WEBVTT 00:00:02.219 --> 00:00:05.120 We were sitting here looking at the current landscape 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:07.080 of hip hop. And if you look closely at the map 00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:10.220 of Atlanta, there's just there is this massive 00:00:10.220 --> 00:00:13.599 Jeffrey Williams size hole right in the center 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:15.460 of it. It's a void. I mean, that's really the 00:00:15.460 --> 00:00:17.879 only way to describe it. A vacuum. We're talking, 00:00:17.899 --> 00:00:20.800 of course, about the artist known as Young Thug 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:26.879 or Sex or King Slime or. just Jeffrey. But for 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:28.820 the purposes of this deep dive, we're looking 00:00:28.820 --> 00:00:31.500 at a man who is currently living in this. very 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:34.500 strange, very specific kind of exile. Yeah, exile 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:36.679 is the word. He's arguably the most influential 00:00:36.679 --> 00:00:39.439 hip -hop artist of the last, what, 15 years? 00:00:39.539 --> 00:00:41.340 I don't think that's an exaggeration at all. 00:00:41.479 --> 00:00:43.119 No, not even close. You can hear his influence 00:00:43.119 --> 00:00:45.320 everywhere. And yet, following his release from 00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:48.479 jail in late 2024, the state of Georgia essentially 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:51.159 told him, you're free, but you cannot go home. 00:00:51.359 --> 00:00:53.200 And that one condition of his release, I mean, 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:55.740 that's really crucial to understanding where 00:00:55.740 --> 00:00:58.560 we are today. He is legally banned from the metro 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:01.990 Atlanta area. For 10 years. 10 years. Yeah, just 00:01:01.990 --> 00:01:03.789 think about that for a second. We aren't just 00:01:03.789 --> 00:01:05.709 talking about a rapper being banned from a venue 00:01:05.709 --> 00:01:08.629 or a club. We are talking about an artist whose 00:01:08.629 --> 00:01:12.659 entire sonic identity, his... His vocabulary, 00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:16.799 his specific rhythmic cadence, it's all derived 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:19.459 from the soil of the Jonesboro South projects. 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:22.219 And the legal system has just, what, surgically 00:01:22.219 --> 00:01:24.459 removed him from that ecosystem? That's it, exactly. 00:01:24.680 --> 00:01:26.280 It's like telling a blues musician they can't 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:28.079 go back to the Mississippi Delta. And that's 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:29.760 really what we need to figure out today. We have 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:33.519 a massive stack of sources here. biographies, 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:35.819 court transcripts from that Araco trial that 00:01:35.819 --> 00:01:38.579 just dragged on forever, and discography reviews 00:01:38.579 --> 00:01:42.260 from like 2013 all the way to his latest highly 00:01:42.260 --> 00:01:45.640 polarizing album, U .I. Scootie. A very polarizing 00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:47.959 album. But the question isn't just what happened. 00:01:48.019 --> 00:01:50.480 The mission today, the question is, can the artist 00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:53.140 Young Thug actually survive without the environment 00:01:53.140 --> 00:01:55.260 that literally created him? It is the ultimate 00:01:55.260 --> 00:01:57.120 nature versus nurture debate, but it's being 00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:59.700 played out in the context of a 56 count criminal 00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:02.540 indictment. Right. And before we even get to 00:02:02.540 --> 00:02:04.540 the legal nightmare, and trust me, we have to 00:02:04.540 --> 00:02:07.159 unpack that whole legal nightmare. I want to 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:09.780 understand the machine itself, because before 00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:11.740 he was a defendant and before he was wearing 00:02:11.740 --> 00:02:14.860 couture dresses on album covers, he was making 00:02:14.860 --> 00:02:18.289 noises that. Quite frankly, people did not know 00:02:18.289 --> 00:02:21.009 how to categorize. They didn't just fail to categorize 00:02:21.009 --> 00:02:23.169 it. They actively rejected it. Yeah. I mean, 00:02:23.169 --> 00:02:25.389 you have to remember the climate in 2013 and 00:02:25.389 --> 00:02:28.169 2014. It was different. Oh, I remember it clearly. 00:02:28.530 --> 00:02:31.250 Stoner comes out. Danny Glover comes out. And 00:02:31.250 --> 00:02:33.310 the immediate reaction from the old guard of 00:02:33.310 --> 00:02:37.729 hip hop was not kind. Mumble rap. That was the 00:02:37.729 --> 00:02:39.710 label. That was the weapon. Yeah, it was a weapon. 