Rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again (aka NBA YoungBoy) was found not guilty by a Los Angeles jury on Friday of possessing a firearm and ammunition as a felon. YB, whose real name is Kentrell D. Gaulden, had been facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted. He was facing two federal gun trials; the additional one in Louisiana is ongoing.

The California gun possession charge stemmed from a March 2021 arrest in Los Angeles where prosecutors had a warrant. YoungBoy initially seemed to cooperate but took off in his Mercedes Maybach, leading officers in a “high-speed chase.” They ultimately found an FNX .45 caliber pistol and ammunition behind the front passenger’s seat, along with cash and jewelry.

The officers’ warrant stemmed from a September 2020 case where Louisiana rapper was one of 16 people picked up on drug, felony possession, and stolen firearm charges in Baton Rouge. Prior to that, he was already on probation for taking part in a drive-by shooting when he was arrested in 2018 on kidnapping, assault, and weapons charges for beating up a woman in a hotel hallway. In 2019, he was briefly jailed for violating his parole after getting into a shootout in Miami that left one bystander dead.

Lawyers for the rapper argued that YoungBoy had been unaware of an outstanding federal warrant and panicked when officers approached his vehicle in Los Angeles. He also allegedly didn’t know a weapon was in his car and there was no useable fingerprints or DNA linking YB to the weapon.

Judge R. Gary Klausner ruled to exclude lyrics from three YoungBoy songs in the case, which began last Tuesday. Prosecutors were arguing that the tracks “Gunsmoke,” “Life Support,” and “Lonely Child” referred “to an individual connected to the purchaser of the gun, the gun model found in his car, and the jewelry maker of the jewelry found next to the gun.”

The rapper’s lawyers countered: “It’s for entertainment. It is not an admission of other bad acts but it does paint the rappers in a bad light and the jury may infer from the song that Mr. Gaulden is a violent person and take those feelings with them into the deliberation room.”