Prosecutors allege rapper Young Thug led gang as trial begins

A convoy of police vehicles transporting prisoners enters the Fulton County Courthouse on Nov. 27, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia. Opening statements began in the case against 31-year-old US rapper Young Thug and 28 others, who are facing a racketeering indictment accusing the defendants of a number of offenses that support an overarching conspiracy charge, including murder, assault, carjacking, drug dealing and theft. CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA / AFP

ATLANTA, United States—Prosecutors in Atlanta said Monday, Nov. 27, that rapper Young Thug was the “proclaimed leader” of a gang that “moved like a pack” to commit crimes, as opening statements in a long-delayed racketeering case got underway.

Controversy—notably over the state’s presentation of rap lyrics as evidence—and hiccups have dogged the sprawling trial alleging criminal conspiracy since jury selection began in January.

The US state of Georgia holds that Young Thug’s record label, YSL, is a front for a crime ring, arguing that the defendants belong to a branch of the Bloods street gang identified as Young Slime Life, or YSL.

“The evidence will show that YSL checks all of the boxes for being a criminal street gang,” said Fulton County prosecutor Adriane Love as she delivered the government’s statement, which she began by quoting Rudyard Kipling’s “Law of the Jungle.”

Love addressed the issue of songwriting head on: “We didn’t chase the lyrics to solve the murder, we chased the murder and found the lyrics.”

She read verses from Young Thug’s track “Take It to Trial,” saying the lyrics the prosecution had identified had “an uncanny similarity to very true, and very real, and quite specific events.”

Using the rapper’s legal name, she said “Jeffrey Williams’ words, that he promotes through songs with beats behind them—they aren’t random.”

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Her presentation was stalled several times, including because Love failed to disclose key parts of it to defense lawyers, as is required.

The mistake caused wrangling among attorneys and more delays, provoking the ire of Judge Ural Glanville.

Artists, or a gang?

Max Schardt began the first defense statement on behalf of Shannon Stillwell late Monday. The defense has a six-hour time limit, one hour per defendant, and statements were set to continue Tuesday.

The defense insists YSL stands for Young Stoner Life Records, a hip-hop label that Young Thug founded in 2016 and which, they say, amounts to a vague association of artists, not a gang.

Young Thug, 32, was one of 28 alleged street gang members originally swept up in a May 2022 racketeering indictment.

Six are being tried under the original indictment and deny all accusations against them. Many of the other defendants took plea deals or will be tried separately.

The accusations included myriad underlying offenses that prosecutors say support an overarching conspiracy charge, including murder, assault, carjacking, drug dealing and theft.

Wearing a white button-up shirt with a black tie and oval spectacles, Young Thug sat quietly in the courtroom as the judge detailed the charges against him and others for the jury.

The opening statements also did not start without a hitch: one juror had car trouble, meaning proceedings began nearly two hours late.

In attendance was Kevin Liles—the CEO of 300 Entertainment, under which Young Thug founded his label—who told journalists rap was being persecuted.

“If this were country music, rock music,” he said, “we wouldn’t be here.”

‘Punishing Black expression’

Liles was among advocates who lambasted the state for citing lyrics as admission of criminal activity.

In a motions hearing earlier this month, Glanville gave prosecutors the green light to present 17 sets of lyrics as evidence, provided they could link their content to real-world crimes.

Defense attorneys had sought to exclude lyrics from evidence, saying that “rap is the only fictional art form treated this way.”

Erik Nielson, a University of Richmond professor and specialist on the subject, told AFP earlier this year that prosecuting rap lyrics “resides in a much longer tradition of punishing Black expression.”

Nielson could not comment directly on the YSL case as he will testify as an expert witness.

The lengthy jury selection and Monday morning’s delays are part of a much longer road to come: it’s expected the trial could last well into 2024.

The prosecution has filed a list of hundreds of potential witnesses. The defense’s list includes family members and fellow rappers T.I. and Killer Mike.

Monday’s opening statements took place in the same Fulton County courthouse where former president Donald Trump is himself embroiled in a racketeering case over alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election. —With Maggy Donaldson in New York