00:02:39.770 --> 00:02:42.449 It was a pejorative term meant to imply what? 00:02:42.629 --> 00:02:45.500 Laziness? a lack of skill exactly the critique 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:48.060 was that he wasn't enunciating that you couldn't 00:02:48.060 --> 00:02:50.539 understand the words and therefore he was degrading 00:02:50.539 --> 00:02:53.199 the lyricism of the genre they saw it as an attack 00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:55.240 on the art form but looking back now from our 00:02:55.240 --> 00:02:58.800 vantage point in 2026 that criticism feels incredibly 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:01.139 dated doesn't it oh completely it feels like 00:03:01.139 --> 00:03:03.259 complaining that an abstract painting doesn't 00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:05.919 look like a photograph Exactly. And that's where 00:03:05.919 --> 00:03:08.159 our sources get really interesting. Because while 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:10.439 the internet trolls were all calling it mumble 00:03:10.439 --> 00:03:13.199 rap, serious musicologists were hearing something 00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:15.659 completely different. There's a quote from The 00:03:15.659 --> 00:03:18.259 Fader. This is from years ago that I think just 00:03:18.259 --> 00:03:20.580 captures it perfectly. They wrote that in a typical 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:24.780 verse, thug slurs, shouts, whines and sings feverishly 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:27.199 contorting his voice into a series of odd timbres 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:29.960 like a beautifully played but broken wind instrument. 00:03:30.020 --> 00:03:33.120 A broken wind instrument. That is such a specific 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:36.840 and and vivid image. It's perfect. It is. I mean, 00:03:36.860 --> 00:03:39.340 think about a saxophone player like John Coltrane 00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:42.719 or Ornette Coleman when they play free jazz. 00:03:43.530 --> 00:03:46.050 They aren't trying to speak words to you. No, 00:03:46.150 --> 00:03:48.930 not at all. They are trying to convey raw emotion 00:03:48.930 --> 00:03:51.789 through the texture of the sound, through squawks, 00:03:51.830 --> 00:03:54.150 through slides, through breathiness. Thug treats 00:03:54.150 --> 00:03:56.669 his vocal cords the exact same way. He isn't 00:03:56.669 --> 00:03:58.349 worried about the dictionary definition of the 00:03:58.349 --> 00:04:00.629 word. He's worried about the texture of the sound. 00:04:00.789 --> 00:04:02.909 So when he makes those sounds, the yelps, the 00:04:02.909 --> 00:04:04.889 screeches, the little croaks, that's not him 00:04:04.889 --> 00:04:07.300 messing up. That's the point. That is the entire 00:04:07.300 --> 00:04:09.139 point. No board had a breakdown of this that 00:04:09.139 --> 00:04:11.199 was fascinating. They called it multiplicative 00:04:11.199 --> 00:04:13.759 delivery. Okay, wait. Multiplicative delivery. 00:04:13.860 --> 00:04:16.500 That sounds incredibly academic for a guy who 00:04:16.500 --> 00:04:19.160 claims he writes hit songs in like 10 minutes. 00:04:19.399 --> 00:04:21.959 What does that actually mean in practice? It's 00:04:21.959 --> 00:04:24.180 a fancy way of saying he occupies the cracks 00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:26.600 in the beat. Yeah. You know, traditional rapping 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:28.720 is usually percussive. You hit the snare, you 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:30.860 hit the kick, boom, bap, boom, bap. It's a grid. 00:04:31.000 --> 00:04:34.449 Very structured. Right. Thug is slippery. He 00:04:34.449 --> 00:04:36.810 finds the empty space between the drum hits and 00:04:36.810 --> 00:04:39.449 he fills it with an ad -lib or a squeak or a 00:04:39.449 --> 00:04:42.189 slur. He burrows into the rhythmic crevices. 00:04:42.389 --> 00:04:44.790 So he's essentially adding polyrhythms with his 00:04:44.790 --> 00:04:48.050 throat. Precisely. And he does it with this improvisational 00:04:48.050 --> 00:04:50.689 energy. It's scatting. If you listen to a track 00:04:50.689 --> 00:04:53.990 like Pacifier, he is engaging in extreme vocal 00:04:53.990 --> 00:04:56.649 scatting. It's almost post -verbal. And he just 00:04:56.649 --> 00:04:59.730 gets that instinctively. I think so. He understands 00:04:59.730 --> 00:05:02.110 that in modern pop construction, everything acts 00:05:02.110 --> 00:05:04.930 as a hook. A grunt can be a hook. A screech can 00:05:04.930 --> 00:05:07.009 be a hook. It doesn't have to be a chorus with 00:05:07.009 --> 00:05:09.689 perfect, understandable words. But here's where 00:05:09.689 --> 00:05:13.490 I get a little skeptical. We are assigning all 00:05:13.490 --> 00:05:16.490 this high -level music theory to him. Does he 00:05:16.490 --> 00:05:19.149 think about it this way? Because all the stories 00:05:19.149 --> 00:05:22.370 about his workflow suggest pure chaos. It is 00:05:22.370 --> 00:05:25.850 chaos, but it's controlled chaos. He is known 00:05:25.850 --> 00:05:29.139 for lightning -fast creation. You mentioned it. 00:05:29.180 --> 00:05:31.660 He claims he can write a hit in 10 minutes. Which 00:05:31.660 --> 00:05:35.079 seems insane. It does. But the most revealing 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:38.259 detail about his process is how he visualizes 00:05:38.259 --> 00:05:41.279 his music. He does not write lyrics on paper. 00:05:41.500 --> 00:05:43.240 Right. I saw that in the notes, the shape method. 00:05:43.339 --> 00:05:45.680 But is that actually real or is that just, you 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:47.480 know, artist mythology to make him seem more 00:05:47.480 --> 00:05:49.560 eccentric? No, it's been documented by multiple 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:51.759 producers who have worked with him. He doesn't 00:05:51.759 --> 00:05:54.100 write words. He draws shapes and signs. Okay, 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:56.120 explain that to me. I'm a producer in the studio. 00:05:56.240 --> 00:05:58.060 I hand him a beat. What is he drawing? I can't 00:05:58.060 --> 00:06:00.560 picture it. He's drawing the flow. He might draw 00:06:00.560 --> 00:06:03.319 a jagged line that spikes upward and that tells 00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:06.120 him, okay, right here, my voice needs to crack 00:06:06.120 --> 00:06:08.939 into a falsetto scream. Or he might draw a series 00:06:08.939 --> 00:06:11.180 of dots, which means a staccato choppy delivery. 00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:13.480 He's literally mapping out the topography of 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:16.800 the song with symbols, not words. That is... 00:06:17.129 --> 00:06:19.389 Actually brilliant, because if you write words, 00:06:19.529 --> 00:06:21.649 you get locked into the rhythm of the syllables. 