Atlanta CNN –
After nearly 10 months of jury selection, one of the country’s most high-profile trials is finally set to begin this week in Atlanta.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has accused Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug of co-founding a criminal street gang that has been responsible for violence for a decade. According to prosecutors, YSL — the acronym for the artist’s label, Young Stoner Life Records — also stands for Young Slime Life, an Atlanta-based street gang affiliated with the national Bloods gang.
The artist was charged along with more than two dozen other people under the state’s sweeping Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act – known as RICO. It’s the same law Willis used in August to indict former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants in connection with their alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The searing indictment naming Young Thug has drawn national attention to the Atlanta courtroom, where opening arguments are scheduled to begin Monday ahead of what could be a lengthy trial with a star-studded witness list. The case also drew intense criticism because prosecutors used rap lyrics as evidence of the gang’s existence – a move that some say represents a racist violation of freedom of speech and artistic expression and the most recent case of assault on black art.
Here’s what you should know.
Young Thug, born Jeffery Williams, was arrested in May 2022 and charged alongside 27 other people, including rappers Gunna and Yak Gotti, in a nearly 90-page indictment. Several defendants reached plea deals last December – including Gunna and Young Thug’s older brother – while others were excluded for various reasons, including representation.
Six defendants, including Young Thug, remain in court. He has remained in custody since his arrest.
Steve Schaefer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS/ABACA Press/Portal
Atlanta rapper Young Thug listens to jury selection in the YSL case at the Fulton County Courthouse on September 26.
In court documents, prosecutors argue that the rapper is a violent gang leader and provide alleged examples to prove this: including threatening to shoot a security guard in the face; he had shown the alleged gang hand signal several times, including in social media posts; and he rapped about the criminal group. Prosecutors also alleged that members of the gang talked about getting permission from Young Thug to kill rapper YFN Lucci, the alleged leader of a rival street gang.
Young Thug’s defense attorney has vehemently denied the allegations and pointed to another side to the rapper’s life. At a bond hearing last year, a media executive and longtime friend of the artist testified that Young Thug was “put here to change the people around him.”
“The Jeffery I know? “The Jeffery I know ripped my clothes off,” said music industry veteran Kevin Liles.
A 15-year-old boy said the artist taught him, took him on tours and urged him to stay away from crime and drugs. “I told him my YSL meant ‘Young Successful Life’ because that’s what he created,” teenager Corey Jackson told the judge.
Raised in public housing in a south Atlanta neighborhood long known for its poverty and violence, the 32-year-old artist emerged as one of the industry’s most innovative and influential hip-hop artists, pushing boundaries beyond just musical ones , but also often transcended cultural ones – including in his decision to wear an iconic purple dress for the cover of his 2016 album “Jeffery.”
In the same year, he founded the record label YSL, with which the rapper helped close friends and family members achieve industry success. His tracks have taken him to the top of the charts on multiple occasions and he has collaborated with artists such as Camila Cabello, Travis Scott and Drake. “Business is Business,” the album he released from prison over the summer, shot to No. 1 immediately upon release.
Young Thug “did not commit a crime,” his lawyer Brian Steel told CNN. CNN contacted Steel for comment before opening statements.
“The court is hearing prosecutors say that Mr. Williams runs a criminal street gang and his word is that people can die,” Steel told CNN affiliate WXIA in an interview. “And that’s just not true.”
Steve Schaefer/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS/ABACA Press/Portal
Atlanta rapper Young Thug sits next to his defense attorney Brian Steel on September 26th.
Young Thug is “unjustly accused on every count,” Steel said, describing his client as “an amazing human being who comes from hunger, poverty and lack of opportunity.”
“He’s trying to lift others out of poverty,” Steel said. “That’s his life’s work.”
According to prosecutors, the YSL gang began in 2012 in the Cleveland Avenue area, near where the rapper grew up.
“I, the mayor and the police chief have talked about Cleveland being referred to as ‘Bleveland’ in our community,” Willis said in a May 2022 news conference, pointing to the area’s apparent connection to the nationwide Bloods gang. “It’s a place where violence occurs, where they stake out territory, blood territory. It’s terrible.”
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks during a news conference at the Fulton County Government Building in Atlanta on August 14.
To support their street gang allegations, prosecutors listed in the indictment more than 180 crimes the defendants’ group allegedly committed in 2012, including murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery, carjacking, drug trafficking, theft and possession of drugs Firearms during the commission of a crime.
