August 15, 2023 • 47 mins
Over the past decade, rapper Young Thug has become an international superstar thanks to five No. 1 hip hop albums and his own record label, YSL. But police allege that over that same period, Jeffrey Lamar Williams was running a criminal enterprise, also called YSL, that is responsible for violence and murder. Reporters Christina Lee and George Chidi profile Young Thug, the artist—and introduce Young Thug, the alleged criminal mastermind.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
King Slime is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Heirloom Media.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is the Black Country Globe over lemm.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
It's Saturday morning, just after ten at A and M
Barbershop in Atlanta's Castlebury Hill neighborhood on the city southwest side.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
This barbershaw is the oldest black owned barber shop in George.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is history.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
AM first opened its doors in nineteen fifty six in
a deeply segregated Atlanta barber's. Derek and Carlos have been
cutting hair at this little four chair institution for decades.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I've been working here this ye would be twenty one e.
I've been a A and M barbershop for like twenty five
plus years.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
This place is bustling black men filled rows of metal
folding chairs. They're sitting under a painting of cartoon dogs
getting haircuts, scrolling through their phones. A black and white
photo of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Junior hangs
over their heads. King and Malcolm are smiling, shaking hands.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
A poster grit with profiles displays different fade styles. The
bright vanity lights over the mirrors of each station reflect
off the brown tile floor, and of course there's the
swirling candy cane of a barber pool just outside the door.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
You know, we come in here, we can let our
hair down till the few lies and laugh and watch
boys and just enjoy the customers. You know, everybody got
opinions about different things.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
We taught politics, sports, no women. You know, the barber
shop didn't mean a whole lot to the community.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
This isn't a Atlanta Saturday man. This is pretty much
how it must have felt on another Saturday. Back on
January tenth, twenty fifteen, As always, Carlos was on his
white maroon share in the back corner.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, it started out us a good day, you know,
everybody cut and hell we had customers outside, you know,
kicking awaiting to get they cuts.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It's the late afternoon, early evening. A man named Donovan
Thomas walks in. He's a regular from the neighborhood, big guy,
twenty six years old. Everyone calls him Peanut or just Nut.
It's been his nickname since he was little.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I've been on Peanut for probably twenty fifteen. Oh made
my thirteenth year, so I had been on at least
twelve thirteen years. That night he had paid for everybody
halcut that was in him three keys.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I had one coachman.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
He paid for him, and then he also paid mister George.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Mister George is the owner.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
When we walked into the barbershop that morning, Good Morning
America was blaring on the TV. But on that evening
back in January twenty fifteen, there was a big game
on once again.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
January brings the Ravens to Foxboro to face Tom Brady
and the New England Patriots.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
We was all geared up about playoff weekend. Right before it happened,
you know, we were watching the game Baltimore versus New England,
and you know Peanut with Baltimore and I was telling him,
why don't go again, Tom Brady, don't do that.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
He would I believe they got him to night.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
No.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I was like, no, don't do it. So he jumped
out like fourteen zero.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Brady dropped back to the raven and before he could leave,
the low door.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
To Amondola, he scoops it up, shakes the tackle, Amon
Doola dives.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You know, New England came back and tied it up fourteen.
Speaker 6 (03:33):
Up, touch down the Patrons.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Around seven fifteen that night, Carlos cuts off his clippers.
He holds a mirror up so Nut can check his fade.
The barber cape comes off. Nut rises from the chair.
He and Carlos grip hands and say goodbye. The Nut
walks out the door, and.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Then you know, out the blue, a bunch of shots
break out. I had ran to a coke in the back,
so you know, we had like a system. Somebody run
the aid when when you need and somebody.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Called nine one one.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
My coworker dead ran outside to run the aid to
whoever need because we ain't know what happened.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
And out of nine one one call.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Okay, so you call nine one one and what do
you tell the dispatcher.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
That somebody was shot?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I didn't know who cause I never went outside.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
And so they were telling me that they needed an ambulamp.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
So I relayed that missage to the arm nine one
one people and during that time they were like, hey,
tell them we need two ammulamb. I was like, damn,
They said we need two amulam and then they were
holling commotion back and forth. Then this thing, you know,
they were like we need a third emu lamb and
I'm like damn, I mean the people don't got shot
(05:02):
and he you know, I stayed on the phone with
him for a little while, you know, damn information that.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I had, and he fired a guy here and took him.
They paul about right outside the window.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
And Peanut, they was shot two in the parking lot
and Peanut.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Along the sidewalk.
Speaker 7 (05:27):
We begin tonight with a developing story. But Land the
police are on the scene of a trickle shooting and
one of the victims is a teenager.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
It was cooled that January night in the thirties. Three
young men lead on the sidewalk. You could have seen
their breath. A team named Cordarius Sanders was shot in
the left ankle, a man named Reginald Hendrix was shot
in the groin, and Donovan Thomas was shot multiple times
(05:56):
in the chest and arm. Paramedics arrived and began treating
the victims.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
And they went by with them on the garden and
they looked bad at me when it all.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Dang dang, like you know, I ain't a good look.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
All three victims were taken to Grady Hospital.
Speaker 7 (06:20):
Shooting happened outside of barber shopping tonight. One victim is
clinging to life.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Sanders and Hendrick's injuries weren't life threatening, but Donovan Thomas
was in critical condition. His family gathered at the hospital.
The outlook was grim.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
At ten oh six pm, Thomas would die, but before
he did, police alleged he whispered something to his brother.
For words that would change everything. Thug had me killed.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
Two of the hottest rappers come out of Atlanta are
now in big legal trouble.
Speaker 9 (07:02):
Young Thug and Gunna are facing serious charges.
Speaker 8 (07:05):
A rapper and twenty eight other defendants charged in a
fifty six count indictment.
Speaker 10 (07:10):
That indictment alleges his YSL record label is a criminal
street gang that has committed murder, assault, and threats of violence.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Jeffrey Williams, the rap artist known as Young Thug, has
been at the center of not just Atlanta's music scene,
but America's music scene for years.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
And now he's on trial accused of heading up a
violent gang responsible for murder.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I'm Christina Lee, a music journalist who has covered Atlanta's
hip hop scene for over a decade.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
And I'm George Cheaty, a crime and politics reporter based
in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
This trial changes music, This trial changes Atlanta, and we're going.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
To tell you how this is Kings Slime.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
The prosecution of Young Thug and YSL.
Speaker 10 (08:11):
So.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Over the past decade, Young Thug has become an international superstar,
cranking out hits, collaborating with everyone from Drake to Camilicabeo
Post Malone to Justin Bieber, amenting new artists with his
label YSL But.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Police alleged that over the same decade, Young Thug was
building another organization under the name ysl One that recruited
troubled youth, pedaled drugs, incited violence, and committed murder.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
There's a story of his musical fortune and fame.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
And there's the story of Young Thug in street life
in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
As a music journalist, I've reported on Young Thug and
Gunna's careers as they skyrocketed out of South Atlanta to
become internationally known rap stars. The first time I wrote
for MPR Music, I wrote about Young Thug's music. The
first time I wrote for Double XL magazine, I profiled Gunna.
He fondly remembered being crowned best dressed in high school,
(09:13):
and this was many years before Rihanna would dress is
Gunna for Halloween. I never could have imagined that either
of their careers would lead us to this moment where
Atlanta's reputation as a rap capital appears to be in jeopardy.
Young Thug and Gunna were arrested at the peak of
their mainstream influence. They each had number one album.
Speaker 10 (09:35):
Gonna scores his second number one album as DS Forever
debuts atop the tally, with Young Thug achieves his.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
Third number one as his latest released Punk Debuts in
the top slot.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Gonna attended the Mac Gala, and they both were musical
guests on Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Ladies and Gentlemen, Young Thug, Ladies and Gentlemen, Gunna or What.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
And just months prior, appeared on the cover of Billboard magazine.
The articles tagline Young Thug and Gunna's hot streak Isn't
enough for the Atlanta duo. That cover story laid out
what music journalists covering pop music had just started taking
for granted, why Sell Records was a hit making label.
(10:20):
Young Thug won his first Grammy for his writing credits
on Childish Gambinos This Is America. The Spotify playlist This
is Young Thug shows that he's this sought out feature
artist for the likes of Doja Cat Future Calvin Harris
and even Elton John. But Young Thug's career started small
(10:42):
in a studio on Spring Street owned and operated by
a producer named David Cunningham, better known as Dune Deal.
So were you always done? Deal?
Speaker 11 (10:54):
No Geez?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Today Dundal is thirty seven, though this was years before
where he'd work with artists like Kevin Gayet's low Uzi
Ver and Trey Songs. This was also before he'd produce
Atlanta rap classics like She's Werken by cash Out and
Hannah Montana by Migos. Before all that, he grew up
in New York, Arizona, and California. He'd moved to Atlanta
(11:18):
when he was a teenager. In the year two thousand.
Dundal started up rapping, but quickly turned to producing instead.
Krufflow Dollar, the famous Atlanta televangelist, gave Dundal his moniker
and father.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
I pray that you will speak through my vocal chords
and think through my mind, none.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Of me and all of you.
Speaker 12 (11:40):
I had different names before, but it was stupid like
the Eagle Platinum Kid productions. And then one day I
happened to be making music at church. I went to
Kreflo Dollar's church and they had a studio in there,
and in the church, as I'm making music for his artists,
I do the beat really quick, and when he walked
(12:03):
in the room, Krauflow Dollar was like, that's a done deal.
