Rapper Young Thug’s racketeering trial in Atlanta, Georgia is getting more serious as prosecutors are now using the artist’s own lyrics against him.
The 32-year-old, born Jeffery Lamar Williams, is accused of co-founding a ‘criminal street gang’ in the form of his Young Slime Life group, ending with murder, assault, carjacking, drug dealing, and theft contributing to the overarching charge.
Racketeering refers to acquiring a business illegally, running a business with illegally derived finances, or using a business to break the law.
Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Adriane Love told the jury in her opening statements that Williams oversaw dozens of crimes, leaving a ‘crater’ which ‘sucked in the youth, innocence and even the lives of some of its youngest members’.
She added that Young Thug’s lyrics ‘bore a very eerie significance to real life’ referring to the gang’s alleged crimes dating back as far as 2013.
The attorney continued to cite extracts from a number of the defendant’s tracks.
The Fulton County prosecutors argue that the YSL (Young Stoner Life) label was not a true business but rather a gang – linked to Los Angeles’ notorious Bloods – with Williams and his codefendants moving ‘like a pack’.
Love also claimed that Williams was referred to by fellow members as ‘King Slime’.
The indictment includes a wide-ranging list of 181 crimes that prosecutors say were committed in 2013 as part of the alleged RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) conspiracy to further the gang’s interests.
