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Says here he’s guilty!
As the Young Thug RICO trial inches closer to actually happening, the prosecution has managed to get the green light on using Young Thug’s lyrics as evidence. As covered by Billboard:
An Atlanta judge ruled Thursday that he would allow many of Young Thug’s rap lyrics to be used as evidence against him and other alleged gang members in their upcoming criminal trial, rejecting arguments that doing so would violate the First Amendment.
That is bad for the defense. Reason being, Thugger’s oeuvre contains a large amount of frankly goofy content that wouldn’t want to be read as confessions in the courtroom. Here’s a small sample.
If they need evidence for drug smuggling:
Wire Fraud:
Knife Crime:
Being a general menace at FedSoc meetings:
Not to mention being a racist:
This is goofy of course, but it doesn’t really fare much better than the lyrics the prosecution is trying to pit against Jeffery as proof that that he and his music collective YSL are actually a gang that committed a slew of crimes that then went to the studio to brag about their capers to millions. Here are some of the lyrics as provided by Atlanta News First:
“Hey, this that slime s*** (hey!), YSL s*** (hey!), killin’ twelve s*** (hey!), f*** a jail s*** (hey!), … this that mob s*** YSL, this that mob life.”
They want to use this lyric to tie Thugger & Co. to the shooting of a cop, but that’s like using the lyric “fuck b*****s, get money” to tie Lil’ Kim to a prostitution ring. Oddly enough, there was a case where a prosecutor tried to use a person using the phrase “rather count money while you eat my p***y” in her Instagram picture to prove that she was engaged in prostitution. Upon everyone realizing that it was just a Lil’ Kim lyric, everyone laughed the prosecution in to submission.
Saying “Fuck 12” is ubiquitous in the genre — a cursory search on Lyrics.com popped up 3.8k and 33 artists connected to the term. Sure there’s a bunch of redundancies, but that doesn’t take away from it being a common refrain. There’s a reason there aren’t a bunch of rappers and outlaw country musicians saying “Fuck The Fire Department,” cops specifically do some dastardly shit.
“My n***** really be slime and we committin’ them crimes … hop out and shoot … you wanna be slime … go catch you a body.”
The prosecution, acting as if generic lyrics are confessions of guilt, want to use this as evidence that committing a murder is a requirement to join YSL. Cute, but people boldly lie in rap lyrics ALL of the time:
Best case scenario, the prosecution wants to introduce the lyrics as “evidence” and leave it up to jurors to assess their probative value. But that’s risky business — it isn’t that hard to make people think water is poisonous if you change its name and complain about chemicals. Dude’s stage name is Young Thug, he has face tattoos, and has worn a hoodie at least once in his life — those things alone are enough for far too many Americans to assume that he’s some sort of inherent threat. Throwing lyrics at a wall and seeing what sticks comes too close to playing on racial prejudices rather than objective judgement. It really doesn’t take much for the tropes to come out — the closing argument from the Ahmaud Arbery trial wasn’t that long ago after all.
A small aside — it is objectionable enough when lyrics are being used against a high-profile millionaire defendant, but the precedent this sets could be far reaching. Just take a second to fathom how many Soundcloud rappers — failed or otherwise — live in heavily policed and racially profiled areas like Atlanta, New Jersey, and New York. There’s no question that Black people are more likely to get charged with serious crimes, even when there’s little to no evidence. Do we really want to make it easier for some prosecutor to make a teen sign a plea bargain giving hard time because their mixtape got leaked?
Lyrics To Be Introduced As Evidence In Trial Of Rapper Young Thug [Guardian]
Here Are The Rap Lyrics That Will Come Up In Young Thug’s Trial [Atlanta News First]
Earlier: I Don’t Think People Understand How Silly It Is To Use Song Lyrics As Evidence
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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