Speaker 11 (12:05):
I'm gonna call you done deal. And it just stuck.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Dundal continued to rub elbows with several soon to be
famous people while they were still on the up and up.
Speaker 12 (12:14):
And then after that I got with a management company
called Visual Grammar, and Visual Grammar did the music for
Tyler Perry's plays, which I didn't know we're going to
turn into movies.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
But he was still working a day job at Guitar
Center to pay the bills.
Speaker 12 (12:31):
I happen to be working one day and this guy
walks up to me while I'm making a beat on
the keyboard. He was like, he was like, you just
made that. I was like, yeah, I just made it.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
The guy was an artist manager named Boo Man. He
told Dundal to help him pick out some studio equipment.
Speaker 12 (12:46):
He was like, I want the best of the best
equipment for my studio. So we go through and we're
picking everything out. He was like, all of this is yours.
I have a building on Spring Street and you can
come and it's yours.
Speaker 11 (13:01):
Just make beats from our.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Artists, And soon it was where Dundeal started producing mixtapes
for aspiring artists from a particular part of Atlanta.
Speaker 11 (13:09):
Cleveland Avenue Jonesboro South.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Cleveland Avenue is this four mile stretch of road that
runs through several South Atlanta neighborhoods stricken with the city's
toughest economic conditions.
Speaker 11 (13:26):
It's the gutter.
Speaker 12 (13:27):
So if you can compare to any other town like
O Block in Chicago or in California, Compton, this was
the hood. This is where people are climbing out of
the gutter to do something.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Cleveland Avenue dead ends into Jonesboro Road. The Jonesboro South
housing projects used to be in this area, a campus
of subsidized apartments for low income, mostly black residents. And
when you say folks were like climbing out of the gutter, like,
was music looked at as their way out or how
is yeah?
Speaker 11 (14:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 12 (14:05):
Yeah, music was definitely a way out for a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
The city of Atlanta got rid of all its housing
projects outright starting in two thousand and six, but many
of the kids who grew up in Jonesboro South stayed
tight as done. Deal is coming up. His name starts
getting passed around in that circle. And in two thousand
and nine, a stranger from Jonesboro South shows up to
Spring Street.
Speaker 11 (14:30):
One day.
Speaker 12 (14:31):
I get a knock on my door and I kind
of creak it open and I'm looking through and I'm like, yeah,
what's up? Can I help you? He was like, yeah, man,
I'm gonna be the next Little Wayne. Let me in
your studio. Let's work. And I'm like the hell. And
he looks crazy. He was wearing bell bottoms and like
a scarecrow hat, like a straw hat, a trench coat
(14:53):
with the arms cut out, in a little kind of
cut off belly shirt. And I was like, what the
hell is this. He was like, I'm young thug man.
He was like, I'm gonna change your life.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Jeffrey Williams was only seventeen years old when he introduced
himself to Dundal as young thug. Now when he said
I'm gonna be the next Lil Wayne. I guess there's
two ways to read that, right. One is stylistically, two
is in like I'm gonna be as famous as Lil Wayne,
So like, how did you interpret that or what do
you think he meant by that?
Speaker 12 (15:28):
I interpreted as Thug knew exactly what he was going
to do to take it to the next level.
Speaker 11 (15:36):
I think he had a game plan.
Speaker 12 (15:38):
Any artists that have ever crossed my path, the only
person I ever wanted to sign was Thug. Like, I
love all my people that I've worked with, but Thug
was the person that came with an idea in a
mindset that matched his music.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Okay, and what did that game plan look like?
Speaker 12 (15:56):
I mean, his game plan was to outwork every stylistically
to change the sound of Atlanta music. We did three
mixtapes I came from nothing, one, two, and three. The
first one was like, you know, almost unbearable because our
production recording, It's kind of like it was drawn off
(16:21):
of as good as you can get. And then the
second one was you could see growth, and then the
third one. People started to pay attention to who Thug was.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
At the time, artists like Ti and Young Jeezy were
big on the scene, but Dundal says that what he
and Young Thug were making was changing the sound of
Atlanta rap.
Speaker 12 (16:45):
Thug brought the melodic trap sound to music. So I
think that was the mindset, is that Thug was on
the train to head somewhere and I'm going along.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Better.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, Young Thug was already dressing the part of an
unconventional rap star.
Speaker 12 (17:04):
He paid attention to fashion. He was looking up on
the internet. While people are looking at you know, guns
and stuff like that, he's looking up European fashion talking about, oh,
you see what they're wearing on the runway.
Speaker 11 (17:17):
This is at nineteen twenty years old.
Speaker 12 (17:20):
It's like, you know, that's strange, but that's good because
you're gonna influence people.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
So he was into that from the beginning.
Speaker 12 (17:30):
He was putting together his own clothes, Like when I
tell you he was wearing a pea coat with the
arms cut out of it because he cut the arms off.
He was trying to create his own fashion sense.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Young Thug started performing at Club Crucial, a nightclub and
music venue owned by Rapperti. Once the club opened up
in Atlanta's Bankhead neighborhood in two thousand and five, it
quickly became a launch pad for up and coming rap artists.
Speaker 12 (17:57):
Rich Kids and Young Thug do a song called one
hundred Dollar autograph and we shot a video there. But
I remember this is when things started to look up
for Thug, when people started to be like, Okay, this
is the guy that's gonna be the star.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Within a few months, Atlanta trapstar Gucci made sign Young
Though to his label.
Speaker 12 (18:18):
Ten seventeen, he was working at Gucci Spot and Gucci
asked me, done, what do you think is gonna take
for Thug to get to the next level? And I
told him, I was like, get his teeth done. I
was like, he his confidence comes from how he looks.
If you give him the confidence, he's gonna take it
to the next level. And literally within the next month,
(18:41):
Thug was like a different person and that from the
time he got his teeth done. Next month we made Stoner.
So we did Stoner and then we started doing more
songs and hooking up with rich Homi Kwan and we
did the Rich Gang tape literally maybe three months later.
(19:01):
From that four months later, and then it was just uncontainable.
You couldn't stop him from rise.
Speaker 9 (19:12):
I remember hearing this early stretch of Young Thug mixtapes
in the early twenty tens that were making a splash
online in the sort of tastemaker underground rap fan community.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
This is Joe Costrelly, culture reporter at the New York Times,
an author of Rap Capital and Atlanta Story.
Speaker 9 (19:31):
I remember two things about it. One is that he
was obviously obsessed with Lol Wayne, as many people were
at that time, myself included, and that was clearly the
number one influence, especially the more experimental, abstract side of
Lol Wayne that had come about in the you know,
late aughts, early twenty tens. And then the other part
(19:52):
of it was that he was taking that experimentalism even
further is doing insane things with his voice. You know,
it was very polarizing from the jump. He was sort
of you know, yelping and using auto tune as this
instrument and just really stretching himself vocally, saying odd things,
(20:13):
you know, dressing oddly, and yeah, the songs just sounded
like nothing I'd ever heard before.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
When Young Thug's music first hit Atlanta, rap radio and
mixtape sites like Dappith, Costcarly says people didn't quite know
what to make of it.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
What he was.
Speaker 9 (20:28):
Doing was considered weird and not really rap, especially when
you're looking at it from a national perspective, and the
sort of traditionalist rap strongholds of New York or LA.
They heard a guy like Young Thug, who you know,
was proudly alien in the lineage of someone like Lol
Wayne or Gucci Man, and it was like an affront,
(20:48):
I think, to traditionalist taste, to classic rules of hip hop.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Both the music and fashion industries couldn't help but be
enamored by how Young Thug was breaking the rules. By
twenty fourteen, Young Thug had jumped from Gucci Mains ten
seventeen over to three hundred Entertainment, a label run by
former Warner Music execs. He also had the fashion Week
ready wardrobe to match his newfound status. On the cover
(21:18):
of his twenty sixteen album Jeffrey, Young Thug wears a
dress with cascading lavender ruffles on its skirt. He tips
a parasol shaped hat over his face, and only a
few of his locks are visible. This entire ensemble was
made by fashion designer Alessandro Dracone for men who want
to express themselves. Young Thug wouldn't fully explain the Jeffrey
(21:41):
cover for several more years on the song just how
it is, and even then he's daring you to question
his fashion choices. The lyric goes had to wear the
dress because I had to stick by stick. He means
an ak forty seven.
Speaker 9 (22:02):
People were wondering, you know, is he straight? Is he gay?
Is he joking? Is he trolling? I compare him. You know,
he's like in a lot of ways, like a prince
like figure. I think, you know, he's sort of like
post genre, post gender, you know, both both tough, both
masculine and feminine. And I think he just really sort
of widened the parameters for what a rapper could be.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Between a series of hits and all the conversation he
started over a new fem direction in modern hip hop style,
Janta becomes more than just a successful artist. He becomes
a taste maker.
Speaker 9 (22:39):
This is also a moment where every rapper coming up
is also a label boss. They're also a gatekeeper. They're
also a ringleader, and they're able to bring friends and
artists around them with them on their rise through the mainstream.
Thinking of like Odd Future and Tyler the Creator or
asap Rocky and a Mob. Basically, you know, all of
(23:03):
a sudden, we're in a new boom time for the
record industry, and every rapper getting signed to a big
deal is also starting their own label, starting their own imprint,
and bringing new talent with them. It's at that moment
that I think Young Thug is able to really brand
his own business.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
In twenty sixteen, Young Thug launches his own imprint under
three hundred Entertainment. He calls the label YSL, short for
Young Stoner Life. Young Thug surrounds himself with friends and
literal family. He features two of his sisters, Door and
Dolly on his songs. He signs his older brother on
(23:41):
Funk to the label, and ysl's biggest hit making signee
Hills Straight from College Park out of Atlanta South Side.
