Atlanta rapper Young Thug speaks with defense attorney Brian Steel during his RICO trial in Fulton County, Georgia.Natrice Miller/TNS/Zuma
It’s the morning of November 28, 2023, and a lawyer gives an opening statement to the jury. He tells a story of a 9-year-old boy who sees his older brother Bennie collapsed on the ground after being shot in the chest. Someone calls 911, but when the police finally arrive, they don’t rush to help him, instead handcuffing the boy’s mother, who is screaming and hysterical, and pushing her to the ground. When the cops finally go over to Bennie, they put a sheet over his face. But Bennie’s chest is still going up and down—he’s still breathing.
“This probably happens over and over but we only know about it because it’s Young Thug and Brian Steel.”
The lawyer, Brian Steel, says that Bennie’s brother would come to believe that “the only two ways he can break the generational hopelessness and despair for his family, himself—and he wanted to break it for as many people as he could who were in this struggle—was to be a professional athlete or an accomplished musical artist.” He chose music.
The young boy’s name is Jeffery Williams. He was born in 1991 and grew up in the Jonesboro South projects in Atlanta, Georgia, but was displaced at the age of 16 when the public housing development was demolished. He began rapping as Young Thug in 2010. Three studio albums and nearly 20 mixtapes later, he has become one of the most celebrated trap artists.
But in May 2022, Young Thug—along with 27 others associated with his label YSL Records—was arrested. The rapper is now on trial for a host of charges, including using YSL as a front to run a criminal street gang and violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Although he’s not accused of murder, the state alleges that Young Thug rented a car used in the 2015 murder of rival gang member Donovan Thomas Jr. Fulton County prosecutors, led by District Attorney Fani Willis, are connecting this murder to dozens of more recent incidents of gun crime and killings and claiming that Young Thug is the leader and instigator behind the wave of violence. Some of the state’s evidence against the artist comes from his rap lyrics, including bars like “Gave the lawyer close to two mil’, he handle all the killings”—from the song “Just How It Is”—which the indictment describes as “an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
For decades, politicians, prosecutors, and the media have incited panic around Black rappers and their lyrics, a practice that, according to some constitutional experts, raises free speech concerns when those lyrics are presented at trial. Reading lyrics out of context, they warn, reinforces racial stereotypes, biases the jury, and prevents fair decisions, reframing the trial around artistic narratives rather than material evidence.
“Prosecutors do this because they know it makes their job easy,” Jack Lerner, a University of California, Irvine, law professor and a co-author of “Rap On Trial: A Legal Guide,” told Courthouse News Service following the Young Thug indictment. “They know that juries that aren’t familiar with rap music will essentially rob the rap artist of a fair trial. It really creates a chilling effect for the artist and has very serious First Amendment implications.”
Last year, Reps. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) re-introduced the Restoring Artistic Protection Act, which would create federal rules to limit the ways in which artists’ lyrics can be used against them in criminal and civil cases. The lawmakers quoted a federal judge’s 2021 ruling barring two Philadelphia police officers from introducing as evidence the lyrics of a rapper who was suing them for wrongful arrest. “Freddy Mercury did not confess to having ‘just killed a man’ by putting ‘a gun against his head’ and ‘pull[ing] the trigger,’” the Trump-appointed judge wrote. “Bob Marley did not confess to having shot a sheriff. And Johnny Cash did not confess to shooting ‘a man in Reno, just to watch him die.’”
Willis, who was elected DA on a tough-on-crime platform in 2020, is the driving force behind the RICO accusations against Young Thug and his YSL co-defendants. Her history with Georgia’s RICO statute—an unusually broad version of a legal tool used across the country to combat organized crime—dates back a decade. As an assistant district attorney in 2014, she led the prosecution of 12 educators who allegedly cheated on state tests by correcting students’ answers to improve their scores. Eleven of them were convicted under RICO. Willis is now attempting to use the same law to prosecute Donald Trump and his allies for allegedly conspiring to steal the state’s 2020 presidential election. Meanwhile, Georgia’s attorney general is prosecuting dozens of anti-Cop City activists under RICO, accusing them of using illegal tactics to stop construction of the controversial law enforcement training center.
Enacted in 1980, Georgia’s RICO law expanded state power by, among other things, making it harder for crime bosses to use subordinates to shield themselves from legal liability. The statute gives prosecutors the authority to combine offenses committed by different people if they can argue that the illegal activity fell into a pattern and the defendants shared a common goal, explained Michael Mears, a professor at John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, in a 2023 interview with the New York Times. “It allows a prosecutor to go after the head of an organization, loosely defined, without having to prove that that head directly engaged in a conspiracy or any acts that violated state law,” he told the paper. “If you are a prosecutor, it’s a gold mine. If you are a defense attorney, it’s a nightmare.”
