Young Thug recently came to tears on the Perspektives With Bank podcast while discussing his disappointment with Gunna, his former YSL signee. In 2022, the two, along with 26 other men, were ensnared in the YSL RICO case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Prosecutors alleged that Thug and Gunna were co-bosses of a street gang — Thug maintains YSL was never a criminal organization. But in December 2022, Gunna took an Alford Plea that required a hearing where he affirmed to Judge Glenda J. Kendrick that YSL was a “gang” that “must end.”
As Thug explained to Atlanta media personality and rapper Big Bank Black, his one-time friend crossed a line that he doesn’t feel like they can come back from. “Once you rat, or once you turn gay — and I don’t got nothing against gay people…I can’t look at you the same. I’ma just look at you like you broke a man code.” He then clarified his statements and apologized for potentially offending the “LGTV” community.
Thug expressed that he invested heavily in Gunna and helped him in numerous ways, claiming, “I gave him more time than my kids.” Despite reports that Gunna’s Alford Plea statement couldn’t be used against YSL co-defendants without his testimony (which didn’t occur), Thug claims that the plea made his lawyer Brian Steele’s defense more difficult, forcing him and other YSL defendants to go back to the drawing board.
“Was Gunna takin’ that plea harmful to me? Yes, 100%,” Thug said. “First we tellin’ the jurors ‘YSL ain’t a gang.’ Now [after the plea deals] we goin’ back to the jurors sayin’, ‘Well, some people might say it’s a gang — but we ain’t a part of that part of it. We a part of the record label part.’”
Thug expressed that he felt Gunna owes him an explanation after the plea. “Even if I don’t want to hear it, you still supposed to be a real nigga and say it,” he says. “How can you just do what you did to me and then just go live your life? Like ain’t nothing happened?” Despite his disdain, Thug expressed, “I love you bruh… I poured so much into him, I can’t even hate him. In jail I thought I hated him… But I don’t wish no ill will on him — no ill feelings at all.”
When Bank suggested that Thug wants to forgive Gunna, Thug said, “no I don’t. I wish he did something lighter so I could forgive him…I done cried many nights over this shit.”
During one juncture of the interview, Thug shed tears while discussing the friends he’s lost because of their cooperation. Alongside Gunna, his recently released “Closing Arguments” track reveals his disdain for Yak Gotti, YSL Slug, YSL Obama, YSL DK, and SlimeLife Shawty, who also took plea deals, as well as YSL Woody, who was a main witness for the prosecution. “The niggas I be with everyday I don’t got ‘em no more. I’m fucked up. I don’t know what to do,” he said. “And I ain’t lose no nigga to tragedy, I lost a nigga to betrayal. You signing that one piece of paper could give me a life sentence…You gon’ let a piece of paper end all this shit?”
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It was a rare moment of vulnerability for Thug, who rarely does in-depth interviews. His raw emotion communicated that his feelings toward Gunna aren’t mere street bluster, but pain that he doesn’t seem to know how to resolve. His devotion to the “street code” means he can’t forgive the people who he feels cooperated against him, while many in the world tell him that he’s foolish for not being able to let it go. Rap fans giddily celebrate music that chronicles, if not glorifies, the streets, but they then also attempt to police how much of that mentality an artist should take outside of the booth. The reality is that Thug’s come from a harsh lived experience; during the interview he talked about his brother essentially dying in his arms at 10, and how being in solitary confinement while awaiting trial wracked his mental health. It’s hard to decree what someone’s worldview “should” be after these kind of life trials.
Young Thug has been at the center of controversy over the past several days, as recordings of jailhouse calls made while he was incarcerated during the YSL trial have leaked online. In those calls, he’s heard speaking on his frustrations with everyone from Kendrick Lamar to Drake and even Andre 3000, whom he alleges never put on other Atlanta artists despite being viewed as a pioneer of the Atlanta rap scene. Elsewhere he speculates on the reason behind Metro Boomin and Drake falling out, which Thug says was because Drake kept asking for music in the weeks following Metro’s mother’s passing. The ordeal has made for endless fodder on the rap internet, though has undoubtedly damaged Thug’s reputation.
Since the YSL trial started, Thug has lost friends, opportunities while incarcerated, while Gunna has becom a pariah for many in the rap game. All this acrimony stemmed from a case where Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis spectacularly whiffed while attempting to criminalize rap lyrics and super glue the misdeeds of everyone Thug and Gunna knew onto them. These men came from Atlanta’s most underserved communities, and instead of the city championing its rap community for making the city a worldwide mecca, the state made them targets. Thug wasn’t convicted of anything Fani Willis accused him of; he took a plea for the drugs and guns found in his home when they arrested him. None of this needed to happen, but it did, and these men’s lives will never be the same.
From Rolling Stone US