Speaker 9 (23:49):
It's not really until the rise of Gunna a few
years later that YSL has another breakout, sort of on
the on the scale of a Young Thug.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Often when rap stars launch their own labels, their founders
steal the spotlight from their own signees. Miraculously, that didn't
happen with Gunna. Instead, these two natives from Atlanta South Side,
Cleveland Avenue and College Park would take the world by storm.
Speaker 9 (24:16):
These artists were at the really at the top of
their game.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
You know.
Speaker 9 (24:19):
In twenty twenty one, YSL has a number one album
with a label compilation called Slime Language two. Gunna has
a number one album. Young Thug has his own number
one album with Punk. They're on SNL together.
Speaker 11 (24:33):
You know.
Speaker 9 (24:33):
They have this smash single Push and Pe with Future
Thug and Gunna on the same song, and they were
just really on top of the world.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And then on May ninth, twenty twenty two, the music stopped.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Young Thug's house on Alison Drive is only fifteen miles
north of Cleveland Avenue, but it might as well be
in another country. Buckhead is Balanciaga, Gucci, and Prada. It's
for white women in designer clothes and black women in
designer clothes who get stopped by the cops because they
(25:14):
don't look like they belong there. When people in Atlanta
want to describe something that affects everyone, they talk about
going from Bucket to Bankhead. Buckhead has restaurants that will
employ black people from Bankhead who can't afford to eat there.
But Buckhead is where black people with money in Atlanta
show off. Buckhead is Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
White Oh not a white refuse right now?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Ti and Tiny All I Won't Nell and Wood Love
and hip.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Hop we're here because dred.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
On May ninth, twenty twenty two, Atlanta police took Young
Thug out of his Buckhead house and handcuffs.
Speaker 10 (25:59):
They're appeared to be a massive presence on Allison Drive
and Buckhead by Atlanta police and perhaps others.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
The Fulham County District Attorney's Office confirms that's where Young
Thug resides.
Speaker 13 (26:09):
Or authorties rated the rapper's buck at home as investigators arrested.
The thirty year old Young Thug, whose real name is
Jeffrey Lamar Williams, is one of twenty eight defendants charged
in a sweeping fifty six count indictment against the criminal
street gang Young Slime Life, also known as Wysel.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
They found him with his friends and label mates Diamante
Kendrick the Rapper, Yack Cotty, and Martinez Arnold the Rapper
Little Duke. Police say they also found him with twenty
bottles of YSL Slime Drink, a THHC concoction his label
has been marketing in North Carolina. They found almost three
pounds of weed, thirty one bottles of lean that's promethazine
(26:49):
coding serru Bo's Schedule five controlled substance, and they found guns.
One of those was a switch a handgun modified fire
as a machine gun.
Speaker 11 (27:03):
Those are very illegal.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
It's the sort of thing one absolutely does not want
to be caught with. But Young Thug must have known
the police were coming, because even I knew they were coming.
Young Thug has been on gang investigator's radar for about
a decade. I had no idea who he was. I mean,
(27:29):
I recognized the name, but I didn't realize he was
a big deal or potentially the target of an investigation
until I started reading a different indictment.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Knew at six, a massive gang indictment in Fulton County
charged a dozen people with a racketeering conspiracy, including a
famous musical artist, YF and Lucci.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
A year before police arrested Young Thug. Police arrested YFN Lucci.
Speaker 11 (27:56):
You know, you know, stay a hustle trying to get
rich and rich.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Lucci is Rayshon Bennett. He's a rapper from Atlanta's Southside
and arrival for Young Thug in the studio and in
the streets. He's the front man for YFN Young Flyden,
which police describe as a street gang that started in
Atlanta's Summer Hill neighborhood. Fannie Willis picked up YFN on
(28:21):
a one hundred and five count gang indictment a year
before Young Thug's arrest. Prosecutors referenced YSL seven times in
the indictment. They said a ward broken out that YFN
and their allies in another camp Bird gang believed YSL
was responsible for the death of Donovan Thomas. Police suspected
(28:46):
Peanut Thomas was affiliated with YFN, so I dug in
the more questions, I asked that the more it became
clear that the cops believed Young Thug was at the
center of this swirling chaos of street violence between two
warring camps, and then one by one, shoes began to drop.
(29:13):
On April twenty fifth, twenty twenty one, Young Thug and
Gunna bailed out a handful of people from the Fulton
County jail, including one person facing a murder charge who
was released on bond as a mistake rappers.
Speaker 12 (29:26):
Young Thug and Gunna posted bond for thirty inmates stuck
in jail facing minor charges. Those inmates could not afford
bail by themselves.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
It wasn't thirty, it was six. Then Kenneth Copeland Lillwoody
to his friends and one of Lyaseel's core crew got
arrested in South Fulton.
Speaker 13 (29:46):
But police arrested Copeland on October twenty seventh, after they
say he was caught driving in his girlfriend's car with
a loaded gun inside.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
A few days later, Copeland's girlfriend South Fulton comp well
for trying to delete evidence from his phone.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
A former officer accused of trying to help get a
gang member back onto the streets the Laisse.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
The pair was in a relationship.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
About three months later, in February, an Atlanta cop got
shot six times while serving a warrant on Christian Eppinger.
Speaker 13 (30:20):
According to the warrants, Hevinger pushed Rogers away, pulled out
a gun, and shot the officer four times in the shoulder,
once in his leg, and once in the back of
his head.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
People were shocked and outraged, but almost as a footnote,
we found out that the alleged shooter was affiliated with YSL.
Two days after Eppinger was arrested, someone tried to kill
Young Thug's main rival, the rapper Yafn Lucci in jail.
(30:49):
He was allegedly shanked by a YSL affiliate who is
facing charges in the Rico indictment, and then in March
twenty twenty two, the mother of one of you Young
Thug's children was shot and killed in an argument at
a bowling alley near Cleveland Avenue.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Police looking for the ball who shot and killed a
thirty one year old woman during an argument over a
bowling ball.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Police and family members loudly denied that her death had
anything to do with the street feud, but by then
people watching all of this unfold understood that something was coming.
Young Thug had a concert scheduled in April at State
Farm Arena. With all the drama swirling around him and
(31:35):
the murder of his child's mother, the promoter postponed it
to June, but they didn't make it to June. Young
Thug was arrested in May. Police picked him up with
Little Duke and Yak Gatti in his house and buckhead
that Monday in twenty twenty two was the last day
Young Thug has been seen in public as a freeman.
(32:00):
Young Thug has been a target of the police since
the shooting of Donovan Thomas. He faces eight counts in
the now sixty five count indictment, and those counts accuse
him of being the leader of a gang as a
violation of the state's racketeering and gang laws. The indictment
alleges that the Young Stoner Life label is also the
(32:23):
Young Slime Life street gang, that it has murdered three
people and tried to kill many others, committed robberies and
traffick and drugs, and if you're the leader, all of
those crimes lay on your head.
Speaker 10 (32:38):
We'll ask on the different charges for the maximum penalties,
and there's obviously many people that are looking at life
under this indictment.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
The most serious charge against Young Thug in the indictment
alleges that he rented the car used in the drive
by killing of Donovan Thomas. But it's more than that.
Throughout the indictment, prosecutors say Young Thug spurred other members
of Yesel to commit acts of violence. Prosecutors used the
drugs and guns found at his house, alongside lyrics and
(33:07):
social media posts, to craft an image of Young Thug
as a kingpin and his friends his willing associates. The
DA claims lyrics were more than just musical expression, that
they were a means of promoting the gang, making it
more attractive for others to join in a method to
intimidate gang rivals. But if this trial were only about
(33:29):
rap music lyrics, it wouldn't be half as interesting as
the full story. From twenty twenty to twenty twenty two,
Atlanta went through an unprecedented rise in violence. Prosecutors say
(33:51):
gang crime drove that violence. District Attorney Fani Willis said
so at the press conference announcing the young Thug indictment.
Speaker 10 (33:59):
As the District Attorney of Fulton County, my number one
focus is targeting gangs, and there's a reason for that.
They are committing conservatively seventy five to eighty percent of
all of the violent crime that we are seeing within
our community.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Is that actually true?
Speaker 1 (34:20):
The DA says that it doesn't matter whether these gangs
are involved in the music business.
Speaker 10 (34:25):
It does not matter what your notoriety is, what your
fame is. If you come to Fulton County, Georgia and
you commit crimes, and certainly if those crimes are in
furtherance of a street gang, that you are going to
become a target and a focus of this District Attorney's office,
and we are going to prosecute you to the fullest
(34:46):
extent of the law.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
So we'll arresting rappers lead to less violence.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Can Atlanta prosecute its way to safety? Can you actually
put enough gangsters in prison to reduce crime without trying
to direct we change a place like Cleveland Avenue? Three
years ago, Atlanta was on a black Lives matter path.
