In-House Counsel

Before Becoming GC Of The Golden State Warriors, This Lawyer Was A Rapper

He once judged Eminem in a rap battle. How cool is that?!

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As the general counsel for one of the most celebrated professional basketball teams in the country, David Kelly has his hands full. You’d think that, after logging 10-hour days at the Golden State Warriors’ practice facility, he’d return home to take a breather and relax. Kelly does do that, but he has a second job that he needs to attend to on nights and weekends: his critically acclaimed music.

Kelly, a former Katten Muchin associate, is better known as Capital D in some circles. You see, Kelly was once an underground rapper. A skilled litigator, Kelly once judged Eminem in a rap battle. He once opened for A Tribe Called Quest and Arrested Development. His last album, “Polymath,” was named Chicago’s independent album of the year.

“I always tried to be more thoughtful than your typical [rapper] — political stuff, racial issues, just the image people have of the black man or black people, I wanted to attack that,” Kelly said. “The image that black people have of ourselves, I wanted to attack that.”

David E. Kelly

A few years ago, while he was explaining things related to legal affairs to the Warriors’ rookies, he brought up the fact that he was once a rapper. Draymond Green, who started with the Warriors at the same time as Kelly, was intrigued, so he asked the GC to rap. “You don’t expect that from the general counsel, so, yeah, I was surprised,” Green said. “It was good, though. It was solid. It had the old-school type flow to it. It shows you a different side to him. It’s good to see that side.”

Kelly, a graduate of Illinois Law, says that working in sports is a dream, and “of any sport, basketball is a super dream,” but he doesn’t think that there’s such a big difference between being a rapper and being a lawyer. After all, in both fields, “you have to be a good writer who is quick on his feet.”

Does Kelly regret giving up the rap game? Or, in the words of Eminem, the great rapper he once judged, “If you had one shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment, would you capture or just let it slip?”

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Once in a while he thinks about how different his life would have been if he hadn’t gone to law school, if he had kept rapping full time. In the recesses of his imagination, he can picture himself as an artist similar to Common, someone who impacts the world through socially conscious music.

But then he looks at the life he’s given his family, and he can’t help but smile at the fact that his children have already been in two championship parades.

“You wonder ‘what if,’ but I don’t have any regrets,” he said.

Congratulations to David Kelly on all that he’s accomplished in his career. Just remember: If you ever get tired of working as a lawyer, it’s never too late to pursue a career alternative like music.

Warriors’ lawyer David Kelly was an underground rapper in Chicago [Mercury News]

Earlier: Partner Absolutely Kills It By Rapping At Law Firm Holiday Party

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky has been an editor at Above the Law since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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