FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Rapper Kodak Black will spend 30 days at a South Florida inpatient drug rehab facility, a Broward County judge decided Tuesday, days after she signed a warrant for his arrest.
Judge Barbara Duffy signed an arrest warrant for Black, whose name is Bill Kapri, on Thursday after a urinalysis Black took earlier in the month tested positive for fentanyl — a violation of his pre-trial release conditions, according to court records.
Black was arrested on July 15 on charges of trafficking in oxycodone, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and driving with an expired license. He was released the next day after posting a $75,000 bond and has been required to take random monthly drug and alcohol tests, court records say.
Black did not appear for a random drug test scheduled for Feb. 3 according to an affidavit signed by a pre-trial services specialist. Black did take a drug test on Feb. 8, when his sample tested positive for fentanyl, the affidavit said.
Defense attorney Bradford Cohen told the judge at a hearing Tuesday morning that Black failed to show up for the Feb. 3 testing because he was out of state for work. Cohen argued that he believed the positive drug test may have been an error due to a possible sample or paperwork receipt mix-up.
Cohen called the lab technician who administered the urinalysis to Black and another man on Feb. 8 to testify at Tuesday’s hearing. The technician said he watched as Black and the other man gave their samples in the bathroom and placed their cups on a table at the same time. The lab employee said it was possible that the two were confused.
The judge asked what the result was for the other sample, but the employee said he didn’t know, as it is sent off to a lab.
Cohen said in his years representing the recording artist, he had never seen a similar issue arise and Black had never tested positive for fentanyl.
“This is something that’s outside the range of what I’ve ever seen him test positive for, and I’ve seen him test positive in the past. I mean, it’s no secret,” Cohen said.
Duffy offered for Black to provide a hair sample for another test, which tests for a wider time frame than urine drug tests, but that test was not conducted. Cohen said in an Instagram post Tuesday that the pre-trial services program “does not provide hair sample services.”
Black has been arrested several times in South Florida in recent years. Prior to the July arrest, Black was arrested in Pompano Beach, where he grew up, on New Year’s Day 2022 for trespassing.
In May 2019, he was arrested on a weapons charge before he was scheduled to perform at Rolling Loud in Miami Gardens. He pleaded guilty and served about half of his federal prison sentence before Donald Trump commuted it on his last day in office in 2021.
Black’s philanthropy was noted in the White House’s statement about the commutations.
“Before his conviction and after reaching success as a recording artist, Kodak Black became deeply involved in numerous philanthropic efforts. In fact, he has committed to supporting a variety of charitable efforts, such as providing educational resources to students and families of fallen law enforcement officers and the underprivileged. In addition to these efforts, he has paid for the notebooks of school children, provided funding and supplies to daycare centers, provided food for the hungry, and annually provides for underprivileged children during Christmas,” the statement said.
Black, appearing in court in a pastel-colored pink, yellow and orange suit, briefly addressed the judge and asked for some of her Jolly Rancher candies before leaving the room.
“All the good deeds I do, all the good things I do never goes as viral,” Black said. “And I don’t know why people be so hungry to send me to jail ....”
Black will report for the inpatient program on March 7, after he performs at Rolling Loud in Los Angeles on Friday. Cohen said at the hearing that Black each year donates a portion of the money he earns from performing at the rap festival to a scholarship fund Black created at Nova Southeastern University Law School in honor of Meadow Pollack, one of the 17 victims who were murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.
“You better get it together,” Duffy said at the end of the hearing.
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