Her evidence also included social media posts, hand signals, tattoos on clothing and song lyrics.
Young Thug was originally charged with conspiracy to violate the RICO statute and engaging in street gang criminal activity. In a new indictment filed in August 2022, prosecutors filed additional charges against him related to gang activity and drug and firearms violations. The additional charges stemmed from a search warrant executed by authorities at the home where the rapper was staying, where drugs and firearms were allegedly found, Steel told WXIA.
Young Thug is charged with eight of the defendants’ total 65 counts.
Among the more serious allegations against him is that he rented a car that was used in the murder of a rival gang member in 2015. According to the new indictment, the fatal shooting was carried out three days later by members of the YSL gang.
Other defendants still on trial include Marquavius Huey, Deamonte Kendrick (known as Yak Gotti), Quamarvious Nichols, Rodalius Ryan and Shannon Stillwell.
Additional defendants pleaded guilty to various charges in December 2022 prior to jury selection. Among them was Gunna, whose real name is Sergio Kitchens. The rapper entered an Alford plea to one count of alleged conspiracy to violate the RICO Act. An Alford plea allows defendants to maintain their innocence while acknowledging that it is in their best interest not to stand trial, said defense attorney Devin Rafus, who is not on the case.
Gunna was sentenced to five years in prison, with one year commuted to time served and the remaining four years suspended.
Scott Garfitt/AP
Rapper Gunna will perform in 2021 at the Wireless Music Festival Crystal Palace Park in London.
Young Thug’s older brother, Quantavious Grier – known as Unfoonk – pleaded guilty to one count of violating the RICO Act and one count of theft by receiving stolen property, according to CNN affiliate WSB.
Trontavious Stephens, known as Tick, also pleaded guilty to a RICO charge in December as part of a negotiated agreement, admitting that he was one of the founding members of YSL and that employees of the group had committed crimes.
Defendant Antonio Sledge, known as Mounk Tounk, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the RICO statute and one firearms charge. In court, he admitted that YSL was a criminal enterprise and that he had committed several crimes on behalf of and as part of the group.
He also admitted that he received money from Young Thug to “go into hiding” a few days after the fatal shooting of the rival gang member, according to prosecutors.
In the list of acts listed to prove a criminal street gang conspiracy, prosecutors used a number of rap lyrics, and earlier this month Fulton County Superior Court Presiding Judge Ural Glanville said he would reject the use of 17 Allow sentences in the process.
These include excerpts from “Young Thug,” in which the rapper says, “Got a lot of followers, a perfect leader… I’m a boss, I’m in charge”; “Come and enroll in YSL school and I swear I am the principal”; and “I never killed anyone, but I have something to do with this body.”
The inclusion of texts in the process is a move that has long been denounced as discriminatory by defenders, free speech advocates and artists.
“If you committed a crime and the state can prove it, then just prove it with the evidence that someone committed a crime. Why do we need to concern ourselves with their artistic profiles?” said Rafus.
Experts say rap lyrics are the only art form that has repeatedly been brought into courtrooms, mostly as incriminating evidence against artists of color. The YSL indictment reignited that conversation and sparked a movement against the practice.
In September 2022, California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill restricting the use of rap lyrics in criminal proceedings. The following month, a Northern California judge overturned the murder convictions of two black men, ruling that prosecutors’ use of rap lyrics from years before the murders likely introduced racial bias into the jury process. And this year, Louisiana’s Democratic governor signed the Restoring Artistic Protection Act, which prohibits a defendant’s “creative or artistic expression” from being used as evidence.
But Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, insists on her office’s blatant use of song lyrics, telling reporters in 2022: “I believe in the First Amendment, it’s one of our most precious rights.” However, the First Amendment does not protect people from prosecutors using (song lyrics) as evidence if they are such.”
The process could take months and involve stars
The lengthy jury selection process and numerous court hearings have already made chaotic headlines, from an alleged drug transaction in court to the arrest of a lawyer to the judge’s punishment of a woman who left the country and did not return for jury duty.
Twelve jurors and six alternates were selected. According to WSB, the jury includes six black women, two black men, one white woman, one white man, one Hispanic woman and another woman.
The trial is expected to last months and could include a star-studded list of witnesses. A list presented by prosecutors earlier this year of those who might potentially take the stand included rapper YFN Lucci and rapper Lil Wayne, while Young Thug Killer’s list of potential witnesses included Mike.