The current District Attorney, Fannie Willis was elected in part
(35:14):
because her predecessor, Paul Howard fumbled the politics of the
summer of George Floyd protests. Two Atlanta cops killed a
man named ray Shard Brooks after a scuffle at a
drunk driving stop at a Wendy's. Howard was facing accusations
(35:36):
of corruption and up for reelection against Willis, an able challenger,
Howard quickly issued murder charges, but charging two cops with
murdered days after demonstrators burned a Wendy's to the ground
in protest looked like a political move to save his
own skin. The counter protest by police and the public
(35:59):
backlash cost him enough support to give Willis the seat.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
It is the end of a decade's long era Fawnie
Willis defeating her old boss, incumbent Fulton County District Attorney
Paul Howard, in the runoff election, and she did so
by a large margin.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
La tonin crime shifted almost immediately as the news filled
with stories of club murders and highway shooting gunfire.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
That's right, so right now Atlanta police are investigating in
early morning shooting. It happened outside the Marquette Lounge in
northwest Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (36:32):
Atlanta police are investigating a deadly double shoot.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Now they're shooting.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
A man is dead after bullets rang out in the
parking lot of a popular Atlanta.
Speaker 8 (36:40):
Lounge when Atlanta police say five people were shot near
the lounge.
Speaker 5 (36:44):
More than a dozen people injured by gunfire.
Speaker 13 (36:46):
We do you know that this started with a fight
inside of the Club Blue Lounge.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
At some point it was taken outside and someone pulled
a gun and started shooting.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
Activists had been demanding to shut the city jailed down
and move money out of police budgets and into social services.
Speaker 11 (37:04):
Closed the Atlanta City Detention Center.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Now Atlanta was funding police projects and complaining about how
people facing serious charges weren't getting prison time. Atlanta literally
added new sheriff in down. Voters threw the old one
out of office at the same time that they elected
Willis and Willis is already known for being tough on crime.
(37:33):
As an assistant DA Back in twenty fourteen, Fannie Willis
helped prosecute Atlanta Public School teachers and principles associated with
a cheating scandal, a scandal that rocked the city and
made national headlines.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
The Fulton County Grand jury has returned an indictment that
contains sixty five counts against thirty five defendants.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Teachers went on trial for fixing state classroom achievement tests
to win bonuses and raise school rankings.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Some went to prison this morning.
Speaker 6 (38:07):
Ten Atlanta Public School educators now out on bond after
a judge sendens them to prison on Tuesday for a
year's long cheating scandal changing answers on standardized tests.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
Now, as we work on this show, we don't know
what Fannie Willis will do with Donald Trump. We don't
know if he will be charged personally with crimes of
election interference from twenty twenty.
Speaker 12 (38:30):
I just want to find eleven thousand, seven hundred and
eighty votes.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
But she's warned law enforcement to get ready.
Speaker 8 (38:40):
Fulton County's district attorney has put area law enforcement officials
on standby for possible unrest. This summer when she says
she may announce charging decisions.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
And it's not hard to see the YSL trial as
a dry run for a political circus in court in
an election year.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Protesters against cop City, the controversial ninety million dollar police facility,
say that the DA's office will likely press RICO charges
on them as well. RICO stands for Racketeer, Influence and
Corrupt Organizations Act, and it's both a state and federal
law used to prosecute groups of people in criminal conspiracies.
(39:27):
Defense attorneys on the y Cell case say loudly that
Willis is abusing George's RICO law in all of these cases,
especially the one being made against young Thug and Gunna.
After all, Rigo was originally written to put mobsters to
trial crime families like the Gambinos and Colombos.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Maybe there's an argument to be made. Is this the
final nail in the coffin for criminal justice reform in Atlanta?
And does this send a signal to other cities that
they can do the same. It's hard to find a
bigger symbol than this case.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
When Finie Willis addressed the media about the YSL indictment
in May twenty twenty two, She called George's Rico law
a powerful tool.
Speaker 10 (40:12):
It is certainly a tool that I believe in. The
reason that I believe in it as a tool is
it allows juries and the communities to see the complete
picture of a crime, so they can truly be educated
and have facts to weigh when they're making decisions. And
so if you're asking, should you expect to see other
reco indictments against under other street gang organizations.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Absolutely, But she wasn't just thinking about the future of
crime in Atlanta. She was also thinking back to January tenth,
twenty fifteen.
Speaker 10 (40:45):
I sat down with mister Thomas's mother, and I made
her a promise that her son was as valuable as
any other person within our community, and that I would
put resources on this case and that I would do
everything I could to make sure that her son had justice.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
We came to an m barbershop because that's where Donovan
Thomas was gunned down. He spent his last few moments
in Carlos's chair, watching football and shooting the shit. That's
what people do in a barbershop. We wanted to know
how this case was being talked about in a place
so pivotal to it.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Does music come up? Does this case come up?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
You know, there's the talk of probably the globe right now.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
You know what opinions have folks had about it? I guess, oh, they.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Had a mixed opinion.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Some people, you know, saying that it's case where they
think that he gonna get out, you know they.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Well, some people saying that he finished.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
And you know, I just don't know. I just had
to wait and see.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
This case and the trial have been surprising in many ways,
so is the reaction to it. You sort of think,
you know what someone might say about it, and nothing.
They make you think twice, like when Carlos the barber
put blame for all of this in a place we
didn't expect a.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Lot of thing that happening.
Speaker 11 (42:15):
Due to the music.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Six virus and drugs.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
And if you listen to the number one top ten songs,
listen to what they're saying, and then you put on
the evening news, then you see what they saying.
Speaker 4 (42:34):
Do you think the music reflects what's actually going on
in the street?
Speaker 2 (42:38):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Yeah, everything they talk about in the song is happening.
Kick your doe down, dog, get kicked down? Which man
you blocked blocked in Schman, people getting shot, you know, robbed,
all counter stuff, and that's what the music is talking about.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Day and so, just so I understand, you're saying the
music kind of like if it's a chicken versus egg situation, right,
you're saying the music leads to the violence, or that
the violence is reflected in the music.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
It's more like a trigger. The music trigger the mind. See,
music is universe. If we can change that and get
people to start talking about more positive stuff, then you
can reprobate the mind. Once you get the mind reprobated,
then people start having different actions, better ashes.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
And so that's my theory.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
Change the dynamics of the music, then you change your thinking,
especially of the young.
Speaker 4 (43:44):
That doesn't sound like it's easy to do, though.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Now it ain't nothing good come easy, nothing good call leasy.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
As a political journalist, I've been thinking long and hard
about what happens when crime arises. Politicians do whatever they
have to do to stay in office, even if it
means walking back promises to reform the criminal justice system.
I came across the YSL case almost by accident as
I was looking at how a people in power were
getting a gang crime. But now I'm looking at how
(44:23):
this case speaks to the larger issues. Prosecuting Young Thug
is symbolic of bigger things.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
In this show, you're going to hear from everybody about
who Young Thug is and what the significance of this
trial could be. You're going to hear about the murders
and all of the different people involved, and we'll talk
about the controversial use of lyrics as evidence.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
We have different questions. What doesn't mean to be a
real street rapper in Atlanta? Are people making more out
of gang violence than is real? How are people actually
living in the places that create this music? Connected? Is
music to real street life in Atlanta?
Speaker 1 (45:04):
If Young Thug is convicted, what does that mean for music?
What does it mean for Atlanta as hip hop's mecca?
If street gangs are really and truly part of musical
life in Atlanta and we're trying to fight gangs, are
we going to have to fight music at the same time?
Speaker 4 (45:23):
Atlanta is split in a dozen different ways. The street
is only one part of this city, the part people
who listen to Atlanta trap music are most familiar with.
But we're talking to everyone from folks on Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Avenue, young thugs, home turf to the movers.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
And shakers, and politics.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
And business from cops to crooks and to regular people.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
This case affects the whole city and the whole country.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Some of the ways might surprise you.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
This is King's Slime. Next time on Kingslime.
Speaker 11 (46:04):
From I seventy five to Jonesborough Road.
Speaker 14 (46:07):
That part of Cleveland Avenue would be called Cleveland Now
kill us why because it's dominated by blood sets.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
He was a young thud when I met he was
Jeffrey Williams. He was a part of a hybrid game
rock crew.
Speaker 14 (46:23):
See, people think gangs is a hate thing, when gangs
is actually a love thing, right, meaning, these are my friends.
Speaker 11 (46:30):
I grew up with them, I loved them.
Speaker 6 (46:32):
Their method of engaging in social control has.
Speaker 11 (46:36):
To do with using violence and force, and it's.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Inevitable that it's gonna spread when you've got combatants that
don't see a preak future for themselves and know that
you know, it's a it's a killer be killed kind of.
Speaker 11 (46:47):
A world out there. Oh yeah, I hope I ain't
saying too much.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Kingslime is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Heirloom Media.
Speaker 4 (46:59):
It's written and produced by George Cheedy, Christina Lee, and Tommy.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Andres, mixing sound design and original music by Evan Tyre
and Taylor Schaicogne.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
The executive producer and editor is Tommy Andres.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Fact checking by Kaylin lynch.
Speaker 4 (47:14):
Our theme music is by Don Deal. Special thanks to Josh.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
Lewind and to the Atlanta news outlets eleven A five, WSBTV,
and Fox five.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
For more shows from iHeart Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
King Slime is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Heirloom Media.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
This is the Black Country Globe over lemm.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
It's Saturday morning, just after ten at A and M
Barbershop in Atlanta's Castlebury Hill neighborhood on the city southwest side.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
This barbershaw is the oldest black owned barber shop in George.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is history.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
AM first opened its doors in nineteen fifty six in
a deeply segregated Atlanta barber's. Derek and Carlos have been
cutting hair at this little four chair institution for decades.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I've been working here this ye would be twenty one e.
