(Atlanta) Is Atlanta rap star Young Thug “the proclaimed leader” of a criminal street gang that traveled in “packs”? The hip-hop figure appeared Monday on the first day of a controversial trial, where prosecutors plan to use the lyrics of his songs as evidence.
White shirt, dark tie, thin glasses and braids falling on his tattooed face, the 32-year-old rapper followed in silence, seated between his lawyers, the opening argument of prosecutor Adriane Love, who pointed to him several times as “the proclaimed leader” of a branch of the “Bloods” gang identified as “Young Slime Life”, or YSL.
Murders, drug trafficking, violent car thefts: “The evidence will show you that YSL checks all the boxes of a criminal street gang”, launched the prosecutor of Fulton County, in the state of Georgia, before the jury, whose selection dragged on for almost eleven months.
The rapper, who appears with five co-defendants during this trial, says he is innocent and his lawyers insist that YSL is only the acronym for his label “Young Stoner Life Records”.
After the prosecution’s opening indictment, the defense must still speak, before examining the facts. The trial is expected to last until at least 2024.
Do not forget the lyrics
The arrest in May 2022 of the singer of “Best Friend”, “Hot” or “Check”, crowned with a Grammy Award in 2019 as co-author of the “best song” of the year, “This is America,” had been a shock to Atlanta’s influential hip-hop scene.
Young Thug has collaborated with the biggest names in rap and pop, from Drake to Travis Scott, including Dua Lipa, Justin Bieber and Elton John.
He was indicted among 28 others accused of belonging to the gang, but some have since pleaded guilty and others are to be tried in separate trials.
What makes the case even more unusual is the use as evidence by prosecutors of lyrics from certain songs by Young Thug (meaning young thug), another rapper, Gunna – who made a deal plead guilty –, and a posthumous title from Juice WRLD, who died in 2019 of an overdose.
“We did not look for the words to resolve the case, we resolved the case and we found the words,” put the prosecutor into perspective.
Adriane Love read verses from the song “Take it to trial”, and highlighted their “disturbing resemblance to very true, very real, and very specific events”.
Pointing to Young Thug with his marital name, she assured that “the words of Jeffrey Williams, which he promotes through his songs, on rhythms, are not the result of chance”.
The prosecution retained 17 extracts from Young Thug which constitute confessions to the crimes of which the rapper is accused.
His lawyers sought to exclude those lyrics from the exhibits, saying the use of verses could unfairly influence jurors.
“A system that persists”
An argument defended by many supporters of freedom of expression and players in the music industry, who fear that this practice harms the creativity of artists and disproportionately affects African-Americans.
“If it was country, or rock… we wouldn’t be here today,” lamented Kevin Liles, the co-founder of the music label 300 Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner, of which YSL Records is a brand.
This isn’t the first time hip-hop verses have landed in a courtroom. The defense called as a witness a specialist on the subject, professor at the University of Richmond, Erik Nielson.
In an interview with AFP at the beginning of the year, this expert affirmed that “this question of rap in the trials is only a new illustration of a system which insists on imprisoning young men of color” .
“If you have other evidence, don’t use the rap lyrics” and “don’t file a complaint,” judged Erik Nielson.
The trial will feature hundreds of witnesses, including rappers TI and Killer Mike.
It takes place in the same Atlanta courthouse where former President Donald Trump is to be tried for his attempts to overturn the result of the presidential election in the southeastern US state in 2020,