00:06:21.850 --> 00:06:25.310 But if you draw a shape, you are prioritizing 00:06:25.310 --> 00:06:28.050 the melody and the energy first. The words are 00:06:28.050 --> 00:06:30.970 secondary. They fill in the shape. It's structural. 00:06:31.069 --> 00:06:33.990 It's visual audio. Yeah. And he has this insane 00:06:33.990 --> 00:06:35.870 work ethic where he's just constantly in the 00:06:35.870 --> 00:06:39.230 booth thinking and trying. He once said, I don't 00:06:39.230 --> 00:06:40.790 really know how to sing, but I've been trying 00:06:40.790 --> 00:06:44.529 for years. I love that. That willingness to sound 00:06:44.529 --> 00:06:47.389 bad. In the pursuit of finding a new sound is 00:06:47.389 --> 00:06:49.730 what separates the innovators from the imitators. 00:06:49.970 --> 00:06:52.110 But we have to ground this artistry and where 00:06:52.110 --> 00:06:54.370 it came from, because this avant -garde jazz 00:06:54.370 --> 00:06:57.430 fusion approach to vocals didn't come from some 00:06:57.430 --> 00:07:00.730 conservatory or an art school. It came from one 00:07:00.730 --> 00:07:02.750 of the roughest neighborhoods in Atlanta. Sylvan 00:07:02.750 --> 00:07:05.930 Hills. The Jonesboro South Projects. This is 00:07:05.930 --> 00:07:08.069 a central context. Jeffrey Lamar Williams II 00:07:08.069 --> 00:07:11.470 was born on August 16th, 1991. And he wasn't 00:07:11.470 --> 00:07:13.269 an only child, which I think is important. Far 00:07:13.269 --> 00:07:15.649 from it. He was the 10th of 11 children. That 00:07:15.649 --> 00:07:18.250 is a crowded house. And from the records we have, 00:07:18.329 --> 00:07:20.310 it was a volatile environment. I was reading 00:07:20.310 --> 00:07:22.250 about his school records. I mean, expelled in 00:07:22.250 --> 00:07:24.029 the sixth grade. For breaking a teacher's arm. 00:07:24.189 --> 00:07:26.790 See, that just stops me in my tracks every time 00:07:26.790 --> 00:07:29.069 I read it. Breaking a teacher's arm. That isn't 00:07:29.069 --> 00:07:31.790 just acting out. That is serious physical violence 00:07:31.790 --> 00:07:34.509 for a sixth grader. It is. And it resulted in 00:07:34.509 --> 00:07:36.730 him spending four years in a juvenile prison. 00:07:37.069 --> 00:07:40.170 That's a huge portion of his adolescence, from 00:07:40.170 --> 00:07:43.430 roughly age 12 to 16, just lost to the system. 00:07:43.610 --> 00:07:45.189 You have to imagine what the... that does to 00:07:45.189 --> 00:07:47.529 a developing mind. And it wasn't just him acting 00:07:47.529 --> 00:07:50.069 out. There was tragedy happening to the family, 00:07:50.170 --> 00:07:52.750 right, at home? Absolutely. One of his older 00:07:52.750 --> 00:07:54.970 brothers was shot and killed right in front of 00:07:54.970 --> 00:07:57.870 the family home. So when we analyze his gangster 00:07:57.870 --> 00:08:01.370 persona later, or the IRU charges, it's not a 00:08:01.370 --> 00:08:03.990 costume. He grew up four doors down from Pee 00:08:03.990 --> 00:08:06.589 Wee Longway. This environment was his absolute 00:08:06.589 --> 00:08:08.790 reality. It makes me think about that broken 00:08:08.790 --> 00:08:12.389 wind instrument vocal style again. If your childhood 00:08:12.389 --> 00:08:16.009 is defined by chaos and overcrowding, violence, 00:08:16.230 --> 00:08:19.129 trauma, maybe your voice reflects that. How could 00:08:19.129 --> 00:08:21.709 it not? Maybe the cracking and the whining is 00:08:21.709 --> 00:08:24.290 a sonic representation of that instability. I 00:08:24.290 --> 00:08:26.310 think that's a very valid reading. The pain is 00:08:26.310 --> 00:08:29.250 baked into the frequency. But he also had a North 00:08:29.250 --> 00:08:32.330 Star. He had someone he was looking up to who 00:08:32.330 --> 00:08:35.549 gave him a blueprint for how to turn that weirdness, 00:08:35.549 --> 00:08:39.470 that pain, into success. Lil Wayne. It always 00:08:39.470 --> 00:08:42.690 comes back to Lil Wayne. Thug has cited him as 00:08:42.690 --> 00:08:45.690 his biggest idol, his biggest influence. Full 00:08:45.690 --> 00:08:48.610 stop. He has said he wants to record with Wayne 00:08:48.610 --> 00:08:51.149 more than anyone in the world. And Wayne was 00:08:51.149 --> 00:08:54.190 the proof of concept. Completely. Wayne showed 00:08:54.190 --> 00:08:56.480 that you could be a street guy, a blood. But 00:08:56.480 --> 00:08:58.320 also a Martian. You could be weird. You could 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:00.480 have a cracked voice and still be the best rapper 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:02.779 alive. And he had mentors closer to home, too. 00:09:02.980 --> 00:09:05.960 Gucci Mane signed him first. That's a huge cosign 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:08.519 in Atlanta. Massive. And Kanye West, who has 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:10.740 always had a good eye for spotting talent, he 00:09:10.740 --> 00:09:13.600 compared Thug to Bob Marley. Which is high praise, 00:09:13.659 --> 00:09:15.799 to say the least. And Kanye wasn't comparing 00:09:15.799 --> 00:09:18.539 their sound. He was comparing their spirit. He 00:09:18.539 --> 00:09:21.480 saw that Thug was a movement, a disruptor. So 00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:22.899 let's walk through that ascent. We're in the 00:09:22.899 --> 00:09:26.259 early 2010s. The I came from nothing mixtape 00:09:26.259 --> 00:09:29.039 starts circulating online. Gucci Mane, here's 00:09:29.039 --> 00:09:32.120 something he likes. And then in 2013, we get 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:35.399 1017 Thug. And this is where the critics, the 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:38.419 serious ones, start to wake up. Pitchfork, Rolling 00:09:38.419 --> 00:09:41.120 Stone, The Guardian, they all put this mixtape 00:09:41.120 --> 00:09:43.879 on their year -end lists. They recognized this 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:45.980 wasn't just another generic trap tape from Atlanta. 