The Atlanta rapper’s trial began on Monday. He is suspected, along with 13 co-defendants, of having participated in gang activities.
Is rapper Young Thug a member of a gang, is his music label a front for criminal activity, and are his song lyrics evidence that can be used against him? The trial of this hip-hop figure tried with 13 other people began Monday in Atlanta with a very long jury selection. It could be weeks before the parties agree on jurors, for a trial that could last a good part of the year.
Atlanta native Young Thug and his co-defendants were indicted in the spring by a Georgia state grand jury for their alleged membership in a branch of the “Bloods” gang identified as “Young Slime Life,” or YSL . Initials that correspond to those of his label founded in 2016, Young Stoner Life Records.
Judged for criminal association
The fourteen protagonists are tried for criminal conspiracy with a view to extortion of funds. In support of this accusation: alleged acts of murder, drug trafficking, violent car theft… Young Thug is on trial for criminal association and participation in the criminal activities of a street gang.
His arrest in May came as a shock to Atlanta’s influential hip-hop scene, of which the 31-year-old rapper, who has collaborated with the biggest names in the genre, is a figure. Jeffery Williams, his real name, grew up in the poor neighborhoods of Atlanta. Like 2 Chainz, he caught the eye of Gucci Mane, who signed him in 2013. His singles Stoner and Danny Glover later brought him fame.
Tattooed up to his face, he is known for his psychedelic and flamboyant style, and his rhymes tinged with voice crackles make him one of the best representatives of the trap current.
The case is emblematic because prosecutors used as evidence lyrics from some of Young Thug’s songs, those of fellow rapper Gunna – who pleaded guilty – as well as the verses of a posthumous song by Juice WRLD, died in 2019 of an overdose.
Will his music be held against him?
“If you decide to admit a crime on a rhythm, I will use it,” assured the prosecutor, Fani Willis, during the investigation.
This isn’t the first time hip-hop verses have landed in a courtroom. The defense, which insists that YSL is nothing more than an artistic label, called as a witness a specialist in the subject, the professor at the University of Richmond, Erik Nielson.
In his book Rap on trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America (untranslated) released in 2019, the latter indicates that the courts frequently use this controversial method: taking pieces of artistic texts out of context to support criminal prosecutions and convicting aspiring rappers or artists, most often African-Americans.
