This week Atlanta rappers Young Thug and Gunna were two of 28 people named in a RICO indictment after a crack down on gang activity [click here if you missed that].
Some of the evidence comes directly from Young Thugs lyrics...
From Billboard
When Atlanta prosecutors indicted Young Thug and dozens of others in a sweeping criminal case this week, they cited heavily from the rapper’s own music – a controversial tactic that activists across the country are trying to rein in. At a press conference Tuesday (May 10), the district attorney offered no apologies.
The indictment often directly quoted from Young Thug’s music, like a 2018 video in which he rapped, “I never killed anybody but got something to do with that body.” Prosecutors claim such statements were made “in furtherance” of the gang’s criminal enterprise.
But at a press conference Tuesday announcing the charges against Young Thug, Fulton County DA Fani T. Willis said she had no qualms about the lyrical flair in her indictment.
“I believe in the First Amendment. It’s one of our most precious rights,” Willis said. “However, the First Amendment does not protect people from prosecutors using [music] as evidence if it is such.”
In one song cited by prosecutors called “Slime Shit,” the rapper said: “I’m in the VIP and got that pistol on my hip, you prayin that you live I’m prayin that hit, hey, this that slime s—.” In another passage cited in the indictment, Young Thug rapped in 2021 that “I killed his man in front of his momma, like f— lil bruh, sister and his cousin,” and “my trigger start itching.” Some of the lyrics made direct reference to YSL, but many others didn’t. In the case of each quote, prosecutors called it “an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
“In this case, we put it as overt predicate acts in the RICO count because we believe that’s exactly what it is,” she said.
