How Lil' Kim's 'Get Money' Verse Helped One Survivor Put Her Rapist Behind Bars

Trigger warning: This article discusses sexual assault.


By Kelsey McLaughlin


The story is gruesome and familiar: A predator targeted and violated sex workers, completely confident he would get away with it. At hand, two girls also risked everything to come forward about the attacks they experienced. And one of those women’s social media accounts (and appreciation of classic rap) was key in protecting her character from the smearing of her abuser’s lawyers.


Ashley Griffin is 28 years old and works as a security employee in San Francisco. She loves reading and making up stories with her three young children, and she and her fiancé Charles like to cheer on her 9-year-old son at honor roll assemblies with giant homemade posters. Griffin used to be a honor student herself.


“I [even] got a pendant from the president of the United States,” Griffin told MTV News in a phone interview. Nevertheless her mother never showed up at school to support her.


The life she provides for her kids is very different from her own childhood, which was spent in Vallejo, California, with her mother and younger sister. The family member experienced long periods of homelessness and would take up home wherever they could. As Griffin remembers, her mother was physically and verbally abusive, and often used crystal meth. A couple of of her mother’s companions and boyfriends molested Griffin if she was a teenager.


She started drinking and smoking pot to cope with her trauma. Eventually, she turned to sex work, which she felt was one of few possibilities she had to create make some cash, get away from her mother, and regain her power from the abusers. She wanted to issue for herself, and to turn her pain into profit — or, in the words of one of her preference artists, Lil’ Kim, “Get money.”


Lil’ Kim’s legacy can’t be overstated. The groundbreaking New York rapper contained court because the sole woman in Brooklyn’s Junior M.A.F.I.A. Rap categorize. And among her several accolades and lasting impact is this moment: Earlier this year in a California courtroom, her lyrics inadvertently helped put a gentleman who preyed upon Griffin and other susceptible females in back of bars.


On March 16, 2014, Griffin was working in the Mission District of San Francisco once a gentleman in a white Escalade pulled up around 10 p.M. Soon after negotiating, Griffin got in the vehicle and was taken to a location unknown to her, where the man instructed her that he declined to pay for any services.


Griffin tried to get out of the vehicle, yet the man forcefully pushed her back inside her seat. He threatened that he had a gun; then, he raped her. While in the assault, Griffin cried. Every time she mentioned no, he stopped and hit her.


Griffin was later dropped off back in the Mission. Distraught, she ran into a nearby laundromat and called her then-boyfriend, DeShawn Mall, to take her to the hospital. She was pregnant at the time and scared for her baby. At the hospital, two condoms were noticed in her vaginal cavity and submitted for DNA testing. It was there that Griffin called 911 and announced her rape.


The man struck again on May 4. He picked up another woman (known in this article as M), who was working in a different segment of the Mission, and took her to the same location. Once M asked him to pay her the cash they had agreed upon, he took out a huge kitchen knife and contained it to her neck. He raped her, threatened her with a gun, and attempted to take her to another location; because the man drove, knife in hand, M determined she must escape. A bystander witnessed M jumping out of the vehicle and attempting to run away, so he pulled over to assist her and called 911.


Both Griffin and M were assured by authorities that they would not be prosecuted for sex work if they announced their assaults. Whenever he was arrested by San Francisco law enforcement on May 6, two days right following the second attack, both girls positively identified Edwin Rodriguez as their assailant.


District Attorney George Gascón motioned for the case to be brought to trial. “This case underscores the significance of San Francisco’s safety for sex worker policies,” he mentioned, according to court transcripts. “If we fail to prioritize this population’s health and safety they plan to not come forward and work with law enforcement as witnesses and victims of violence. Ultimately, unreported crimes and criminals pose a threat to everyone’s public safety.”


The crimes took place in 2014, however it took five years for the trial to reach court. Throughout that time, M underwent two surgeries and months of rehab for the ankle broke any time as soon as she jumped out of the moving Escalade. Griffin mentioned she was “stressed to the max” before the trial.


The wait was harrowing. So was the trial. Being in the same room with “him” was painful. “He just had this smirk on his face,” Griffin told MTV News. “He did not look like he had any remorse, and I just tried not to look at him while in my trial. I got on the stand and instructed them lawyer I didn't aspire to cry because I didn't want him to be able to see me weak.” She does not like to mention her rapist’s name.