I've been a A and M barbershop for like twenty five
plus years.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
This place is bustling black men filled rows of metal
folding chairs. They're sitting under a painting of cartoon dogs
getting haircuts, scrolling through their phones. A black and white
photo of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Junior hangs
over their heads. King and Malcolm are smiling, shaking hands.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
A poster grit with profiles displays different fade styles. The
bright vanity lights over the mirrors of each station reflect
off the brown tile floor, and of course there's the
swirling candy cane of a barber pool just outside the door.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
You know, we come in here, we can let our
hair down till the few lies and laugh and watch
boys and just enjoy the customers. You know, everybody got
opinions about different things.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
We taught politics, sports, no women. You know, the barber
shop didn't mean a whole lot to the community.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
This isn't a Atlanta Saturday man. This is pretty much
how it must have felt on another Saturday. Back on
January tenth, twenty fifteen, As always, Carlos was on his
white maroon share in the back corner.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, it started out us a good day, you know,
everybody cut and hell we had customers outside, you know,
kicking awaiting to get they cuts.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
It's the late afternoon, early evening. A man named Donovan
Thomas walks in. He's a regular from the neighborhood, big guy,
twenty six years old. Everyone calls him Peanut or just Nut.
It's been his nickname since he was little.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I've been on Peanut for probably twenty fifteen. Oh made
my thirteenth year, so I had been on at least
twelve thirteen years. That night he had paid for everybody
halcut that was in him three keys.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
I had one coachman.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
He paid for him, and then he also paid mister George.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Mister George is the owner.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
When we walked into the barbershop that morning, Good Morning
America was blaring on the TV. But on that evening
back in January twenty fifteen, there was a big game
on once again.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
January brings the Ravens to Foxboro to face Tom Brady
and the New England Patriots.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
We was all geared up about playoff weekend. Right before it happened,
you know, we were watching the game Baltimore versus New England,
and you know Peanut with Baltimore and I was telling him,
why don't go again, Tom Brady, don't do that.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
He would I believe they got him to night.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
No.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I was like, no, don't do it. So he jumped
out like fourteen zero.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Brady dropped back to the raven and before he could leave,
the low door.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
To Amondola, he scoops it up, shakes the tackle, Amon
Doola dives.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
You know, New England came back and tied it up fourteen.
Speaker 6 (03:33):
Up, touch down the Patrons.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
Around seven fifteen that night, Carlos cuts off his clippers.
He holds a mirror up so Nut can check his fade.
The barber cape comes off. Nut rises from the chair.
He and Carlos grip hands and say goodbye. The Nut
walks out the door, and.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Then you know, out the blue, a bunch of shots
break out. I had ran to a coke in the back,
so you know, we had like a system. Somebody run
the aid when when you need and somebody.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Called nine one one.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
My coworker dead ran outside to run the aid to
whoever need because we ain't know what happened.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
And out of nine one one call.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Okay, so you call nine one one and what do
you tell the dispatcher.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
That somebody was shot?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
I didn't know who cause I never went outside.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
And so they were telling me that they needed an ambulamp.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
So I relayed that missage to the arm nine one
one people and during that time they were like, hey,
tell them we need two ammulamb. I was like, damn,
They said we need two amulam and then they were
holling commotion back and forth. Then this thing, you know,
they were like we need a third emu lamb and
I'm like damn, I mean the people don't got shot
(05:02):
and he you know, I stayed on the phone with
him for a little while, you know, damn information that.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I had, and he fired a guy here and took him.
They paul about right outside the window.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
And Peanut, they was shot two in the parking lot
and Peanut.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Along the sidewalk.
Speaker 7 (05:27):
We begin tonight with a developing story. But Land the
police are on the scene of a trickle shooting and
one of the victims is a teenager.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
It was cooled that January night in the thirties. Three
young men lead on the sidewalk. You could have seen
their breath. A team named Cordarius Sanders was shot in
the left ankle, a man named Reginald Hendrix was shot
in the groin, and Donovan Thomas was shot multiple times
(05:56):
in the chest and arm. Paramedics arrived and began treating
the victims.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
And they went by with them on the garden and
they looked bad at me when it all.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Dang dang, like you know, I ain't a good look.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
All three victims were taken to Grady Hospital.
Speaker 7 (06:20):
Shooting happened outside of barber shopping tonight. One victim is
clinging to life.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Sanders and Hendrick's injuries weren't life threatening, but Donovan Thomas
was in critical condition. His family gathered at the hospital.
The outlook was grim.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
At ten oh six pm, Thomas would die, but before
he did, police alleged he whispered something to his brother.
For words that would change everything. Thug had me killed.
Speaker 8 (06:58):
Two of the hottest rappers come out of Atlanta are
now in big legal trouble.
Speaker 9 (07:02):
Young Thug and Gunna are facing serious charges.
Speaker 8 (07:05):
A rapper and twenty eight other defendants charged in a
fifty six count indictment.
Speaker 10 (07:10):
That indictment alleges his YSL record label is a criminal
street gang that has committed murder, assault, and threats of violence.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Jeffrey Williams, the rap artist known as Young Thug, has
been at the center of not just Atlanta's music scene,
but America's music scene for years.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
And now he's on trial accused of heading up a
violent gang responsible for murder.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
I'm Christina Lee, a music journalist who has covered Atlanta's
hip hop scene for over a decade.
Speaker 4 (07:41):
And I'm George Cheaty, a crime and politics reporter based
in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
This trial changes music, This trial changes Atlanta, and we're going.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
To tell you how this is Kings Slime.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
The prosecution of Young Thug and YSL.
Speaker 10 (08:11):
So.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Over the past decade, Young Thug has become an international superstar,
cranking out hits, collaborating with everyone from Drake to Camilicabeo
Post Malone to Justin Bieber, amenting new artists with his
label YSL But.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
Police alleged that over the same decade, Young Thug was
building another organization under the name ysl One that recruited
troubled youth, pedaled drugs, incited violence, and committed murder.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
There's a story of his musical fortune and fame.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
And there's the story of Young Thug in street life
in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
As a music journalist, I've reported on Young Thug and
Gunna's careers as they skyrocketed out of South Atlanta to
become internationally known rap stars. The first time I wrote
for MPR Music, I wrote about Young Thug's music. The
first time I wrote for Double XL magazine, I profiled Gunna.
He fondly remembered being crowned best dressed in high school,
(09:13):
and this was many years before Rihanna would dress is
Gunna for Halloween. I never could have imagined that either
of their careers would lead us to this moment where
Atlanta's reputation as a rap capital appears to be in jeopardy.
Young Thug and Gunna were arrested at the peak of
their mainstream influence. They each had number one album.
Speaker 10 (09:35):
Gonna scores his second number one album as DS Forever
debuts atop the tally, with Young Thug achieves his.
Speaker 7 (09:40):
Third number one as his latest released Punk Debuts in
the top slot.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Gonna attended the Mac Gala, and they both were musical
guests on Saturday Night Live.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Ladies and Gentlemen, Young Thug, Ladies and Gentlemen, Gunna or What.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
And just months prior, appeared on the cover of Billboard magazine.
The articles tagline Young Thug and Gunna's hot streak Isn't
enough for the Atlanta duo. That cover story laid out
what music journalists covering pop music had just started taking
for granted, why Sell Records was a hit making label.
(10:20):
Young Thug won his first Grammy for his writing credits
on Childish Gambinos This Is America. The Spotify playlist This
is Young Thug shows that he's this sought out feature
artist for the likes of Doja Cat Future Calvin Harris
and even Elton John. But Young Thug's career started small
(10:42):
in a studio on Spring Street owned and operated by
a producer named David Cunningham, better known as Dune Deal.
So were you always done? Deal?
Speaker 11 (10:54):
No Geez?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Today Dundal is thirty seven, though this was years before
where he'd work with artists like Kevin Gayet's low Uzi
Ver and Trey Songs. This was also before he'd produce
Atlanta rap classics like She's Werken by cash Out and
Hannah Montana by Migos. Before all that, he grew up
in New York, Arizona, and California. He'd moved to Atlanta
(11:18):
when he was a teenager. In the year two thousand.
Dundal started up rapping, but quickly turned to producing instead.
Krufflow Dollar, the famous Atlanta televangelist, gave Dundal his moniker
and father.
Speaker 6 (11:32):
I pray that you will speak through my vocal chords
and think through my mind, none.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Of me and all of you.
Speaker 12 (11:40):
I had different names before, but it was stupid like
the Eagle Platinum Kid productions. And then one day I
happened to be making music at church. I went to
Kreflo Dollar's church and they had a studio in there,
and in the church, as I'm making music for his artists,
I do the beat really quick, and when he walked
(12:03):
in the room, Krauflow Dollar was like, that's a done deal.
Speaker 11 (12:05):
I'm gonna call you done deal. And it just stuck.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Dundal continued to rub elbows with several soon to be
famous people while they were still on the up and up.
Speaker 12 (12:14):
And then after that I got with a management company
called Visual Grammar, and Visual Grammar did the music for
Tyler Perry's plays, which I didn't know we're going to
turn into movies.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
At the time.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
But he was still working a day job at Guitar
Center to pay the bills.
Speaker 12 (12:31):
I happen to be working one day and this guy
walks up to me while I'm making a beat on
the keyboard. He was like, he was like, you just
made that. I was like, yeah, I just made it.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
The guy was an artist manager named Boo Man. He
told Dundal to help him pick out some studio equipment.
