Directed by Paris Barclay
Written by Richard Sweren & Elle Johnson
The victim of the episode is found in a recording studio, shot to death. The detectives find a "ghetto silencer", a soda bottle duct taped to a weapon. The victim is identified as a well-known hip-hop DJ. Fontana and Green believe that the truth behind a rap legend's murder may be found in some rap lyrics. The rap legend's protégé Four-Strike is brought to trial, but when he pays a friend to confess, the prosecution worries that neither person can be found guilty. Arthur Branch fires Serena Southerlyn from the DA's office.
And at the very end Serena Southerlyn delivers her (in)famous final line:
Say it with me now: "Is this because I'm a lesbian?"
Tropes found here, yo! (Spoilers Off)
- Firing Day: Branch dismisses Serena Southerlyn, having decided that her passion and sympathy for defendants made her a great advocate but a poor fit for her for her work in the DA's office, where she frequently butted heads with McCoy and Branch over politics and procedures. She remains the only Assistant District Attorney fired by the DA in the original show before it went into hiatus.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: The reference to the use of an orange soda bottle as a silencer links the account which posted it to knowledge of the crime, since the police never had released this fact.
- Put on a Bus: Serena Southerlyn is fired from the district attorney's office.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Branch cites that exact same phrase when firing Serena. He calls her a great attorney, but he finds her passion more appropriate for advocacy work than for being a prosecutor: "Advocacy is warm-blooded, enforcement's got to be cold-blooded, and blind, and even angry."
- Ripped from the Headlines: The death of Jam Master Jay of Run–D.M.C..
