The double murder trial of YNW Melly has netted him a lot of extra numbers on streaming platforms. Whether his supporters returned to his music, other tuned in out of morbid interest, or unfamiliar folks just wanted to know who this rapper is, the Florida native's music got a huge popularity boost. Moreover, his Spotify monthly listeners reportedly went up by 8.2% since his trial started on Monday, June 12. This reflects an additional 794,119 new listeners, adding to a total of 10,468,061 as of Monday, June 19. Of course, those metrics are bound to keep rising as the trial goes on.
Furthermore, we previously reported that he racked up two and a half million Spotify streams within the trial's first 24 hours alone. Not only that, but these metrics are all using only one streaming platform's data to measure them. If you crunch the numbers on sites like Apple Music or YouTube, surely there might be a similarly notable increase. Even though the trial has had no shortage of controversy so far, that's only making people more curious to check out YNW Melly's music.
YNW Melly Nabs Hundreds Of Thousands Of New Listeners
In fact, a particular ruling in court might motivate people even more to listen to the 24-year-old's work guilt-free. Last week, Judge John Murphy III rejected the "Murder On My Mind" music video as proposed evidence in the trial. This is due to, according to the judge, the video not furthering the case's pursuit of fact in the murders of YNW Juvy and YNW SakChaser. However, it would create a bias against YNW Melly due to the video and song's content, in a way that does not actually prove or pose any relevance to the deaths in question. For this reason, it was denied a place in the courtroom as a part of the prosecution's argument.
Meanwhile, said attempts at presenting improper evidence in the court's eyes resulted in the "223's" MC's attorney motioning for a mistrial. The defense accused evidence and testimonies of being prejudicial and painting a negative light in a way irrelevant to the charges. As such, the mistrial request will be the main topic discussed when trial resumes tomorrow (Tuesday, June 20). If accepted, that doesn't make him free just yet, but it does suggest that this will be a much harder case than the state probably thought. For the latest news and updates on YNW Melly, stay posted on HNHH.