Speaker 12 (12:46):
He was like, I want the best of the best
equipment for my studio. So we go through and we're
picking everything out. He was like, all of this is yours.
I have a building on Spring Street and you can
come and it's yours.
Speaker 11 (13:01):
Just make beats from our.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Artists, And soon it was where Dundeal started producing mixtapes
for aspiring artists from a particular part of Atlanta.
Speaker 11 (13:09):
Cleveland Avenue Jonesboro South.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Cleveland Avenue is this four mile stretch of road that
runs through several South Atlanta neighborhoods stricken with the city's
toughest economic conditions.
Speaker 11 (13:26):
It's the gutter.
Speaker 12 (13:27):
So if you can compare to any other town like
O Block in Chicago or in California, Compton, this was
the hood. This is where people are climbing out of
the gutter to do something.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Cleveland Avenue dead ends into Jonesboro Road. The Jonesboro South
housing projects used to be in this area, a campus
of subsidized apartments for low income, mostly black residents. And
when you say folks were like climbing out of the gutter, like,
was music looked at as their way out or how
is yeah?
Speaker 11 (14:05):
Yeah?
Speaker 12 (14:05):
Yeah, music was definitely a way out for a lot
of people.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
The city of Atlanta got rid of all its housing
projects outright starting in two thousand and six, but many
of the kids who grew up in Jonesboro South stayed
tight as done. Deal is coming up. His name starts
getting passed around in that circle. And in two thousand
and nine, a stranger from Jonesboro South shows up to
Spring Street.
Speaker 11 (14:30):
One day.
Speaker 12 (14:31):
I get a knock on my door and I kind
of creak it open and I'm looking through and I'm like, yeah,
what's up? Can I help you? He was like, yeah, man,
I'm gonna be the next Little Wayne. Let me in
your studio. Let's work. And I'm like the hell. And
he looks crazy. He was wearing bell bottoms and like
a scarecrow hat, like a straw hat, a trench coat
(14:53):
with the arms cut out, in a little kind of
cut off belly shirt. And I was like, what the
hell is this. He was like, I'm young thug man.
He was like, I'm gonna change your life.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Jeffrey Williams was only seventeen years old when he introduced
himself to Dundal as young thug. Now when he said
I'm gonna be the next Lil Wayne. I guess there's
two ways to read that, right. One is stylistically, two
is in like I'm gonna be as famous as Lil Wayne,
So like, how did you interpret that or what do
you think he meant by that?
Speaker 12 (15:28):
I interpreted as Thug knew exactly what he was going
to do to take it to the next level.
Speaker 11 (15:36):
I think he had a game plan.
Speaker 12 (15:38):
Any artists that have ever crossed my path, the only
person I ever wanted to sign was Thug. Like, I
love all my people that I've worked with, but Thug
was the person that came with an idea in a
mindset that matched his music.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Okay, and what did that game plan look like?
Speaker 12 (15:56):
I mean, his game plan was to outwork every stylistically
to change the sound of Atlanta music. We did three
mixtapes I came from nothing, one, two, and three. The
first one was like, you know, almost unbearable because our
production recording, It's kind of like it was drawn off
(16:21):
of as good as you can get. And then the
second one was you could see growth, and then the
third one. People started to pay attention to who Thug was.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
At the time, artists like Ti and Young Jeezy were
big on the scene, but Dundal says that what he
and Young Thug were making was changing the sound of
Atlanta rap.
Speaker 12 (16:45):
Thug brought the melodic trap sound to music. So I
think that was the mindset, is that Thug was on
the train to head somewhere and I'm going along.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Better.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Yeah, Young Thug was already dressing the part of an
unconventional rap star.
Speaker 12 (17:04):
He paid attention to fashion. He was looking up on
the internet. While people are looking at you know, guns
and stuff like that, he's looking up European fashion talking about, oh,
you see what they're wearing on the runway.
Speaker 11 (17:17):
This is at nineteen twenty years old.
Speaker 12 (17:20):
It's like, you know, that's strange, but that's good because
you're gonna influence people.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
So he was into that from the beginning.
Speaker 12 (17:30):
He was putting together his own clothes, Like when I
tell you he was wearing a pea coat with the
arms cut out of it because he cut the arms off.
He was trying to create his own fashion sense.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Young Thug started performing at Club Crucial, a nightclub and
music venue owned by Rapperti. Once the club opened up
in Atlanta's Bankhead neighborhood in two thousand and five, it
quickly became a launch pad for up and coming rap artists.
Speaker 12 (17:57):
Rich Kids and Young Thug do a song called one
hundred Dollar autograph and we shot a video there. But
I remember this is when things started to look up
for Thug, when people started to be like, Okay, this
is the guy that's gonna be the star.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Within a few months, Atlanta trapstar Gucci made sign Young
Though to his label.
Speaker 12 (18:18):
Ten seventeen, he was working at Gucci Spot and Gucci
asked me, done, what do you think is gonna take
for Thug to get to the next level? And I
told him, I was like, get his teeth done. I
was like, he his confidence comes from how he looks.
If you give him the confidence, he's gonna take it
to the next level. And literally within the next month,
(18:41):
Thug was like a different person and that from the
time he got his teeth done. Next month we made Stoner.
So we did Stoner and then we started doing more
songs and hooking up with rich Homi Kwan and we
did the Rich Gang tape literally maybe three months later.
(19:01):
From that four months later, and then it was just uncontainable.
You couldn't stop him from rise.
Speaker 9 (19:12):
I remember hearing this early stretch of Young Thug mixtapes
in the early twenty tens that were making a splash
online in the sort of tastemaker underground rap fan community.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
This is Joe Costrelly, culture reporter at the New York Times,
an author of Rap Capital and Atlanta Story.
Speaker 9 (19:31):
I remember two things about it. One is that he
was obviously obsessed with Lol Wayne, as many people were
at that time, myself included, and that was clearly the
number one influence, especially the more experimental, abstract side of
Lol Wayne that had come about in the you know,
late aughts, early twenty tens. And then the other part
(19:52):
of it was that he was taking that experimentalism even
further is doing insane things with his voice. You know,
it was very polarizing from the jump. He was sort
of you know, yelping and using auto tune as this
instrument and just really stretching himself vocally, saying odd things,
(20:13):
you know, dressing oddly, and yeah, the songs just sounded
like nothing I'd ever heard before.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
When Young Thug's music first hit Atlanta, rap radio and
mixtape sites like Dappith, Costcarly says people didn't quite know
what to make of it.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
What he was.
Speaker 9 (20:28):
Doing was considered weird and not really rap, especially when
you're looking at it from a national perspective, and the
sort of traditionalist rap strongholds of New York or LA.
They heard a guy like Young Thug, who you know,
was proudly alien in the lineage of someone like Lol
Wayne or Gucci Man, and it was like an affront,
(20:48):
I think, to traditionalist taste, to classic rules of hip hop.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Both the music and fashion industries couldn't help but be
enamored by how Young Thug was breaking the rules. By
twenty fourteen, Young Thug had jumped from Gucci Mains ten
seventeen over to three hundred Entertainment, a label run by
former Warner Music execs. He also had the fashion Week
ready wardrobe to match his newfound status. On the cover
(21:18):
of his twenty sixteen album Jeffrey, Young Thug wears a
dress with cascading lavender ruffles on its skirt. He tips
a parasol shaped hat over his face, and only a
few of his locks are visible. This entire ensemble was
made by fashion designer Alessandro Dracone for men who want
to express themselves. Young Thug wouldn't fully explain the Jeffrey
(21:41):
cover for several more years on the song just how
it is, and even then he's daring you to question
his fashion choices. The lyric goes had to wear the
dress because I had to stick by stick. He means
an ak forty seven.
Speaker 9 (22:02):
People were wondering, you know, is he straight? Is he gay?
Is he joking? Is he trolling? I compare him. You know,
he's like in a lot of ways, like a prince
like figure. I think, you know, he's sort of like
post genre, post gender, you know, both both tough, both
masculine and feminine. And I think he just really sort
of widened the parameters for what a rapper could be.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Between a series of hits and all the conversation he
started over a new fem direction in modern hip hop style,
Janta becomes more than just a successful artist. He becomes
a taste maker.
Speaker 9 (22:39):
This is also a moment where every rapper coming up
is also a label boss. They're also a gatekeeper. They're
also a ringleader, and they're able to bring friends and
artists around them with them on their rise through the mainstream.
Thinking of like Odd Future and Tyler the Creator or
asap Rocky and a Mob. Basically, you know, all of
(23:03):
a sudden, we're in a new boom time for the
record industry, and every rapper getting signed to a big
deal is also starting their own label, starting their own imprint,
and bringing new talent with them. It's at that moment
that I think Young Thug is able to really brand
his own business.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
In twenty sixteen, Young Thug launches his own imprint under
three hundred Entertainment. He calls the label YSL, short for
Young Stoner Life. Young Thug surrounds himself with friends and
literal family. He features two of his sisters, Door and
Dolly on his songs. He signs his older brother on
(23:41):
Funk to the label, and ysl's biggest hit making signee
Hills Straight from College Park out of Atlanta South Side.
