers and it seems like their influence is only growing. So you do have to put the influencers in check and ask, Hey man, what are you influencing people to do? If we let Tory lanes off, what does that mean? What that, uh, that, uh, that one artist superstar can shoot literally at another superstar artists. And that's okay. And I think that to the, to a, in a different field, that's why it's important that people find or jail people that are guilty of crypto pump and dumps because you don't want to incentivize this type of behavior in the future. No, exactly what I mean. Financial fraud, things that really jeopardize the system. And that's why a lot of people are bringing up Henry rugs, which is a wide receiver for the Raiders. He got involved in a deadly DUI crash back in 2021. It ended up, a woman did die and her dog died too. Um, but he's going to get, he's probably going to do like three to eight years, right. And someone died, but I think it's so clear that his intent was not to do that. Although it was reckless endangerment. You know what I mean? So it's like, yeah, should he get more? Should Tory get less? You can make these arguments about a few years here and there, but ultimately, I mean, he was in the wrong. Hey, listen guys, you know, in America, we have a very free system. We let people make those choices, but that doesn't not mean you are free from consequences. Let us know what you think in the comments section below. Was it too much? Was it too little? Do you not even care about this case at all? Is it just big because it's pop cultural or are there like obviously much larger takeaways, even if you don't care particularly about the two artists involved, uh, let us know, keep it civil until next time we'd hop out boys. We out. Peace.