00:09:46.220 --> 00:09:49.539 It was eccentric. It was daring. It was something 00:09:49.539 --> 00:09:52.730 new. And then the hits follow. Stoner, Danny 00:09:52.730 --> 00:09:55.450 Glover. Stoner was unavoidable in 2014. That 00:09:55.450 --> 00:09:56.769 hook, I'm a stoner, I'm a stoner, I'm a stoner. 00:09:57.049 --> 00:09:59.990 It's hypnotic. It's a mantra. But here is where 00:09:59.990 --> 00:10:03.009 we get the first glimpse of Young Thugs. Let's 00:10:03.009 --> 00:10:05.190 call it territorial nature. The remix conflict, 00:10:05.429 --> 00:10:07.450 yeah. Okay, so usually when you have a breakout 00:10:07.450 --> 00:10:09.110 hit, you want everyone to remix it. It's free 00:10:09.110 --> 00:10:11.789 promotion. If Whale or Jadakiss wants to rap 00:10:11.789 --> 00:10:14.320 on your beat, you say thank you. Thug did not 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:16.460 say thank you. No. He went to war. He got on 00:10:16.460 --> 00:10:18.279 camera and said, if you feel like my song isn't 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:20.019 tough enough, don't think I'm happy that you're 00:10:20.019 --> 00:10:23.919 doing it. I'm ready for war. Why? Why be so hostile 00:10:23.919 --> 00:10:26.539 to established artists showing love? I think 00:10:26.539 --> 00:10:30.539 it speaks to a deep, deep need for control. When 00:10:30.539 --> 00:10:32.820 you come from a background where you have very 00:10:32.820 --> 00:10:35.139 little control over your life, you know, prison, 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:38.000 poverty, violence. Yeah. You become fiercely 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:40.909 protective of the one thing you do own. Your 00:10:40.909 --> 00:10:43.350 art. He didn't want his vision diluted. Not one 00:10:43.350 --> 00:10:46.250 bit. He saw it as a hostile takeover, not a compliment. 00:10:46.549 --> 00:10:48.710 But he sure didn't mind diluting his contractual 00:10:48.710 --> 00:10:51.789 obligations. Because the whole who -signed -him 00:10:51.789 --> 00:10:55.490 saga of 2014 was a complete and utter mess. It 00:10:55.490 --> 00:10:57.309 was a labyrinth. I actually tried to map this 00:10:57.309 --> 00:11:00.750 out once and gave up. You had Gucci Mane's 1017 00:11:00.750 --> 00:11:02.769 Brick Squad, which he was originally signed to. 00:11:02.950 --> 00:11:05.409 Then you had Future supposedly offering him $8 00:11:05.409 --> 00:11:07.909 .5 million to sign to free bands. Then you had 00:11:07.909 --> 00:11:10.440 Birdman claiming him for Rich Gang. And then 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:12.379 on top of all that, you had Lyre Cohen's 300 00:11:12.379 --> 00:11:15.200 Entertainment. At one point, nobody knew who 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:17.120 actually owned the rights to his music. It was 00:11:17.120 --> 00:11:19.600 just chaos. And Thug seemed to enjoy the confusion. 00:11:19.899 --> 00:11:22.539 He was playing all sides. Eventually, he had 00:11:22.539 --> 00:11:24.519 to clarify it himself. He said, and I'm quoting, 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:28.600 I managed myself. I'm signed with Atlantic. Birdman 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:33.570 is my homie. Birdman is my homie. That phrase 00:11:33.570 --> 00:11:35.570 is doing a lot of heavy lifting there because 00:11:35.570 --> 00:11:38.009 that relationship with Birdman, the head of Cash 00:11:38.009 --> 00:11:40.809 Money Records, leads us directly into the beef 00:11:40.809 --> 00:11:44.309 with his idol Lil Wayne. This is the Shakespearean 00:11:44.309 --> 00:11:47.330 tragedy of modern hip hop. It's so classic. The 00:11:47.330 --> 00:11:49.710 student becomes the rival and the father figure, 00:11:49.830 --> 00:11:52.389 in this case, Birdman, pits them against each 00:11:52.389 --> 00:11:55.470 other for his own game. So Thug decides to name 00:11:55.470 --> 00:11:59.450 his debut album Carter 6. Now, on paper, he claims 00:11:59.450 --> 00:12:01.629 this is a tribute. He says he wants to continue 00:12:01.629 --> 00:12:04.370 the legacy of Wayne's legendary Ty Carter series. 00:12:04.769 --> 00:12:07.830 But context is everything. At that specific moment, 00:12:08.090 --> 00:12:11.509 Lil Wayne is in a massive, ugly legal battle 00:12:11.509 --> 00:12:14.679 with Birdman. He's suing cash money for $51 million. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:17.940 He's refusing to release Ty Carter V until he 00:12:17.940 --> 00:12:20.399 gets paid. So for Birdman's new protege, Young 00:12:20.399 --> 00:12:22.679 Thug, to come along and threaten to release Carter 00:12:22.679 --> 00:12:25.259 VI before Wayne can even release Carter V. It's 00:12:25.259 --> 00:12:27.539 the ultimate slap in the face. It feels incredibly 00:12:27.539 --> 00:12:29.279 aggressive. It feels like he's saying, I'm replacing 00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:31.419 you. You're washed up. I'm the new model. It 00:12:31.419 --> 00:12:33.740 was eatable. It was the son trying to kill the 00:12:33.740 --> 00:12:36.440 father to take his place. And Wayne snapped. 00:12:36.580 --> 00:12:39.279 He's on stage telling crowds to stop listening 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:41.919 to Young Thug. He's threatening lawsuits. He 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:44.460 got very personal, very fast. And Thug's response 00:12:44.460 --> 00:12:46.980 is what makes him a genius troll. He doesn't 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:48.940 apologize. He doesn't back down. He just changes 00:12:48.940 --> 00:12:51.720 one letter. Barter six. Which, for people who 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:53.600 might not know the street code, is not just a 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:55.679 random letter change. That's a very specific 00:12:55.679 --> 00:12:58.340 reference. Oh, yeah. In Blood's culture, you 00:12:58.340 --> 00:13:01.970 often replace the letter C with a B. Yeah. So 00:13:01.970 --> 00:13:04.610 he's leaning into the gang affiliation, which 00:13:04.610 --> 00:13:06.769 becomes very relevant later in the Raya case. 00:13:07.129 --> 00:13:09.950 But he's also keeping the branding almost identical. 