The last year or two has been rough for rapper and trap genre pioneer Young Thug, getting caught up in a RICO charge, which in short is a charge for allegedly participating or taking charge of organized crime within a large group of people.
This RICO case stems from Young Thug’s record label under the name YSL In court, Thug’s prosecutors claim that the acronym stands for “Young Slime Life,” branding the label as an organized crime group, accused of committing felonious crimes over a span of a decade, including murders, drug deals, and fraud. Young Thug’s lawyers claim that this is false, stating instead that the label’s acronym stands for “Young Stoner Life,” a name also used online referring to Young Thug’s record label, backing the lawyer’s statements up. Young Thug was booked on the RICO charges on May 9, 2022, but his trial has recently been underway.
Many students are no stranger to Young Thug’s music, with the artists tallying around 30.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and 24 billion total streams on the app. Young Thug’s more widely known songs are “Go Crazy” with R&B singer Chris Brown and “Hot” featuring fellow Atlanta native and rapper Gunna, who similarly got caught up in the same RICO charges, before taking a plea deal early in the trial. Fans of the rapper who are students had different remarks on the situation.
“I personally think that they should just give him a microphone while he’s stuck in jail so we can hear some new music from him. I definitely don’t think he should be free in case he actually did commit these crimes,” senior Adam Erickson said.
The Atlanta native also dropped an album the year before he was arrested titled “Punk,” featuring artists such as the late Mac Miller, A$AP Rocky, Drake, and Travis Scott. The album did 90,000 first week sales and debuted at the top of Billboard’s 200 chart.
“I really liked this album, and next to his recent album I feel that this one is also up to par with them, I am a big fan of the production on this album as well, I hope he returns to making more music shortly,” senior Charlotte Rosel stated.
In comparison, Young Thug released an album titled “Business Is Business” while incarcerated in 2023, receiving many positive reviews from fans around the globe. The album did 89,000 first week sales, almost identical to what “Punk” did in its first week, which is very impressive considering Thug was behind bars when this came out without the ability to promote the album as he typically would. A regular listener of this project, sophomore Jamel Howard enjoyed the album.
“This album is top tier. I can’t wait to hear a snippet of any music that Young Thug has coming out soon, regardless of his legal issues I still see him as one of the most influential modern rap artists ever,” Howard said.
Regardless of legal battles in recent times, Young Thug definitely still is making a mark on the music industry and has many students at the school wondering what is next for the rapper as his trial goes on. There seems to be no clear answer on how it will go, or if the rapper even committed such acts as claimed in the courtroom. As the saying goes “Innocent until proven guilty.”