The law carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and fines of $25,000, giving the government an enormous amount of leverage to push defendants to take plea deals. In a 2022 press conference, Willis called herself a “fan of RICO” because it “allows a prosecutor’s office and law enforcement to tell the whole story.” She later stated, “We use it as a tool so [jurors] can have all the information they need to make a wise decision.”
But critics have accused Georgia prosecutors of abusing the law. The cases can take years to try—jury selection alone in the YSL case took 10 months—and are ruinously expensive to defend. Officials from the ACLU blasted the attorney general’s Cop City prosecution as a form of “extreme intimidation tactics that we need to resist.”
“A lot of people ask me to make Brian Steel and Thug merch, but I’m not trying to get sued.”
“There is legitimate concern that Georgia’s sweeping indictment could form a playbook for other prosecutors and state officials seeking to stifle political dissent,” the ACLU officials argued. Those fears aren’t baseless. Earlier this year, 10 Republican state senators put forward a bill that would further expand RICO in Georgia to punish low-level misdemeanors like loitering and illegally putting up posters. The legislation would also provide for increased penalties if the defendants are found to have targeted their victims based on “political affiliation or belief.”
The AG’s office declined to comment to Mother Jones, citing the pending prosecution. Willis’ office did not respond to questions.
Perhaps because it lacks a clear political valence—like the Trump and Cop City cases—the YSL trial hasn’t always attracted the kind of mainstream media attention it deserves. Until recently, to get any regular updates on the televised trial, one had to turn to social media, particularly to an X account that goes by @ThuggerDaily. The anonymous author now has more than 70,000 followers, and he supplies them with translations of impenetrable legalese, videos of dramatic testimony, and explanations of all the players and strategies used in the trial. His work has brought national attention to the inner workings of Georgia’s criminal justice system, and it’s been cited by everyone from legal experts to music outlets like Complex and The Fader.
Starting last month, the trial began receiving more intensive national coverage after Fulton County Judge Ural Glanville made a series of inflammatory decisions, including holding a secret meeting with prosecutors and a key witness. When Steel, the lawyer for Young Thug, learned about that meeting, Glanville demanded that Steel disclose how he’d found out about it. Steel refused to divulge his source and was then held in contempt by the judge. That was followed by calls for Glanville to withdraw from the case and by a series of appeals to higher courts in Georgia. The trial is now on indefinite hold until another judge makes a formal decision on whether Glanville should be removed.
I had the opportunity to ask @ThuggerDaily about his perspective on the intricacies of the trial, as well as what it reveals about Georgia’s fight against crime. You can read a condensed version of the discussion—which was conducted over email and has been edited for clarity and organization—below:
How did you become interested in Young Thug’s music? My initiation was when the Jeffery mixtape blew up in 2016.
The first time Thug really clicked for me was on the bus on the way home from a high school soccer game my team had just won. Whoever was on aux played “Hercules” off a mixtape Thug had just dropped, which remains in my top 10 Thug songs ever. I was hooked on that song but didn’t really check out Thug’s other music until a friend of mine showed me “With Them” off Slime Season 3 the day it dropped. That sound blew my mind and that entire tape resonated with me immediately. That week, I went back and checked out Thug’s entire discography and have been a huge fan ever since.
What’s the story behind you starting to cover the YSL trial? What’s your background (legal, music, etc.)?
I often get asked if I have any background in law or journalism—I have literally zero. Never ran a social media account either.
I had been a part of a Discord chat of active Young Thug fans for a long time, and when the RICO case first dropped, naturally everyone wanted as much information as possible. But the media coverage was absolutely horrid. Early on, none of us understood what Thug was being accused of doing. There were important hearings almost every month for the year leading up to the trial, but they weren’t streamed online and journalists didn’t cover them, so information was sparse. I took it upon myself to start reading court filings and summarizing them in the Discord server, and eventually, the owners of the Discord made me my own channel to announce case updates for everyone.
We’d have watch parties for hearings with dozens of people tuning into bond hearings, but there were many that were not available for streaming. I accidentally stumbled upon a document summoning someone from jail to the courtroom with a Zoom passcode on it. I tried to keep it private for as long as I could, but eventually someone else came across the code through the same document and trolled the courtroom by screaming, “FREE THUG,” into the mic. After that, they made a new Zoom passcode and kept it super locked up. I was also checking the court docket every day and was reading and learning a lot about the law—just 6 months prior I didn’t even know what an indictment was.
