While serving a 46-month sentence in prison, Kodak Black managed to surprise Zendaya with an extravagant tribute for her 24th birthday. Fans weren’t quite sure how to react.
Kodak Black, 23, couldn’t wish Zendaya a Happy 24th birthday in person, so he arranged for an Instagram surprise instead. On Sept. 1, a video of a massive bouquet of black balloons being released into the air was shared on the rapper’s Instagram account, with a special shout-out to the Euphoria star. “Happy Birthday [party emojis] @zendaya,” read the post, which added, “#24 Balloons…for #24 years…Fly High.”
Fans piled into the comments section, not sure if Kodak was trying to flirt or simply be friendly. “My guys locked up and still shooting his shot,” one fan commented, while others left comments like “I’m confused” and “Your a good friend Kodak.”
Of course, Kodak presumably didn’t release these balloons himself. The “ZEZE” rapper is in the middle of serving a 46-month sentence in prison, which will follow an additional three years of supervised release. The rapper had pleaded guilty to “knowingly making false and fictitious written statements in connection with the acquisition and attempted acquisition of firearms from a federally licensed firearms dealer,” which the Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office reported after sentencing Kodak in Nov. 2019. Before the guilty plea, Kodak — whose legal name is Bill K. Kapri — had been arrested right before he could perform at the Rolling Loud festival in May of 2019.
While serving that prison sentence, Kodak was given another one-year federal prison sentence in April of 2020, after pleading guilty to “attempted second degree criminal possession of a weapon in New York,” according to Consequence of Sound. The sentence was in connection to his separate arrest in April of 2019, after he allegedly tried to cross the U.S.-Canadian border with a firearm. However, the sentence will run “concurrently” with his 46-month sentence, the outlet clarified.
Kodak’s attorney Bradford Cohen addressed this most recent guilty plea in an Instagram post in March, writing that Kodak “knew nothing about the firearm in the vehicle” and that it was allegedly “registered and legal to one of the other individuals he was with.” However, the attorney explained that the rapper just wanted to “resolve” the charge so that he “doesn’t lose anytime in federal.” Kodak has been arrested even more times in the past, and was most controversially accused of raping a woman after a concert in Feb. 2016.