Rapper Young Thug faces racketeering charges

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A rap vanguard essential to the Atlanta scene that’s for years been the genre’s nerve center, Young Thug is one of contemporary hip hop’s most famous, most idiosyncratic figures.

The artist’s arrest last May on racketeering charges rattled the community the 31-year-old came up in, as he and 27 other alleged street gang members were swept up in a sprawling RICO indictment.

State prosecutors allege the chart-topping artist born Jeffery Williams is the founder and head of YSL, or Young Slime Life, an affiliate of the Bloods street gang.

But defense attorneys assert that YSL is nothing but a record label and family of artists known as Young Stoner Life — the same name of the label Young Thug founded in 2016 as an imprint of 300 Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Starting Monday the rapper, who maintains he is innocent, is among 14 defendants set to stand in the wide-ranging trial expected to last at least six months.

Six others will be tried separately, while eight more have already taken plea deals.

The case has sparked widespread attention not least because prosecutors are citing rap lyrics as evidence of criminal activity, a practice that for years has prompted accusations of racism and curbing of artistic expression.

The month after his arrest, Young Thug urged fans in a video shown at a concert presented by a New York radio station to sign a petition calling for legislation to restrict courts from using rap lyrics against defendants.

“You know, this isn’t just about me or YSL. I always use my music as a form of artistic expression, and now I see that Black artists and rappers don’t have that, you know, freedom. Everybody please sign the ‘Protect Black Art’ petition and keep praying for us. I love you all,” he said in the message.

The petition has since garnered tens of thousands of signatures.

– ‘Rap weirdo’ –