As Young Thug’s YSL RICO case rages on, resurfaced videos of the rapper have been circulating online since his indictment last year. One in particular shows the Atlanta native admitting that he and two rap legends only appear to be gang-affiliated.
The clip came after an incident involving Thug, Lil Wayne, and Birdman in 2015. Around this time, Wayne and the Cash Money CEO were beefing after the “A Milli” rapper filed a $51 million lawsuit against Cash Money Records in January of that year. During that time, Birdman had shifted his focus from his former protégé to pushing the “Lifestyle” rapper.
Three months later, Wayne was set to perform in Thug’s hometown at the Compound Nightclub in Atlanta on Saturday, April 25. The following morning, a gunman took aim at Wayne’s tour bus and fired several shots. No one was injured in the shooting but the man responsible later turned himself in and he was identified as Jimmy Winfrey.
Winfrey, who also goes by the name Peewee Roscoe, was a YSL affiliate and Thug’s former tour manager, therefore, prosecutors at the time believed that Birdman and Thug put him up to it. Winfrey was given a 20-year sentence to serve ten years in prison and ten years on probation. But Thug and Birdman were not formally charged in relation to the shooting.
Police didn’t get to question Thug about the shooting until July 15, after he was arrested on charges of making terroristic threats against a mall security guard in the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody. During his two-hour interrogation after the arrest, one of the detectives brought up the shooting that occurred earlier in the year to see if he could find out more information about Wayne’s feud with Cash Money Records.
The detective said to Thugger, “Y’all are Bloods right, You, Wayne, and Birdman, all y’all? I mean I just don’t see why the beef makes sense though?” Thug sounded extremely confused as he said, “A Blood?” before laughing at the detective, stated that each rapper has claimed to be one in their songs. Thug replied, “Man, that is entertainment, man.”
A lot of viewers thought the way that Thug responded to the detective was hilarious. Some even said he had the same tone and inflection as Soulja Boy when he said “Drake!?” on “The Breakfast Club” in 2019. Other people said that this was proof that his lyrics should not be used against him in his trial that starts on Monday, Nov. 27, because everything in the songs is for entertainment and not meant to be taken literally.
“You can tell these people don’t have solid evidence against Thug, they’re trying to force the lyrics to match real-life situations,” said one person. Another wrote, “They can’t have real evidence against him all they use is the lyrics to his songs.”
they can’t have real evidence against him 😭 all they use is the lyrics to his songs https://t.co/Z25yhO8cbU
— this all a lie. (@_jamaari) November 21, 2023
People on the other side said if it wasn’t true then he shouldn’t have rapped about it, with one person commenting, “When ‘entertainment’ comes back to bite. Be careful what you put out into the world.”
This commenter appears to be right as this incident has come back to bite him during his recent case. In May 2022, when Thug was arrested on the RICO charges, the 2015 shooting incident was included in the 88-page indictment against the alleged Young Slime Life criminal enterprise, which has the same initials as his label Young Stoner Life Records. Prosecutors have alleged that YSL is actually less of a record label and more of a gang.
This interrogation was also permitted by Judge Ural Glanville to be used by the prosecution, along with 17 sets of Thug’s rap lyrics in the case against the rapper.
