Lyrics can be used as evidence during rapper Young Thug's trial on gang and racketeering charges, judge rules

When rapper Young Thug goes to trial later this month on gang and racketeering charges, prosecutors will be allowed to use rap lyrics as evidence against him, a judge ruled Thursday.

Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Ural Glanville said in court he would allow prosecutors to introduce 17 sets of lyrics they have identified as long as they can show that the lyrics are related to crimes that the rapper and others are accused of committing. Defense attorneys had asked the judge to exclude them, arguing the lyrics are constitutionally protected speech and would be unfairly prejudicial.

Young Thug, whose given name is Jeffery Lamar Williams, was indicted last year along with more than two dozen others. After some defendants reached plea deals and others were separated to be tried later, opening statements are set to begin Nov. 27 in the trial of Young Thug and five others.

Prosecutors have said Young Thug co-founded a violent criminal street gang in 2012 called Young Slime Life, or YSL, which they allege is associated with the national Bloods gang. Prosecutors say the rapper used his music and social media posts to promote the gang, which they say was behind a variety of violent crimes, including killings, shootings and carjackings.

Young Thug has had enormous success as a rapper and has his own music label, Young Stoner Life. Defense attorneys have said YSL is just a music label, not a gang.

Artists on his record label are considered part of the "Slime Family," and a compilation album, "Slime Language 2," rose to No. 1 on the charts in April 2021. He co-wrote the hit "This is America" with Childish Gambino, which became the first hip-hop track to win the song of the year Grammy in 2019.

Prosecutors used Georgia's expansive gang and anti-racketeering laws to bring the indictment. All of the defendants were accused of conspiring to violate the anti-racketeering law, and the indictment includes rap lyrics that prosecutors allege are overt acts "in furtherance of the conspiracy."

"The question is not rap lyrics. The question is gang lyrics," prosecutor Mike Carlson told the judge during a hearing Wednesday, later adding. "These are party admissions. They happen to come in the form of lyrics."

Carlson argued that First Amendment speech protections do not apply because the defendants are not being prosecuted for their lyrics. Instead, he said, the lyrics refer to the criminal act or the criminal intent related to the charges.

Prosecutor Simone Hylton separated the lyrics into three categories: those that prove the existence of YSL as an enterprise, those that show the gang's behavior and actions, and those that show that Young Thug is a leader of the gang.

Defense attorney Doug Weinstein, who represents defendant Deamonte Kendrick, who raps as Yak Gotti, argued during the hearing that rap is the only art form or musical genre brought into court as evidence of crimes.

He said his client's lyrics are a performance done as a character, not admissions of real-world things he's done. But, Weinstein asserted, because of the nature of rap music, with its violence and extreme language, the lyrics will unfairly prejudice the jury.

"They're going to look at these lyrics and instantly say they are guilty," he said. "They are not going to look at the evidence that's actually probative of their guilt once these lyrics get in front of them."

Chuck Creekmur, cofounder and co-CEO of AllHipHop.com, told CBS News earlier this year that the use of lyrics in the trial is concerning.

"First of all rap is a very unique art — it's a lot of first person, a lot of braggadociousness, people like to articulate the toughness of themselves or their home or where they live or their crew, and sometimes it's exaggerated as well," Creekmur told CBS News.

Creekmur also said there is a stereotype attached to rap music.

"Also with hip hop, it's probably the only art on the planet that is sort of persecuted in this same way. If you have a country singer or a rock singer, they may have graphic lyrics as well, but it's not as in your face as hip-hop. At least that's the perception."

In 2018, Young Thug was arrested at a Dave & Busters during his own party to celebrate his birthday and a new album. He was booked on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon. He posted $35,000 bail a few hours later and was released.

Los Angeles police sources told CBS Los Angeles at the time that the rapper and someone who works with him had been the focus of an ongoing weapons investigation. 

In:
• hip hop
• Georgia