Speaker 9 (23:49):
It's not really until the rise of Gunna a few
years later that YSL has another breakout, sort of on
the on the scale of a Young Thug.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Often when rap stars launch their own labels, their founders
steal the spotlight from their own signees. Miraculously, that didn't
happen with Gunna. Instead, these two natives from Atlanta South Side,
Cleveland Avenue and College Park would take the world by storm.
Speaker 9 (24:16):
These artists were at the really at the top of
their game.
Speaker 4 (24:18):
You know.
Speaker 9 (24:19):
In twenty twenty one, YSL has a number one album
with a label compilation called Slime Language two. Gunna has
a number one album. Young Thug has his own number
one album with Punk. They're on SNL together.
Speaker 11 (24:33):
You know.
Speaker 9 (24:33):
They have this smash single Push and Pe with Future
Thug and Gunna on the same song, and they were
just really on top of the world.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
And then on May ninth, twenty twenty two, the music stopped.
Speaker 4 (24:54):
Young Thug's house on Alison Drive is only fifteen miles
north of Cleveland Avenue, but it might as well be
in another country. Buckhead is Balanciaga, Gucci, and Prada. It's
for white women in designer clothes and black women in
designer clothes who get stopped by the cops because they
(25:14):
don't look like they belong there. When people in Atlanta
want to describe something that affects everyone, they talk about
going from Bucket to Bankhead. Buckhead has restaurants that will
employ black people from Bankhead who can't afford to eat there.
But Buckhead is where black people with money in Atlanta
show off. Buckhead is Real Housewives of Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
White Oh not a white refuse right now?
Speaker 4 (25:42):
Ti and Tiny All I Won't Nell and Wood Love
and hip.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Hop we're here because dred.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
On May ninth, twenty twenty two, Atlanta police took Young
Thug out of his Buckhead house and handcuffs.
Speaker 10 (25:59):
They're appeared to be a massive presence on Allison Drive
and Buckhead by Atlanta police and perhaps others.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
The Fulham County District Attorney's Office confirms that's where Young
Thug resides.
Speaker 13 (26:09):
Or authorties rated the rapper's buck at home as investigators arrested.
The thirty year old Young Thug, whose real name is
Jeffrey Lamar Williams, is one of twenty eight defendants charged
in a sweeping fifty six count indictment against the criminal
street gang Young Slime Life, also known as Wysel.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
They found him with his friends and label mates Diamante
Kendrick the Rapper, Yack Cotty, and Martinez Arnold the Rapper
Little Duke. Police say they also found him with twenty
bottles of YSL Slime Drink, a THHC concoction his label
has been marketing in North Carolina. They found almost three
pounds of weed, thirty one bottles of lean that's promethazine
(26:49):
coding serru Bo's Schedule five controlled substance, and they found guns.
One of those was a switch a handgun modified fire
as a machine gun.
Speaker 11 (27:03):
Those are very illegal.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
It's the sort of thing one absolutely does not want
to be caught with. But Young Thug must have known
the police were coming, because even I knew they were coming.
Young Thug has been on gang investigator's radar for about
a decade. I had no idea who he was. I mean,
(27:29):
I recognized the name, but I didn't realize he was
a big deal or potentially the target of an investigation
until I started reading a different indictment.
Speaker 5 (27:41):
Knew at six, a massive gang indictment in Fulton County
charged a dozen people with a racketeering conspiracy, including a
famous musical artist, YF and Lucci.
Speaker 4 (27:50):
A year before police arrested Young Thug. Police arrested YFN Lucci.
Speaker 11 (27:56):
You know, you know, stay a hustle trying to get
rich and rich.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
Lucci is Rayshon Bennett. He's a rapper from Atlanta's Southside
and arrival for Young Thug in the studio and in
the streets. He's the front man for YFN Young Flyden,
which police describe as a street gang that started in
Atlanta's Summer Hill neighborhood. Fannie Willis picked up YFN on
(28:21):
a one hundred and five count gang indictment a year
before Young Thug's arrest. Prosecutors referenced YSL seven times in
the indictment. They said a ward broken out that YFN
and their allies in another camp Bird gang believed YSL
was responsible for the death of Donovan Thomas. Police suspected
(28:46):
Peanut Thomas was affiliated with YFN, so I dug in
the more questions, I asked that the more it became
clear that the cops believed Young Thug was at the
center of this swirling chaos of street violence between two
warring camps, and then one by one, shoes began to drop.
(29:13):
On April twenty fifth, twenty twenty one, Young Thug and
Gunna bailed out a handful of people from the Fulton
County jail, including one person facing a murder charge who
was released on bond as a mistake rappers.
Speaker 12 (29:26):
Young Thug and Gunna posted bond for thirty inmates stuck
in jail facing minor charges. Those inmates could not afford
bail by themselves.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
It wasn't thirty, it was six. Then Kenneth Copeland Lillwoody
to his friends and one of Lyaseel's core crew got
arrested in South Fulton.
Speaker 13 (29:46):
But police arrested Copeland on October twenty seventh, after they
say he was caught driving in his girlfriend's car with
a loaded gun inside.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
A few days later, Copeland's girlfriend South Fulton comp well
for trying to delete evidence from his phone.
Speaker 6 (30:03):
A former officer accused of trying to help get a
gang member back onto the streets the Laisse.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
The pair was in a relationship.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
About three months later, in February, an Atlanta cop got
shot six times while serving a warrant on Christian Eppinger.
Speaker 13 (30:20):
According to the warrants, Hevinger pushed Rogers away, pulled out
a gun, and shot the officer four times in the shoulder,
once in his leg, and once in the back of
his head.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
People were shocked and outraged, but almost as a footnote,
we found out that the alleged shooter was affiliated with YSL.
Two days after Eppinger was arrested, someone tried to kill
Young Thug's main rival, the rapper Yafn Lucci in jail.
(30:49):
He was allegedly shanked by a YSL affiliate who is
facing charges in the Rico indictment, and then in March
twenty twenty two, the mother of one of you Young
Thug's children was shot and killed in an argument at
a bowling alley near Cleveland Avenue.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Police looking for the ball who shot and killed a
thirty one year old woman during an argument over a
bowling ball.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Police and family members loudly denied that her death had
anything to do with the street feud, but by then
people watching all of this unfold understood that something was coming.
Young Thug had a concert scheduled in April at State
Farm Arena. With all the drama swirling around him and
(31:35):
the murder of his child's mother, the promoter postponed it
to June, but they didn't make it to June. Young
Thug was arrested in May. Police picked him up with
Little Duke and Yak Gatti in his house and buckhead
that Monday in twenty twenty two was the last day
Young Thug has been seen in public as a freeman.
(32:00):
Young Thug has been a target of the police since
the shooting of Donovan Thomas. He faces eight counts in
the now sixty five count indictment, and those counts accuse
him of being the leader of a gang as a
violation of the state's racketeering and gang laws. The indictment
alleges that the Young Stoner Life label is also the
(32:23):
Young Slime Life street gang, that it has murdered three
people and tried to kill many others, committed robberies and
traffick and drugs, and if you're the leader, all of
those crimes lay on your head.
Speaker 10 (32:38):
We'll ask on the different charges for the maximum penalties,
and there's obviously many people that are looking at life
under this indictment.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
The most serious charge against Young Thug in the indictment
alleges that he rented the car used in the drive
by killing of Donovan Thomas. But it's more than that.
Throughout the indictment, prosecutors say Young Thug spurred other members
of Yesel to commit acts of violence. Prosecutors used the
drugs and guns found at his house, alongside lyrics and
(33:07):
social media posts, to craft an image of Young Thug
as a kingpin and his friends his willing associates. The
DA claims lyrics were more than just musical expression, that
they were a means of promoting the gang, making it
more attractive for others to join in a method to
intimidate gang rivals. But if this trial were only about
(33:29):
rap music lyrics, it wouldn't be half as interesting as
the full story. From twenty twenty to twenty twenty two,
Atlanta went through an unprecedented rise in violence. Prosecutors say
(33:51):
gang crime drove that violence. District Attorney Fani Willis said
so at the press conference announcing the young Thug indictment.
Speaker 10 (33:59):
As the District Attorney of Fulton County, my number one
focus is targeting gangs, and there's a reason for that.
They are committing conservatively seventy five to eighty percent of
all of the violent crime that we are seeing within
our community.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Is that actually true?
Speaker 1 (34:20):
The DA says that it doesn't matter whether these gangs
are involved in the music business.
Speaker 10 (34:25):
It does not matter what your notoriety is, what your
fame is. If you come to Fulton County, Georgia and
you commit crimes, and certainly if those crimes are in
furtherance of a street gang, that you are going to
become a target and a focus of this District Attorney's office,
and we are going to prosecute you to the fullest
(34:46):
extent of the law.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
So we'll arresting rappers lead to less violence.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
Can Atlanta prosecute its way to safety? Can you actually
put enough gangsters in prison to reduce crime without trying
to direct we change a place like Cleveland Avenue? Three
years ago, Atlanta was on a black Lives matter path.
The current District Attorney, Fannie Willis was elected in part
(35:14):
because her predecessor, Paul Howard fumbled the politics of the
summer of George Floyd protests. Two Atlanta cops killed a
man named ray Shard Brooks after a scuffle at a
drunk driving stop at a Wendy's. Howard was facing accusations
(35:36):
of corruption and up for reelection against Willis, an able challenger,
Howard quickly issued murder charges, but charging two cops with
murdered days after demonstrators burned a Wendy's to the ground
in protest looked like a political move to save his
own skin. The counter protest by police and the public
(35:59):
backlash cost him enough support to give Willis the seat.
