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Defense attorney Toby Shook, left, speaks to his client rapper Yella Beezy during a July 16, 2026 hearing in\u00a0Beezy’s capital murder case at the Frank Crowley Courthouse in Dallas. Beezy, whose real name is Markies Conway, is accused of hiring a hitman to kill fellow North Texas rapper Melvin Noble, known as MO3.<\/p>\n
Juan Figueroa\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Dallas rapper\u00a0Yella Beezy\u2019s violence-filled lyrics are an artistic expression and shouldn\u2019t be taken literally, according to his lawyers.<\/p>\n
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But to the detective and prosecutors handling the rapper\u2019s capital murder case, the lyrics point to his guilt.<\/p>\n
Whether jurors will be able to hear them is up to State District Judge Chika Anyiam, the presiding judge on the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Beezy, whose legal name is Markies Conway, is charged with hiring a hitman to kill a fellow Dallas rapper who had been publicly feuding with him for years. Melvin Noble, known as MO3, was gunned down<\/a> in a November 2020 ambush on Interstate 35 in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n The 28-year-old rapper stopped his car and got out after being approached by another vehicle, according to police. Video footage obtained<\/a> by investigators showed a gunman from the other car get out and chase Noble before shooting him multiple times with a high-capacity rifle.<\/p>\n The alleged shooter, Kewon White<\/a>, was arrested about three weeks later. Conway, 34, wasn\u2019t charged<\/a> until last year, when he was indicted by a grand jury. Two of Conway\u2019s associates<\/a> have been charged as co-conspirators.\u00a0<\/p>\n The feud between Noble and Conway began in 2017. Conway\u2019s lawyers have argued Noble initiated the beef with the better known and more successful Conway in an effort to raise his own profile.\u00a0<\/p>\n The feud escalated in 2018 after the slaying of Noble\u2019s friend, comedian Roylee Pate, which the rapper suggested in his song \u201c2 Nineteen\u201d had been orchestrated by Conway. Just hours after Pate died, Conway was shot and seriously injured in a drive-by shooting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Lead defense attorney Toby Shook filed motions seeking to prohibit prosecutors from presenting lyrics from both rappers\u2019 songs at Conway\u2019s trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n The defense also asked Anyiam to keep out evidence about other shootings and assaults the men and their associates are alleged to have been involved in, including when Conway was shot multiple times while driving on Sam Rayburn Tollway.<\/p>\n