00:13:10.149 --> 00:13:12.350 It was a master class in trolling. It was a power 00:13:12.350 --> 00:13:14.870 move. It proved he wasn't just a clone. He was 00:13:14.870 --> 00:13:18.370 a rival. And Barter 6, the project itself, released 00:13:18.370 --> 00:13:21.529 in 2015, ends up being a classic. It proved he 00:13:21.529 --> 00:13:23.649 could stand on his own two feet artistically. 00:13:23.830 --> 00:13:27.129 But there was a dark shadow over this feud. We 00:13:27.129 --> 00:13:29.809 can't just gloss over the 2015 lawsuit involving 00:13:29.809 --> 00:13:31.870 the shooting of Lil Wayne's tour bus. Right. 00:13:31.970 --> 00:13:34.350 That's where the trolling crossed into real physical 00:13:34.350 --> 00:13:37.809 danger. The driver of Wayne's tour bus sued Sugg 00:13:37.809 --> 00:13:40.230 and Birdman, alleging they were involved in a 00:13:40.230 --> 00:13:42.350 shooting incident on the highway after a show. 00:13:42.429 --> 00:13:45.049 It showed that this beef wasn't just on Twitter 00:13:45.049 --> 00:13:48.490 or in interviews. It had real world violent implications. 00:13:48.929 --> 00:13:51.029 And yet, and this is the paradox that defines 00:13:51.029 --> 00:13:53.940 him. Right in the middle of this gangster feud, 00:13:54.120 --> 00:13:56.460 amidst shooting allegations and Blood's terminology, 00:13:56.860 --> 00:13:59.480 Thug does something completely unexpected in 00:13:59.480 --> 00:14:02.679 2016. He pivots to high fashion. The Jeffrey 00:14:02.679 --> 00:14:05.179 era. My favorite era. He briefly tells everyone, 00:14:05.299 --> 00:14:07.379 no, my name is Jeffrey. And then he drops the 00:14:07.379 --> 00:14:09.799 mixtape Jeffrey and the cover art. The dress. 00:14:10.000 --> 00:14:12.960 A dress designed by Alessandro Trinconi. It wasn't 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:15.460 just like a long shirt or something androgynous. 00:14:15.480 --> 00:14:19.639 It was a full on. ruffled periwinkle blue avant 00:14:19.639 --> 00:14:21.740 -garde couture gown. And he wore it with his 00:14:21.740 --> 00:14:24.320 face obscured by this conical hat that looked 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:26.899 like a saucer. It was a stunning, unforgettable 00:14:26.899 --> 00:14:29.360 image. And the statement he made in the Calvin 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:31.419 Klein campaign around that time stuck with me 00:14:31.419 --> 00:14:34.539 forever. He just said it so plainly. In my world, 00:14:34.679 --> 00:14:36.879 you can be a gangsta with a dress or you can 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:39.419 be a gangsta with baggy pants. He completely 00:14:39.419 --> 00:14:42.700 dismantled hip -hop masculinity with one sentence 00:14:42.700 --> 00:14:45.419 and one photo. And this wasn't a costume he just 00:14:45.419 --> 00:14:47.779 put on for marketing. The sources tell us he'd 00:14:47.779 --> 00:14:49.539 been wearing women's clothing since he was 12 00:14:49.539 --> 00:14:51.759 years old. He preferred it. He said the clothes 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:53.360 fit better, that they were more interesting. 00:14:53.539 --> 00:14:57.240 He did. And he would call his male friends hubby 00:14:57.240 --> 00:15:01.399 or lover. It fueled all these rumors about his 00:15:01.399 --> 00:15:03.759 sexual orientation, of course, but he seemed 00:15:03.759 --> 00:15:05.559 completely indifferent to them. He was operating 00:15:05.559 --> 00:15:07.519 on a different plane. He established himself 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:10.279 not just as a rapper, but as a genuine fashion 00:15:10.279 --> 00:15:13.039 icon. The comparisons were suddenly to David 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:15.759 Bowie and Prince and Little Richard, not just 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:17.820 to other rappers. He transcended the genre. He 00:15:17.820 --> 00:15:20.080 really did. But while he was being a fashion 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:22.700 icon, he was also finally becoming a mainstream 00:15:22.700 --> 00:15:26.740 pop dominator. From 2018 to 2021, he wasn't just 00:15:26.740 --> 00:15:29.299 the weirdo on the mixtape circuit anymore. He 00:15:29.299 --> 00:15:32.100 was topping the Billboard charts. Consistently. 00:15:32.139 --> 00:15:34.799 The crossover was undeniable. I mean, just look 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:37.370 at the features. Havana. with camila cabello 00:15:37.370 --> 00:15:39.649 that was his first number one on the billboard 00:15:39.649 --> 00:15:42.929 hot 100 a latin pop song that's insane range 00:15:42.929 --> 00:15:45.730 it showed his versatility he could do the raw 00:15:45.730 --> 00:15:48.809 grit of stoner and the radio polish of havana 00:15:48.809 --> 00:15:52.149 and then this is america with Childish Gambino. 00:15:52.450 --> 00:15:54.730 Thug co -wrote that and provided all those incredible 00:15:54.730 --> 00:15:56.830 ad leaves in the background. That won the Grammy 00:15:56.830 --> 00:15:59.649 for Song of the Year. That is a huge, huge validation. 00:15:59.750 --> 00:16:02.330 From mumble rapper to Song of the Year winner, 00:16:02.549 --> 00:16:04.429 it's an incredible arc. And let's not forget, 00:16:04.649 --> 00:16:07.789 Way Too Sexy with Drake and Future and Franchise 00:16:07.789 --> 00:16:10.860 with Travis Scott. Both number one hits. He had 00:16:10.860 --> 00:16:13.000 the Midas touch. His solo albums were hitting 00:16:13.000 --> 00:16:15.960 too. So Much Fun in 2019 debuted at number one. 