Speaker 5 (36:03):
It is the end of a decade's long era Fawnie
Willis defeating her old boss, incumbent Fulton County District Attorney
Paul Howard, in the runoff election, and she did so
by a large margin.
Speaker 4 (36:16):
La tonin crime shifted almost immediately as the news filled
with stories of club murders and highway shooting gunfire.
Speaker 6 (36:24):
That's right, so right now Atlanta police are investigating in
early morning shooting. It happened outside the Marquette Lounge in
northwest Atlanta.
Speaker 7 (36:32):
Atlanta police are investigating a deadly double shoot.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Now they're shooting.
Speaker 5 (36:35):
A man is dead after bullets rang out in the
parking lot of a popular Atlanta.
Speaker 8 (36:40):
Lounge when Atlanta police say five people were shot near
the lounge.
Speaker 5 (36:44):
More than a dozen people injured by gunfire.
Speaker 13 (36:46):
We do you know that this started with a fight
inside of the Club Blue Lounge.
Speaker 5 (36:50):
At some point it was taken outside and someone pulled
a gun and started shooting.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
Activists had been demanding to shut the city jailed down
and move money out of police budgets and into social services.
Speaker 11 (37:04):
Closed the Atlanta City Detention Center.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
Now Atlanta was funding police projects and complaining about how
people facing serious charges weren't getting prison time. Atlanta literally
added new sheriff in down. Voters threw the old one
out of office at the same time that they elected
Willis and Willis is already known for being tough on crime.
(37:33):
As an assistant DA Back in twenty fourteen, Fannie Willis
helped prosecute Atlanta Public School teachers and principles associated with
a cheating scandal, a scandal that rocked the city and
made national headlines.
Speaker 2 (37:47):
The Fulton County Grand jury has returned an indictment that
contains sixty five counts against thirty five defendants.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Teachers went on trial for fixing state classroom achievement tests
to win bonuses and raise school rankings.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
Some went to prison this morning.
Speaker 6 (38:07):
Ten Atlanta Public School educators now out on bond after
a judge sendens them to prison on Tuesday for a
year's long cheating scandal changing answers on standardized tests.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
Now, as we work on this show, we don't know
what Fannie Willis will do with Donald Trump. We don't
know if he will be charged personally with crimes of
election interference from twenty twenty.
Speaker 12 (38:30):
I just want to find eleven thousand, seven hundred and
eighty votes.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
But she's warned law enforcement to get ready.
Speaker 8 (38:40):
Fulton County's district attorney has put area law enforcement officials
on standby for possible unrest. This summer when she says
she may announce charging decisions.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
And it's not hard to see the YSL trial as
a dry run for a political circus in court in
an election year.
Speaker 1 (39:06):
Protesters against cop City, the controversial ninety million dollar police facility,
say that the DA's office will likely press RICO charges
on them as well. RICO stands for Racketeer, Influence and
Corrupt Organizations Act, and it's both a state and federal
law used to prosecute groups of people in criminal conspiracies.
(39:27):
Defense attorneys on the y Cell case say loudly that
Willis is abusing George's RICO law in all of these cases,
especially the one being made against young Thug and Gunna.
After all, Rigo was originally written to put mobsters to
trial crime families like the Gambinos and Colombos.
Speaker 4 (39:47):
Maybe there's an argument to be made. Is this the
final nail in the coffin for criminal justice reform in Atlanta?
And does this send a signal to other cities that
they can do the same. It's hard to find a
bigger symbol than this case.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
When Finie Willis addressed the media about the YSL indictment
in May twenty twenty two, She called George's Rico law
a powerful tool.
Speaker 10 (40:12):
It is certainly a tool that I believe in. The
reason that I believe in it as a tool is
it allows juries and the communities to see the complete
picture of a crime, so they can truly be educated
and have facts to weigh when they're making decisions. And
so if you're asking, should you expect to see other
reco indictments against under other street gang organizations.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Absolutely, But she wasn't just thinking about the future of
crime in Atlanta. She was also thinking back to January tenth,
twenty fifteen.
Speaker 10 (40:45):
I sat down with mister Thomas's mother, and I made
her a promise that her son was as valuable as
any other person within our community, and that I would
put resources on this case and that I would do
everything I could to make sure that her son had justice.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
We came to an m barbershop because that's where Donovan
Thomas was gunned down. He spent his last few moments
in Carlos's chair, watching football and shooting the shit. That's
what people do in a barbershop. We wanted to know
how this case was being talked about in a place
so pivotal to it.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Does music come up? Does this case come up?
Speaker 2 (41:28):
You know, there's the talk of probably the globe right now.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
You know what opinions have folks had about it? I guess, oh, they.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Had a mixed opinion.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Some people, you know, saying that it's case where they
think that he gonna get out, you know they.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Well, some people saying that he finished.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
And you know, I just don't know. I just had
to wait and see.
Speaker 4 (41:56):
This case and the trial have been surprising in many ways,
so is the reaction to it. You sort of think,
you know what someone might say about it, and nothing.
They make you think twice, like when Carlos the barber
put blame for all of this in a place we
didn't expect a.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
Lot of thing that happening.
Speaker 11 (42:15):
Due to the music.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Six virus and drugs.
Speaker 3 (42:20):
And if you listen to the number one top ten songs,
listen to what they're saying, and then you put on
the evening news, then you see what they saying.
Speaker 4 (42:34):
Do you think the music reflects what's actually going on
in the street?
Speaker 2 (42:38):
Exactly?
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Yeah, everything they talk about in the song is happening.
Kick your doe down, dog, get kicked down? Which man
you blocked blocked in Schman, people getting shot, you know, robbed,
all counter stuff, and that's what the music is talking about.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
Day and so, just so I understand, you're saying the
music kind of like if it's a chicken versus egg situation, right,
you're saying the music leads to the violence, or that
the violence is reflected in the music.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
It's more like a trigger. The music trigger the mind. See,
music is universe. If we can change that and get
people to start talking about more positive stuff, then you
can reprobate the mind. Once you get the mind reprobated,
then people start having different actions, better ashes.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
And so that's my theory.
Speaker 3 (43:36):
Change the dynamics of the music, then you change your thinking,
especially of the young.
Speaker 4 (43:44):
That doesn't sound like it's easy to do, though.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Now it ain't nothing good come easy, nothing good call leasy.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
As a political journalist, I've been thinking long and hard
about what happens when crime arises. Politicians do whatever they
have to do to stay in office, even if it
means walking back promises to reform the criminal justice system.
I came across the YSL case almost by accident as
I was looking at how a people in power were
getting a gang crime. But now I'm looking at how
(44:23):
this case speaks to the larger issues. Prosecuting Young Thug
is symbolic of bigger things.
Speaker 1 (44:31):
In this show, you're going to hear from everybody about
who Young Thug is and what the significance of this
trial could be. You're going to hear about the murders
and all of the different people involved, and we'll talk
about the controversial use of lyrics as evidence.
Speaker 4 (44:46):
We have different questions. What doesn't mean to be a
real street rapper in Atlanta? Are people making more out
of gang violence than is real? How are people actually
living in the places that create this music? Connected? Is
music to real street life in Atlanta?
Speaker 1 (45:04):
If Young Thug is convicted, what does that mean for music?
What does it mean for Atlanta as hip hop's mecca?
If street gangs are really and truly part of musical
life in Atlanta and we're trying to fight gangs, are
we going to have to fight music at the same time?
Speaker 4 (45:23):
Atlanta is split in a dozen different ways. The street
is only one part of this city, the part people
who listen to Atlanta trap music are most familiar with.
But we're talking to everyone from folks on Cleveland.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
Avenue, young thugs, home turf to the movers.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
And shakers, and politics.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
And business from cops to crooks and to regular people.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
This case affects the whole city and the whole country.
Speaker 1 (45:49):
Some of the ways might surprise you.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
This is King's Slime. Next time on Kingslime.
Speaker 11 (46:04):
From I seventy five to Jonesborough Road.
Speaker 14 (46:07):
That part of Cleveland Avenue would be called Cleveland Now
kill us why because it's dominated by blood sets.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
He was a young thud when I met he was
Jeffrey Williams. He was a part of a hybrid game
rock crew.
Speaker 14 (46:23):
See, people think gangs is a hate thing, when gangs
is actually a love thing, right, meaning, these are my friends.
Speaker 11 (46:30):
I grew up with them, I loved them.
Speaker 6 (46:32):
Their method of engaging in social control has.
Speaker 11 (46:36):
To do with using violence and force, and it's.
Speaker 3 (46:39):
Inevitable that it's gonna spread when you've got combatants that
don't see a preak future for themselves and know that
you know, it's a it's a killer be killed kind of.
Speaker 11 (46:47):
A world out there. Oh yeah, I hope I ain't
saying too much.
Speaker 1 (46:55):
Kingslime is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Heirloom Media.
Speaker 4 (46:59):
It's written and produced by George Cheedy, Christina Lee, and Tommy.
Speaker 1 (47:02):
Andres, mixing sound design and original music by Evan Tyre
and Taylor Schaicogne.
Speaker 4 (47:09):
The executive producer and editor is Tommy Andres.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
Fact checking by Kaylin lynch.
Speaker 4 (47:14):
Our theme music is by Don Deal. Special thanks to Josh.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
Lewind and to the Atlanta news outlets eleven A five, WSBTV,
and Fox five.
Speaker 4 (47:23):
For more shows from iHeart Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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