(New York) Business is Business : Fans of Young Thug, in jail awaiting his organized crime trial, woke up to a new album from the Atlanta rapper on Friday.
Among the fifteen pieces of this new opus, the first since Punk in 2021, there are collaborations with Drake, Future, 21 Savage and Travis Scott.
On the cover, a black and white photo of the rapper sitting in a courtroom and facing the camera, while his co-defendants have their backs turned.
The album, titled Business is Businessis released on listening platforms as Jeffery Williams – his civil status name –, 31, and his 13 co-defendants wait for their trial to get to the heart of the matter, almost six months after the start of an interminable jury selection process.
The fourteen defendants were indicted in the spring of 2022 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 Young Thug’s label, founded in 2016, Young Stoner Life Records.
All are tried for criminal conspiracy for extortion. In support of this accusation: alleged acts of murder, drug trafficking, car theft with violence… 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 rapper, who has collaborated with the biggest names in the genre, is a figure.
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 also iconic because prosecutors used lyrics from some Young Thug songs, those of fellow rapper Gunna – who pleaded guilty – as evidence, as well as the lines of a posthumous song by Juice WRLD. , died in 2019 of an overdose.