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:19.500 Punk in 2021 also reached number one. He founded 00:16:19.500 --> 00:16:22.120 his own apron, YSL Records' Young Stoner Life 00:16:22.120 --> 00:16:25.000 back in 2016. And Slam Language 2, the compilation 00:16:25.000 --> 00:16:27.019 album from that label, also debuted at number 00:16:27.019 --> 00:16:29.419 one in 2021. He was on top of the world. He had 00:16:29.419 --> 00:16:31.480 the hits, the label, the critical respect. He 00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:33.960 was the undisputed king of Atlanta. And then... 00:16:34.299 --> 00:16:37.240 Everything came crashing down May 2022. The arrest. 00:16:37.460 --> 00:16:38.799 That was the moment that changed everything. 00:16:38.919 --> 00:16:42.840 A 56 count Georgia Rico indictment. And we need 00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:45.299 to spend some real time on this because Rico 00:16:45.299 --> 00:16:47.440 is a word that gets thrown around in movies. 00:16:47.500 --> 00:16:50.779 But applying it to a record label is a very specific, 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:54.200 very aggressive legal strategy. It's the nuclear 00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:57.360 option for prosecutors. Rico stands for Racketeer 00:16:57.360 --> 00:16:59.940 Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. It 00:16:59.940 --> 00:17:02.179 was designed in the 70s to take down the mafia. 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:06.099 The logic is. If you are the boss, you don't 00:17:06.099 --> 00:17:08.160 have to personally pull the trigger to be guilty 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:10.799 of murder. Right. If you order the hit or if 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:13.000 you benefit from the criminal enterprise as a 00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:15.480 whole, you are liable for everything the enterprise 00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:17.900 does. And the accusation from prosecutors was 00:17:17.900 --> 00:17:20.839 shocking. They alleged that YSL Young's stoner 00:17:20.839 --> 00:17:23.799 life was not just a record label, but a violent 00:17:23.799 --> 00:17:26.349 criminal street gang. And they labeled young 00:17:26.349 --> 00:17:29.230 thug Jeffrey Williams as the proclaimed leader. 00:17:29.410 --> 00:17:31.769 The charges were severe. I mean, truly severe. 00:17:31.890 --> 00:17:33.930 Illegal substance trafficking, firearm possession. 00:17:34.210 --> 00:17:36.650 Including a machine gun. A machine gun. And the 00:17:36.650 --> 00:17:39.150 scope of this was just massive. 28 associates 00:17:39.150 --> 00:17:41.549 were charged, including Dunna, his most successful 00:17:41.549 --> 00:17:44.269 protege. It was a sprawling, complicated case. 00:17:44.569 --> 00:17:46.589 And this is where it gets really dangerous for 00:17:46.589 --> 00:17:49.170 Art. Because to prove the gang part, what did 00:17:49.170 --> 00:17:51.710 the prosecutors use? His lyrics. They pulled 00:17:51.710 --> 00:17:54.269 lines from his songs and cited them as overt 00:17:54.269 --> 00:17:56.630 acts in a criminal conspiracy. That was the part 00:17:56.630 --> 00:17:58.809 that terrified the entire music industry, because 00:17:58.809 --> 00:18:01.190 if I write a crime novel, nobody thinks I actually 00:18:01.190 --> 00:18:04.029 murdered someone. But if a rapper spits a verse 00:18:04.029 --> 00:18:06.250 about a drive by, it's suddenly treated as a 00:18:06.250 --> 00:18:08.710 confession. It's a blatant double standard and 00:18:08.710 --> 00:18:11.210 it's rooted in racial and cultural biases against 00:18:11.210 --> 00:18:13.309 hip hop. The trial itself became a spectacle. 00:18:13.529 --> 00:18:16.650 It started in November of 2023, and it became 00:18:16.650 --> 00:18:18.869 the longest criminal trial in Georgia history. 00:18:19.049 --> 00:18:21.750 It just dragged on for over a year. And it was 00:18:21.750 --> 00:18:24.450 marred by chaos. There were incidents inside 00:18:24.450 --> 00:18:27.490 the jail. One co -defendant, Shannon Stilwell, 00:18:27.529 --> 00:18:30.130 was stabbed. There were juror issues. It was 00:18:30.130 --> 00:18:32.490 a mess. And through it all, Thug was repeatedly 00:18:32.490 --> 00:18:35.380 denied bond. He spent years sitting in a cell 00:18:35.380 --> 00:18:38.180 while this slow motion legal disaster unfolded. 00:18:38.200 --> 00:18:39.819 We were all watching it day by day, wondering 00:18:39.819 --> 00:18:41.339 if he would ever get out. It seemed like he was 00:18:41.339 --> 00:18:44.859 going to be convicted. And then abruptly, on 00:18:44.859 --> 00:18:49.759 October 31st, 2024, Halloween of all days, it 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:52.740 ended. The plea deal. He pleaded no contest to 00:18:52.740 --> 00:18:54.900 several charges. He accepted a deal to get out. 00:18:55.019 --> 00:18:58.680 The sentence was technically 40 years. But it 00:18:58.680 --> 00:19:01.119 was structured in a very specific and I think 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:04.759 punitive way. He got time served. His five years 00:19:04.759 --> 00:19:08.700 were commuted, plus 15 years of very strict probation. 00:19:09.019 --> 00:19:12.119 But the conditions of that probation, they are 00:19:12.119 --> 00:19:14.099 the real sentence. And this is where we have 00:19:14.099 --> 00:19:16.599 to look at the exile aspect again. Condition 00:19:16.599 --> 00:19:19.119 number one, he was banned from the metro Atlanta 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:22.359 area for 10 years. Just think about that. Atlanta 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:25.599 is his home. It is his muse. It is the city he 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:28.500 put on his back for a decade. and he is legally 00:19:28.500 --> 00:19:30.839 banished from it. He is also prohibited from 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:33.599 making gang -related music. Which raises so many 00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:35.680 questions about artistic freedom and interpretation. 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:38.880 Who defines what is gang -related? Is a prosecutor 00:19:38.880 --> 00:19:41.319 going to be vetting his lyrics? If he raps about 00:19:41.319 --> 00:19:43.460 his past, is that a violation of his probation? 