Eight months after Young Thug’s arrest alongside 27 other members of the alleged street gang/record label YSL, jury selection for the trial has begun, while the trial itself will take place shortly afterward. Since the initial 56-count indictment and arrests, numerous members of the group have been offered and accepted plea deals that will at the very least see the end of YSL as we know it, including Gunna and Thug’s brother Unfoonk.
Young Thug himself, though, remains on the hook for eight charges after a search of his home yielded several new charges in addition to one count of conspiracy to violate Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. The charges against him are now: possession of a firearm while committing a felony; possession of a machine gun; two counts of participating in criminal street activity; and three counts of violating the Georgia Controlled Substances Act. A charge of street racing was tacked on in December, drawing criticism from Thug’s lawyers.
The high-profile trial is estimated to last between six and nine months, according Fulton County Judge Ural Glanville (per Fox Atlanta), and has attracted the scrutiny of multiple recording industry professionals who feel that the use of Thug’s lyrics to connect him to the initial RICO indictments has racism written all over it. Regardless of the outcome, the terms of the plea deals given to Thug’s artists prevents them from associating with other accused members of the alleged gang and even mentioning it in their lyrics, which means that YSL will essentially be no more.
Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
