![]() Genuinely experimental, he frames his process in modest terms: “I’m in the studio so much, I’ll just try stuff,” he told The FADER in 2013. For a long time now, the once-transgressive Atlanta rap star Young Thug has been talking about making an album called Punk. In other words, Thug hasn’t adjusted to convention but brought convention to him. ![]() But the weirdest thing about what he does is that it works: Nearly every project Thug’s released since 2015-from the reggae-inflected JEFFREY to the country-ish sides of Beautiful Thugger Girls-has cracked the mainstream, laying the groundwork for a new crop of fellow eccentrics like Lil Uzi Vert and Playboi Carti. Starting with a prolific run of mixtapes in the early 2010s, Thug rose by pioneering a weird, ever-shifting flow somewhere between singing, rapping, mumbling, and squawking-pushing rap forward by pulling it apart. From his warped delivery to his radical, gender-fluid fashion sense, the Atlanta rapper (born Jeffery Lamar Williams in 1991) flies in the face of every unspoken rule for what hip-hop is, should, and could be. ![]() In this case, we put it as overt and predicate acts within the RICO count, because we believe that’s exactly what it is.You don’t get a lot of warning for an artist like Young Thug. However, the first amendment does not protect people from prosecutors using it as evidence if it is such. I believe in the first amendment, it’s one of our most precious rights. When asked about the use of music and lyrics in the indictment, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at a press conference, “This issue’s been ruled on by the courts - I knew that that question was coming. In each instance, prosecutors alleged that Williams’ lyrics constituted “an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.” Social media posts by Williams and others were tagged with the same allegation. In total, Young Thug lyrics from nine different songs were listed in the indictment, the earliest being 2014’s “Eww,” and the most recent being last year’s Young Thug/Gunna collaboration “Ski.” Other lyrics in the indictment came from Young Thug’s 2018 collaboration with Nicki Minaj “Anybody” (“I never killed anybody but I got something to do with that body”) 2018’s “Just How It Is” (“Gave the lawyer close to two mil, he handles all the killings”) and 2020’s “Take It to Trial” (“For slimes you know I kill, trial, I done beat it twice, state, I’m undefeated like feds came and snatched me”). ![]() The indictment’s heaviest accusation against Williams dates back to 2015, when he is accused of renting a car that was “used in the commission of the murder of Donovan Thomas, Jr., a rival gang member.” Insofar as Williams was allegedly a key figure within YSL, prosecutors accused two associates (Christian Eppinger and Antonio Sumlin) with conspiracy to commit murder “by discussing how to obtain the permission of ’Slime,’ AKA Jeffrey Williams, to make a second attempt to murder” Atlanta rapper YFN Lucci while he was incarcerated. The indictment contains allegations that Williams was in possession of stolen weapons, and that he possessed with intent to distribute methamphetamine, hydrocodone, and marijuana. Williams, whom prosecutors identified as a founder of YSL, was hit with two charges - violating the RICO Act and participation in criminal street gang activity - and beneath those umbrellas are a handful of serious accusations. Yeah, Spider, yeah (Slime) Verse 1 Okay, shit, I just woke up in an animal I just woke up in a Lambo' Flawless baguettes and the orange Richard I just had bust down a cantaloupe Niggas want beef. The rapper, real name Jeffrey Williams, was one of 28 members or associates of the alleged Young Slime Life “criminal street gang” arrested Monday, May 9, following a 56-count grand jury indictment (fellow rapper Gunna, real name Sergio Giovanni Kitchens, was among the others arrested and charged). Federal prosecutors appear ready to paint Young Thug as a key figure in a sprawling criminal operation, and they’re relying heavily on his music to do so.
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