00:19:43.819 --> 00:19:45.740 It's a chilling effect. It puts a censor in the 00:19:45.740 --> 00:19:48.119 recording booth with him at all times. He is 00:19:48.119 --> 00:19:50.640 also required to perform four annual anti -gang 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:52.940 presentations or concerts. Which is strange. 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:55.940 And, critically, he can have no contact with 00:19:55.940 --> 00:19:58.619 known gang members. or his co -defendants. With 00:19:58.619 --> 00:20:01.559 two notable exceptions. His biological brother 00:20:01.559 --> 00:20:04.420 was one and the other was Gunna. Which is very 00:20:04.420 --> 00:20:06.359 interesting given all the internal conflict rumors, 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:09.480 which I'm sure we'll get to. So late 2024, he 00:20:09.480 --> 00:20:12.039 is released. He is free, but he is in exile. 00:20:12.259 --> 00:20:14.779 Now let's talk about the music that came out 00:20:14.779 --> 00:20:17.980 of this period and where he is now here in early 00:20:17.980 --> 00:20:21.569 2026, because even while he was locked up. The 00:20:21.569 --> 00:20:24.990 machine didn't stop. No. In June 2023, while 00:20:24.990 --> 00:20:27.990 he was still incarcerated, we got business is 00:20:27.990 --> 00:20:30.670 business. Right. Executive produced by Metro 00:20:30.670 --> 00:20:32.710 Boomin, who kind of assembled it from the outside. 00:20:32.970 --> 00:20:35.390 It featured the heavy hitters Drake, Travis Scott, 00:20:35.509 --> 00:20:38.130 Future. It debuted at number three on the charts. 00:20:38.269 --> 00:20:40.670 It was a signal flare. It said, I am still here. 00:20:40.750 --> 00:20:43.500 I am still a major force. Even from a jail cell. 00:20:43.720 --> 00:20:45.960 But the real test was the comeback album. First 00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:47.759 album he released after banning his freedom, 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:50.700 U .I. Scootier. That dropped in September 2025. 00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:53.119 Named after the largest known star in the universe. 00:20:53.359 --> 00:20:55.400 A very, very thug title. It charted at number 00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:58.079 six. Which is good, but maybe not the number 00:20:58.079 --> 00:21:00.259 one dominance he had before the trial. And the 00:21:00.259 --> 00:21:03.539 critical response was, um, mixed. Disjointed. 00:21:04.900 --> 00:21:07.279 Frustrating. Those were the words I kept seeing 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:09.380 in reviews. It feels like he was trying to find 00:21:09.380 --> 00:21:11.579 his footing again. Musically. And of course, 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:13.960 it wouldn't be a Young Thug album without a healthy 00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:18.160 dose of controversy. The cover art. He's in whiteface. 00:21:18.339 --> 00:21:20.960 Which immediately sparked the predictable high 00:21:20.960 --> 00:21:24.339 art versus offensive debates online. And the 00:21:24.339 --> 00:21:27.319 lyrics. There's a track called Ninja. He repeatedly 00:21:27.319 --> 00:21:30.440 used the hard R racial slur. Pitchfork called 00:21:30.440 --> 00:21:33.819 it edgelord trolling. It felt designed to shock. 00:21:34.140 --> 00:21:36.240 And it feels like he was pushing boundaries just 00:21:36.240 --> 00:21:38.720 to see if they were still there. Or maybe. Maybe 00:21:38.720 --> 00:21:41.079 it was a reaction to the constraints placed on 00:21:41.079 --> 00:21:43.240 him by the court. What do you mean? Well, if 00:21:43.240 --> 00:21:44.940 you're told you can't make gang music, maybe 00:21:44.940 --> 00:21:47.420 you pivot and decide to make shock music instead. 00:21:47.519 --> 00:21:49.420 It's a different kind of rebellion. That is a 00:21:49.420 --> 00:21:51.400 really interesting theory. It's a rebellion against 00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:53.809 the censorship. And speaking of shock, we have 00:21:53.809 --> 00:21:55.829 to talk about the internal conflicts that came 00:21:55.829 --> 00:21:59.970 to light. The leaks. August 2025. Jail calls. 00:22:00.309 --> 00:22:02.650 Yeah, these recordings surfaced from his time 00:22:02.650 --> 00:22:05.950 inside. And in them, he is allegedly dissing 00:22:05.950 --> 00:22:10.009 everyone. Gunna, Kendrick Lamar, Future, J. Cole, 00:22:10.309 --> 00:22:13.390 Drake. Just a laundry list of the biggest names 00:22:13.390 --> 00:22:15.789 in music. It paints a picture of a man who felt 00:22:15.789 --> 00:22:19.230 incredibly isolated and perhaps betrayed. And 00:22:19.230 --> 00:22:21.769 there were accusations about fake streams. He 00:22:21.769 --> 00:22:23.930 implied that his own album, Business is Business, 00:22:24.130 --> 00:22:26.450 and Gunna's albums had their numbers inflated 00:22:26.450 --> 00:22:29.009 by the label. That is a bombshell accusation 00:22:29.009 --> 00:22:31.009 to make against your own team and your collaborators. 00:22:31.109 --> 00:22:34.789 It suggests deep paranoia or maybe some truth 00:22:34.789 --> 00:22:36.990 about how the industry really works. And specifically 00:22:36.990 --> 00:22:39.619 with Gunna. You have to remember, Gunna. took 00:22:39.619 --> 00:22:42.380 a plea deal famously before thug did there was 00:22:42.380 --> 00:22:44.220 a lot of snitch talk in the hip -hop community 00:22:44.220 --> 00:22:47.279 a lot of pressure so thug keeping gonna as an 00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:49.680 exception on his no contact list is complex is 00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:52.299 that forgiveness or is it a case of keep your 00:22:52.299 --> 00:22:54.119 friends close and your potential enemies closer 00:22:54.119 --> 00:22:56.680 we don't know it's just soap opera levels of 00:22:56.680 --> 00:22:59.119 drama and in his personal life it's just as active 00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:01.599 he got engaged to the singer mariah the scientist 00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:04.839 in december 2025 right after a brief public breakup 00:23:05.150 --> 00:23:08.190 At a concert, no less, a classic public gesture. 