COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — When rapper Lil Reese was caught with pot Saturday night while apparently hanging out on an Engelwood block, he allegedly said to cops, "I got a little weed. So what?"
Lil Reese, given name Tavares Taylor, was on a sidewalk in the 6400 block of South Eggleston Avenue with other men when he was noticed by cops who were patroling gang spots, according to police documents.
The 20-year-old, who is signed with Def Jam Recordings, is also known for hanging out with Englewood rapper Chief Keef. He's a known gang member, according to police documents,
As officers approached Lil Reese and a group of men, known to be fellow gang members, the rapper looked in their direction and immediately turned and began walking down a nearby gangway, according to the documents.
Officers got out of their squad car and began walking up to the group when they saw Lil Reese take out a sandwich bag with "crushed green plant material" from his pocket before putting the bag back, the documents state.
Cops searched the rapper and found the bag along with $2,090 in cash in the pocket, according to the police documents.
When the officers asked him where the money came from, Lil Reese said, "It's mine. I got a little weed. So what? There's serious crime out there. This ain't a big deal. I'm gangster," the documents quote him as saying.
Cops recovered 4 grams of suspected pot worth about $24, according to the documents. A police dog sniffed the cash and determined it smelled like drugs, according to the documents.
The rapper was charged with misdemeanor pot possession and violating conditions of bail, and Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. set bail at $10,000 on Sunday.
Lil Reese has been arrested a number of times in recent months, most recently when he was charged with misdemeanor theft in June and released on bail.
In April, Lil Reese was charged in connection to a 2012 YouTube video that allegedly showed him beating a woman inside her Champaign apartment. Cops had arrested him in Chicago on a Champaign County warrant after they found the rapper sleeping in a car in the Fuller Park neighborhood.