Fast forward to December 2022 and news of Walter “DK” Murphy taking the first plea deal dropped. The fans realized how big of a deal this was and we all scoured the internet looking for more information, but there was none. Radio silence. It was insane! I even resorted to DMing his lawyer, but they turned me away. The next day, Gunna took a plea deal. The info coming out about the deal was also bad but in the opposite extreme—it obviously made huge waves on social media, but the details coming out were sensationalized and, frankly, full of misinformation. No one posted the actual paperwork—the main thing going around was the video of Gunna’s plea allocution, where he responded, “Yes Ma’am,”—but I got it a full six hours before anyone posted the relevant parts to social media. I made one very important connection very early on who was able to access court documents without paying and often before journalists got them. I still talk to this same contact a lot. I can’t really say who, but without them, ThuggerDaily wouldn’t be what it is—they sent me all the documents I was getting early on. Before them, I was paying per page and I’d get them delayed.
This is when someone from the Discord server, the original owner of @ThuggerDaily, reached out to me. At this point, the Twitter account was an inactive Young Thug meme page with roughly 1,000 followers. We’d already talked about me potentially taking it over and turning my Discord updates into a full social media court updates page, but the wave of plea deals was the catalyst.
My first official post was announcing Slimelife Shawty’s plea deal, which garnered 40 likes.
When did you start getting attention for your work? I was looking at posts from 2023 that didn’t receive as much engagement as you are getting now.
Honestly, getting attention was gradual and consistent. There are, of course, huge spikes when big developments happen, but I was getting recognition from local lawyers and even YSL case lawyers and friends and family of the defendants pretty early on. However, with the craziness in the last month—between Woody, recusal motions, Steel being ordered to go to jail, etc.—my page doubled in size in the span of 2 weeks.
I started with 1,000 followers. On the day of opening statements, I went from about 16,000 followers to 20k. Today, I’m at 66k.
Why do you think there is so little active coverage of the trial? I mostly see explainers from mainstream outlets or basic reporting on developments with no added context like you’re doing. What are media outlets missing in their coverage of the trial?
This trial is extremely unique in ways that make it difficult to report. It has hundreds of witnesses and spans a timeline of 13 years with multiple narratives. It’s very unfriendly for traditional reporting as they would have to pay someone to cover five days of court a week for over two years. A random viewer can’t just pop in and understand why the state is asking the witness about a 10-year-old robbery in which no defendant was a participant. Even understanding Thug’s charges and what the state has to prove isn’t easy. It’s just too much. The only digestible parts are the funny clips of court proceedings that really SHOULDN’T be happening.
In June, Brian Steel filed a motion to recuse Judge Glanville from the case. Why are there so many moving parts like the absurd number of witnesses involved, the long jury selection process, and the messy court proceedings?
The state chose to indict 28 defendants in a conspiracy case with 700+ witnesses. It’s now around 200 witnesses after the judge ordered cuts when it was clear how long the trial was taking. That’s the source of most of the mess. Most think it’s working against them, but it’s hard to predict what a jury is thinking. They may have a decent murder case somewhere, but they insisted on the fluff to make it a RICO conspiracy.
What do you think the state wants out of this trial? Is its plan working?
I think that Atlanta has a gang problem for sure, and this is a performative way of saying, “We’re doing something.” They have given plenty of “dangerous” people zero jail time in exchange for testimony against Young Thug. It’s clearly designed to make headlines instead of making a difference.
You can’t arrest your way out of this.
What possible outcomes do you see for Young Thug and YSL in this trial?
As far as a final outcome, I have no idea. At this juncture, there’s a million ways the case can develop. However, I am 100% certain this first trial will end in a mistrial, whether it’s now or on appeal. Other than that, too much depends on unpredictable variables such as if the state wants to retry or offer favorable pleas, whether we get a new judge, which witnesses will show up again, etc., for me to make a decent prediction.
What do you think the trial says about Georgia’s criminal justice system and the other high-profile RICO cases in the state?
This trial has shown a whole new crowd of people, myself included, how much power the state has. Violation after violation and constant misconduct has been forgiven under the assumption that Georgia is trying their best. Even people who think Thug is guilty still acknowledge he deserves a fair trial and isn’t getting one. Everyone knows it. Yet we are wasting millions of dollars and years of time while the judge, who has lost control of the courtroom, has little oversight.
What do you think is the importance of having trials televised for the public?
It’s horrifying that this probably happens over and over but we only know about it because it’s Young Thug and Brian Steel. Even in this case, the state has tried to turn off the cameras under the guise of “witness safety.” The drawbacks of public trials definitely exist and I’m sure the jurors dislike social media reporting on the trial, but the alternative is no public accountability of public servants. It’s immensely important.
You should be getting paid for your work. Are you?
Other than Twitter ad revenue—which is honestly pitiful—no. For a while, I tried to monetize my page by reaching out to hip-hop promo agencies to do paid tweets, but it was a hard sell because my page was so niche. A lot of people ask me to make Brian Steel and Thug merch, but I’m not trying to get sued lol. I’m not sure how to go about monetizing my page otherwise. Hopefully I can be involved in the inevitable documentary somehow and get a check there. 🤣