00:23:08.450 --> 00:23:11.390 So we have the music, the legal battles, the 00:23:11.390 --> 00:23:14.289 romance. But I want to touch on the human side 00:23:14.289 --> 00:23:16.910 of Jeffrey Williams for a minute, because amidst 00:23:16.910 --> 00:23:19.210 the King Slime persona, there are these moments 00:23:19.210 --> 00:23:21.789 of extreme vulnerability that come through. The 00:23:21.789 --> 00:23:23.990 health scare in 2020 is the most terrifying example 00:23:23.990 --> 00:23:26.150 of that. He revealed this in a live stream and 00:23:26.150 --> 00:23:28.710 it was shocking. He had liver and kidney failure. 00:23:28.849 --> 00:23:31.470 He said he felt numb, couldn't move. He said, 00:23:31.509 --> 00:23:33.690 and this is a direct quote, I kind of had sort 00:23:33.690 --> 00:23:35.789 of passed away. I kind of had sort of passed 00:23:35.789 --> 00:23:39.049 away. That is such a haunting, strange way to 00:23:39.049 --> 00:23:41.670 phrase it. It shows how fragile life can be, 00:23:41.750 --> 00:23:44.930 even for a superstar who seems invincible. And 00:23:44.930 --> 00:23:46.809 then there is the philanthropy, which people 00:23:46.809 --> 00:23:49.650 don't always talk about. He donated concert proceeds 00:23:49.650 --> 00:23:53.119 to Planned Parenthood back in 2017. And his reasoning 00:23:53.119 --> 00:23:55.660 was very personal. It was. He was a teenage father. 00:23:55.819 --> 00:23:58.200 He had his first child at 17 and now has six 00:23:58.200 --> 00:24:00.460 kids. He understood the situation firsthand. 00:24:00.819 --> 00:24:03.180 He also joined the hashtag fight poverty campaign. 00:24:03.859 --> 00:24:06.180 He isn't totally disconnected from the struggle 00:24:06.180 --> 00:24:08.980 he came from, even if he is now banned from living 00:24:08.980 --> 00:24:12.099 in it. Although his views can be, let's say, 00:24:12.160 --> 00:24:15.920 complicated. In 2025, he publicly supported Sean 00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:18.539 Diddy Combs during his racketeering trial. And 00:24:18.539 --> 00:24:21.480 he called Kid Cudi a rat. for testifying against 00:24:21.480 --> 00:24:24.220 Kanye. Which circles right back to that no snitching 00:24:24.220 --> 00:24:26.279 street code that seems to be a core part of his 00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:28.680 value system, even after his own legal ordeal. 00:24:28.940 --> 00:24:31.660 He values loyalty, or his definition of it, above 00:24:31.660 --> 00:24:33.720 almost everything else. It's a consistent through 00:24:33.720 --> 00:24:36.519 line in his life. So here we are, February 2026. 00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:39.019 Let's try to summarize the journey of Young Thug, 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:41.819 if that's even possible. It's a whirlwind. We 00:24:41.819 --> 00:24:43.980 have gone from the eccentric stoner in the projects, 00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:46.440 creating a whole new language of hip hop. using 00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:49.000 drawings and broken vocals we watched him ascend 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:51.240 to global superstardom collaborating with the 00:24:51.240 --> 00:24:53.539 biggest pop stars on earth then he became the 00:24:53.539 --> 00:24:56.339 central figure in a historic crushing gang trial 00:24:56.339 --> 00:24:58.619 that tried to criminalize his art and his very 00:24:58.619 --> 00:25:02.200 existence and now he is an exiled artist he is 00:25:02.200 --> 00:25:04.660 free but he isn't free he is banned from his 00:25:04.660 --> 00:25:06.960 home city he is legally restricted on what he 00:25:06.960 --> 00:25:09.920 can rap about he is releasing polarizing maybe 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:13.049 even reactionary music like ui scooty It raises 00:25:13.049 --> 00:25:15.150 the ultimate question about his future, and I 00:25:15.150 --> 00:25:16.829 think that's where we should leave it. So what's 00:25:16.829 --> 00:25:19.650 the provocative thought here? What are we left 00:25:19.650 --> 00:25:22.549 with after all of this? Think about this. Young 00:25:22.549 --> 00:25:25.089 Thug agreed to a plea deal that fundamentally 00:25:25.089 --> 00:25:28.480 alters his reality as an artist. It bans him 00:25:28.480 --> 00:25:31.559 from Atlanta, the soil that grew his sound. It 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:34.519 bans him from gang -related music, the subject 00:25:34.519 --> 00:25:36.839 matter that defined his reality for most of his 00:25:36.839 --> 00:25:39.420 life. So if you strip away the city and you strip 00:25:39.420 --> 00:25:41.880 away the lifestyle. Exactly. If the environment 00:25:41.880 --> 00:25:44.220 and the lifestyle that created his art are now 00:25:44.220 --> 00:25:46.839 legally stripped away from him, can the artist 00:25:46.839 --> 00:25:50.119 we know as Young Thug actually survive? Or are 00:25:50.119 --> 00:25:52.819 we witnessing the forced birth of something entirely 00:25:52.819 --> 00:25:56.380 new? And if it is something new, is it authentic? 00:25:57.359 --> 00:26:00.160 or is it just a court -ordered performance? Can 00:26:00.160 --> 00:26:03.400 you be King Slime in the suburbs with a probation 00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:05.519 officer checking your lyrics for gang references? 00:26:05.700 --> 00:26:07.579 I honestly don't know the answer to that. That 00:26:07.579 --> 00:26:09.960 is the question. Can an artist exist in a vacuum, 00:26:10.119 --> 00:26:13.119 cut off from their source? We will all be watching 00:26:13.119 --> 00:26:15.039 to see what Jeffrey Williams does next. That 00:26:15.039 --> 00:26:17.259 is definitely something for you to chew on. Thanks 00:26:17.259 --> 00:26:19.500 for listening to this deep dive. Stay curious.