CNN –
Prosecutors accused Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug of leading a criminal street gang that committed murders and a series of violent crimes in the Atlanta area over the past decade in opening statements in his racketeering trial Monday.
Fulton County Assistant District Attorney Adriane Love said YSL – the acronym for Young Thug’s label Young Stoner Life Records – actually stands for Young Slime Life, an Atlanta-based criminal street gang led by the rapper and affiliated with the nationwide Bloods -Gear is connected.
“YSL acted as a pact,” she said, and Young Thug was “King Slime.”
“They have created a crater in the middle of the Cleveland Avenue community in Fulton County that has sucked in the youth, the innocence and even the lives of some of its youngest members,” she said.
Young Thug, real name Jeffery Williams, is one of the music industry’s most innovative and influential hip-hop artists, pushing boundaries not only musically but often culturally as well – including his decision to wear a purple dress on his 2016 cover Album “Jeffery”.
He was charged last year 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 that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis used to indict former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants in August in connection with their alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Several defendants entered plea agreements last December – including rapper Gunna – while others were excluded from the proceedings. Young Thug is among six defendants who have pleaded not guilty to all charges and are standing trial in an Atlanta courtroom.
Young Thug’s defense attorney, Brian Steel, said the rapper is innocent in all respects and previously told CNN he “didn’t commit a crime.”
The prosecution’s opening arguments marked the start of what is expected to be a months-long trial that will test the state’s expansive RICO law, prosecutors’ highly controversial decision to use rap lyrics as evidence and Willis’ reputation ahead of Trump’s upcoming trial.
The jury selection took almost 10 months and was presented a suspected drug transaction in court and the arrest of a lawyer at the courthouse. The trial could feature a star-studded list of witnesses, including rappers Lil Wayne and Killer Mike.
The first day of opening arguments already featured heated arguments between prosecutors and Young Thug’s defense attorney, who filed a motion for a mistrial that was denied by the judge.
Monday morning’s trial was temporarily postponed due to a jury question. The State’s opening statement was further delayed as the parties dealt with complaints from defense attorneys about lack of access to certain materials.
Love’s opening statements alleged that the defendants acted in a manner that demonstrated “loyalty” to the gang and was part of an “unspoken agreement” to engage in illegal activities as part of the group, which went back a decade.
The alleged criminal group began as an ROC crew, Love said — which stands for “Raised on Cleveland” — and sometime in 2012, an internal split among its members led to the formation of YSL, and Young Thug became its “proclaimed leader.”
“The evidence will show that these defendants, the members and associates of YSL, knew who their leader was and that they knew the consequences if they disobeyed their leader,” Love said. “You will hear evidence that when YSL members and staff got into trouble and were jailed, the first person they called was either (Young Thug) or one of his family members.”
But those conversations usually took place indirectly, Love said, because the rapper “knew he had to distance himself from the crimes that YSL members and associates were committing in the name of the gang.”
Those crimes included armed robbery, kidnapping, motor vehicle theft, possession of a machine gun and murder, Love said.
“The state alleges that these defendants entered into an agreement – unspoken, but an agreement no less – to obtain property, valuables, cell phones, cars and stolen weapons through a pattern of illegal activities,” Love said.
Those crimes included the murder of Donovan Thomas, a suspected member of a rival gang who was shot and killed in 2015. In court documents, prosecutors alleged that Young Thug rented a car that was used in the murder.
“You will hear evidence that as many as 50 shootings took place over the course of the next few months following the murder of Donovan Thomas,” she said. “You will hear evidence that because of the rift that Young Slime Life had with other people in the community, hundreds, hundreds of bullets were fired into cars, into homes, into people.”
Marquavius Huey, Deamonte Kendrick (known as Yak Gotti), Quamarvious Nichols, Rodalius Ryan and Shannon Stillwell are the other five defendants in the trial.
Young Thug’s tracks have taken him to the top of the charts on multiple occasions and he has collaborated with artists such as Camila Cabello in “Havana”, Travis Scott and Drake. He won the 2019 Grammy for Song of the Year for co-writing the hit “This is America” with Childish Gambino and Ludwig Göransson.
The 32-year-old rapper was initially charged and arrested in May 2022 for conspiracy to violate the RICO statute and participation in criminal street gangs.
In a new indictment filed in August 2022, prosecutors filed additional charges against the artist related to gang activity, drug and firearms violations. The additional charges stemmed from a search warrant executed by authorities at the rapper’s apartment, where drugs and firearms were allegedly found, Steel told CNN affiliate WXIA.
The artist has been behind bars since his arrest last year and released his latest album, Business is Business, from prison over the summer.
This is a developing story and will be updated.