King Slime: The Prosecution of Young Thug and YSL

Both Young Thug's rise to stardom and current legal entanglements epitomize Atlanta's complicated legacy as a Black mecca. We explore how the YSL trial has already impacted the city and its music—and discover a secret about the rapper's legal future that could change everything, regardless of what the jury rules.

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Prosecutors in the YSL trial cite lyrics from a dozen songs to help underscore the accusation that Young Thug is a dangerous kingpin running a criminal enterprise. We examine the controversial use of lyrics in court, potential changes in the law and explore how this trial could change music. 

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While prosecutors claim that YSL is a dangerous criminal organization, defense attorneys in the YSL trial argue RICO and gang laws are being used too aggressively to target neighborhood problems and young people, turning the justice system upside down in Fulton County and beyond. We go into the courtroom’s holding cell to find out why YSL defendant Lil Rod was screaming, and we unexpectedly become characters in the story of this trial. 

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A haunting scream echoes through the courtroom in the YSL trial, causing chaos and the arrest of several defendants. It’s just another day in the craziest trial in Atlanta’s history—and we meet the district attorney prosecuting it, Fani Willis, to discuss why RICO is such a powerful, albeit controversial tool to target both criminal street gangs and Donald Trump. We also press a gang unit investigator caught in a leaked interrogation tape about how law enforcement turn suspects like Lil Woody into witnesses.

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Young Thug was raised off one of south Atlanta's most notorious streets, Cleveland Avenue. But when the national Bloods gang infiltrated that part of the city in the early 2000s, that street became known as Bleveland Avenue. We meet a reformed gangster turned street minister and a gang unit detective from the Atlanta Police Department who offer us two very different perspectives on the area.

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Over the past decade, rapper Young Thug has become an international superstar thanks to five No. 1 hip hop albums and his own record label, YSL. But police allege that over that same period, Jeffrey Lamar Williams was running a criminal enterprise, also called YSL, that is responsible for violence and murder. Reporters Christina Lee and George Chidi profile Young Thug, the artist—and introduce Young Thug, the alleged criminal mastermind. 

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