Rapper X-Raided Says Menendez Brothers Are Cautiously Optimistic About Release

TMZ

X-Raided, a rapper who spent time behind bars with the Menendez Brothers, says Erik and Lyle remain "cautiously optimistic" about the prospect of potentially being free men ... despite a recent roadblock.

Transcript

00:00Have you talked to them by any chance?

00:04How are they doing?

00:05I'm so curious.

00:07I mean, it's frustrating to have these kinds of delays, but

00:10a delay is a lot better than a denial.

00:13Than for the resentencing petition, the withdrawal to have been granted.

00:19We'd rather be waiting than to have had that happen.

00:22We'd rather be waiting than to have the motion denied as a whole or whatever.

00:26So it's a little frustrating.

00:29But last night we did video chat with the family.

00:32Got to go see Miss Terry, who is doing a lot better.

00:35She's getting stronger out of the hospital.

00:38So that was really cool.

00:39And we talked to both brothers on video chat and

00:42spent some time with the family.

00:43It was beautiful.

00:44And how are they?

00:45I mean, are they hopeful?

00:47They are hopeful.

00:48These are some of the most wonderful people you could ever meet.

00:52It's an amazing family.

00:53I love these people.

00:54They've embraced me and just have been so kind.

00:57And they're just phenomenal human beings.

01:00And it's understandable how Lau and Erica come from a group of people of that caliber.

01:05And I've benefited from my proximity to them.

01:08It's a warm, loving, intellectually quick family.

01:13You know, they're just good people.

01:14And it's been a great experience.

01:16There's a cautious optimism.

01:19You know, there's a lot of hope.

01:21But I think, you know, you have to temper that and be prepared because there's a lot of rejection

01:26involved in this process.

01:28Being sentenced, being convicted, having your appeals denied, fighting, delays.

01:34It's a lot of disappointment going from 1989 to 2025.

01:39And so I think they just have to be cautiously optimistic.

01:42But, you know, it got to feel a lot better than being in there doomed and you're just

01:47there forever thrown away.

01:48Right now there is legitimate hope.

01:50And I believe we're going to win.

01:51I think we're winning.

01:53And this is, I'd say it's like a fish flopping around outside of the water hoping that the

01:58judge will throw it back in the water.

02:00The district attorney is losing his case and that's why we're seeing these type of histrionics

02:05and procedural battles because if he allows, if he was winning, he would say, let's go

02:10to court.

02:11Let's go.

02:12He wouldn't care about a document.

02:13He wouldn't care about any of that.

02:14He'd be ready to go.

02:15So, you know, nobody kicks and screams their way to winning.

02:18What was it like kind of like, you know, being in prison with them?

02:21Any like fond memories with them?

02:23My fondest memory was them helping me with my prepare for board, you know, in 2018 in April

02:30Lyle showed up and the three of us were reunited.

02:33I was the only person in the room when the two of them reunited after being separated

02:37for 22 years.

02:38So it was beautiful.

02:40And then we immediately got to work on my prep to go to board about a month later.

02:44And so I went through, I went to my hearing, I came back.

02:48They were the first people waiting for me when I came back and they were just so excited

02:52because they thought this would happen for me before I had faith or hope that I would

02:56ever be free.

02:57They were the two telling me that I was going to go home and they like nobody who's done

03:00as much as you should be here for the rest of their lives.

03:03And they started that process with me when they had no hope of being free themselves.

03:08So, you know, that's the kind of men they are.

03:10I love them.

03:11And that's why I fight for them the way I do.

03:13I mean, anything you would want to work on, on with them, what, if they are free, like,

03:17you know, you guys can kind of all be together, friends and everything like you ever think

03:22about that?

03:23When they get home, advocacy is the big deal for us.

03:26And right now, I got a lot of people in the email, my assistant, we're getting a lot of

03:31requests to go help people all over the country and we're going to continue to do that.

03:35So when Lyle and Eric get home, it just makes us that more stronger and the legitimacy involved

03:40in our movement.

03:42For criminal justice reform, it's a lot of people that need help out there.

03:45Louis Reed, the director at Reed Forum, is one of my closest friends.

03:50I did artists and athletes for Van Jones program.

03:54So it's a lot of things that I feel that we have the ability to do and accomplish with

03:59helping people because the criminal justice system in America, it's horrible.

04:03It's horrible.

04:04It's horrible.

04:05It's horrible.

04:06It's horrible.

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04:29It's horrible.

04:30It's horrible.

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