Assistant District Attorney Lili Nguyen served as prosecutor representing the state of California. She has been prosecuting sexual assault, child abuse, and child sexual abuse cases for five years, and she is aware that standing trial often asks survivors to recall their worst memories.


“I tell them up front, ‘This is going to be very difficult,’” she mentioned. “‘Not only is it going to be very complicated, nevertheless you have got to talk about, with detail, probably the worst thing that has ever happened to you... Your whole character will also come under attack.’”


RAINN calculates that for every 1,000 sexual assaults, 995 perpetrators will walk away without jail time. Fewer than one in four of these 1,000 assaults are ever announced to police, for a myriad of reasons. While coming forward should habitually be a personalized decision, the fact remains that several survivors doubt if they can trust the police to believe them or treat them with humanity. That distrust can play into a survivor’s choice to report an assault.


The majority of people who have traded sex have experienced sexual violence at some point, and many fear going to the police because doing so might lead to arrest, or perhaps an assault. Plus it is fair to believe that the oppositional stigmas several people still hold against sex work can hurt a survivor’s chances should they and their abuser ever face a judge or jury in court. Had Rodriguez’s team convinced the jury that his assault of both Griffin and M had as an alternative been consensual encounters, such an interpretation would have done significant harm to the case. The characterization would have also willfully misrepresented California’s “yes means yes” definition of consent.


On the witness stand, Griffin repeatedly stated that she never engaged in sex work soon after her attack, due to trauma. However the defense did everything in their power to convince the jury that Griffin continued sex work — and implicated everything from a photo of her in a skirt and high heels (even though what someone wears is never an excuse for sexual assault) to her ex-boyfriend DeShawn Mall, whom they attempted to insinuate was actually her pimp. They also brought up her Instagram bio, which public defender Sujung Kim read in full: "#gemini, #mixed, finna bounce back soon... #Loveyourself... #Rathercount$$$ whenever you eat my pussy #immadietrying."


Kim argued that the “#rathercount$$$ as soon as you eat my pussy” portion was Griffin advertising sex work. Although throughout cross-examination, Nguyen pointed out: “That’s a lyric that was written and performed by Lil’ Kim, right?”


Right.





Lil’ Kim’s verse in the 1996 Notorious B.I.G./Junior M.A.F.I.A. Classic “Get Money” not only showed off her rap skills, however it also solidified her as a symbol of power and strength. “Get Money” went platinum and helped launch Kim’s solo career as a titan in the music industry.


Griffin mentioned that the question brought a moment of joy to the courtroom. “When the jurors began laughing, it was crazy because there was different ages, different nationalities,” she explained. “For everybody to know that song was surprising to me.”


The revelation also undermined the defense’s attack on Griffin’s credibility. “The jury began laughing, and yes it sort of blew up in the defense's face,” Nguyen said.


Griffin instructed them court that while she wrote the bio in 2012, she internalized it as, “get cash, to be trustworthy, [by] any means needed, as long as I’m not hurting anybody else.” She had written the bio years back, whenever she was still engaging in sex work, however not as an advertisement. It was a quote from which Griffin gathered strength and autonomy.


Nguyen pressed on. “And Kim isn't talking about prostitution any time she’s rapping that lyric; correct?”


“No, she’s — no, not from what I think.”


“She’s talking about how she’s finally made it on the Billboard ranking, correct?”


“Yes.”


On May 15th, 2019, Rodriguez was noticed guilty of 11 felonies and one misdemeanor, including aggravated kidnapping, assault, and criminal threats. He was sentenced to 74 years to life in prison.


In 2014, Griffin began working at McDonald’s. She hated the work (and the minimum-wage paychecks), so she made a switch to her current role as a security employee. She loves her job because it pays well and she accommodates keep people safe. She still rocks to Lil’ Kim.


“Her rap lyrics really inspire a lot of ladies and inspired me,” she mentioned. “When I was surviving in the streets, Kim’s music helped me.” Being capable of her own survival is just as critical to her today.


Right now, Griffin wants to help empower fellow survivors. “Take daily one hour at a time,” she mentioned. “Reassure yourself that your life isn't over and that whoever has assaulted you has no power over you. Don't think you're powerless.”