Young Thug was at the center of arguably the most divisive and explosive hip-hop scandal since the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef, although its roots is as old as Jeffery Lamar Williams himself. What began as a pivotal Atlanta rap career turned into an iconic musical force, but everything stopped in its tracks with an arrest in May 2022. The saga was, and has been, chaotic: two and a half years in prison for the YSL RICO trial, snitching allegations flying back and forth, leaked jail calls, a whole lot of gossiping, and insights into rap industry dynamics and relationships.
But for most of this process – even with Thugger's tweets, leaked diss tracks, and apologies – it felt like those witnessing this firestorm still didn't get a clear image of how the rapper feels about all this. Not about the industry drama and the tangible questions, but about incarcerated isolation, feelings of betrayal, moral dilemmas, hypocrisies, and all those complex considerations. Finally, after about a week of bombshell leaks and a barrage of debates, Big Bank sat down with Spider on his Perspektives With Bank podcast to clear the air. Unsurprisingly, the results are raw, complicated, imperfect, revealing, but nonetheless compelling.
Big Bank challenges Thug on a lot of his actions and perceptions, digs deep into the question marks around the YSL RICO case, and helps the artist paint a picture of his humanity and manhood, the latter of which is perhaps what Thug brings up the most here. This won't be a breakdown of all the factual claims in this Big Bank interview, though. Take all those with a grain of salt. Rather, it's about what Young Thug's emotions suggest about his next moves.
The Gunna Fallout
Without a doubt, the 34-year-old's bond with Gunna is at the heart of his hurt feelings and why he feels "f***ed up" despite his freedom. It encompasses all the narratives of legal trouble, lifting other artists up, codes of principle, and Atlanta unity that he's juggling with Big Bank, and where his emotions shine through the most clearly. There's a lot of hurt, betrayal, and anger in Young Thug's words, but at the same time, he would "die before I go against that n***a, even to this day, still. The only thing I’ma ever say is you a rat." He speaks allegedly of not reciprocating Thug’s unwavering financial support, his plea negatively impacting the RICO case, and using his silence as a means to avoid accountability. Thugger thinks he should address all this, even if Slime himself doesn’t want to hear it.
In fact, Young Thug said he partly did this interview to tell the Drip Season artist and others that they should do the same. Ultimately, he feels like Gunna didn’t reciprocate all the favors and loyalty Thug showed him and King Troup, who brought the two together and asked Thug to take Wunna with him. Although Thugger doesn’t have any ill will towards him, he feels the same sense of betrayal and ungratefulness here that Drake, for example, has levied against others these days. Whether or not this is a justified expectation is up for you to decide, but the Slime Season spitter hinted at the root of this emotional connection early in the interview. He has a huge family, and when other family members didn’t always want to spend time with them due to their size, he sought that love from peers around him.
Did Young Thug Snitch?
A leaked interrogation video that featured Young Thug speaking to police about Peewee Roscoe is what really set this scandal off. But he doesn’t view it as snitching – and neither does Peewee – because he didn’t give police any information, pin any crimes on anyone, tell them something that wasn’t already public knowledge, and cleared folks’ names of any criminal allegations. As for why Jeffery told police to get his number if they wanted more information, he says he was flirting with a female interrogator when the others were leaving. Also, he justified his brother Unfoonk’s plea because he told him to take it, explained why he had to lie about it in a jail call to avoid another charge, and justified Duke’s plea deal because he didn’t agree to YSL being a gang. Rather, the real rats in Thug’s mind are Ralo, Woody, Yak Gotti, Gunna, and others.
However, Young Thug did admit that he shouldn’t have talked to police in the first place, as he can’t control folks’ perception of that. He spoke on being young and eager to help his friends, and he also gave similarly understanding explanations for Ralo and Woody’s experiences. While Thugger still can’t rock with them, he doesn’t have any beef or smoke either. The former’s situation had nothing to do with Thug, and the latter has turned himself around post-YSL RICO testimony in a way that Thug respects and supports. Out of all these diverging storylines, this is where his naiveté concerning perceptions versus reality cost him the most. The UY SCUTI hitmaker may have his reasons to excuse some cooperation and condemn others, but it’s only because of the love and loyalty he feels for these folks.
Thugger's Leaked Jail Calls
Young Thug has collaborated with many of the biggest rappers in the world, and pretty much all of the biggest names out of Atlanta. So when jail call after jail call hit the timeline of him speaking ill of rappers such as Future, Drake, Gucci Mane, Lil Durk, J. Cole, André 3000, and more, a lot of fans were shocked. These were not only frequent collaborators but also close friends, and some like 21 Savage were on the receiving end of these remarks about other MCs. For many folks online, these leaks displayed a sense of entitlement, gossip, and disrespect that extended to more random targets like GloRilla and Kendrick Lamar. There were also more leaks about cheating on Mariah The Scientist, which Thugger apologized for on Twitter.
But at the end of the day, what do all of these things really mean? Thug says he was never the type of person to engage in this behavior before prison, which put him in an isolated, hurt, and indignant place. With not many other outlets, outside molehills become mountains. Still, the YSL CEO said that he had all of those conversations directly with the artists and friends in question, whether that’s Pluto’s parenting, Drizzy’s feud with Metro Boomin, or Smurk moving differently. At least they know. He wanted to step on Gunna’s album out of anger and spite, but he doesn’t have any feelings of hatred or retaliation now that he found his freedom. Also, do people really think these conversations don't happen all the time in non-recorded settings? It’s the hypocrisy, audacity, and occasional ignorance that rightfully angered folks. Nevertheless, it was a dark hardship.
ATL Beefs Beyond YSL
Throughout this Big Bank interview, Young Thug also addressed some people calling him out these days that aren't as directly connected to the snitching and YSL RICO drama, such as the aforementioned Ralo and Quality Control CEO Pierre "P" Thomas. He accused the former of having sealed paperwork pinning crimes on people and of being set to testify against him and YFN Lucci. As for Lil Baby's boss, his "Dum, Dumb, And Dumber" collaborator believes he screwed the Migos over business-wise, which is why he changed his mind and told Baby not to sign with him, to no avail. This is in addition to separate snitching allegations. Still, he said that he respects P as a businessman and doesn’t doubt that he loves Wham, with Thug claiming that he did a lot for Baby at the start of his career that P didn’t do.
In addition, Thugger downplayed his beef with YFN Lucci and wished him the best, denying that he trolled him when he said he wanted to do a song and had no smoke at the height of their colleagues’ tensions. The one situation he and Big Bank didn’t talk about was with the late Rich Homie Quan, which some fans still have questions about. Regardless, Thug just wanted to share his perspective and opinion on this from his perspective as a “real man” from the streets, not seek more beef and confrontation with any of these individuals. But it seems like Ralo, P, and others are still angry at him, so any reconciliation seems unlikely in the near future. Hopefully that’s not the case. After all, this isn’t what Mr. Williams wanted to represent.
Where Does Young Thug Go From Here?
Rather, Young Thug wants recognition as an advocate for unity and community in Atlanta hip-hop, not the forefront of its current divided state. He claims he squashed many beefs with and between others: Lil Baby and 21 Savage, Nine Vicious and Lil Uzi Vert, and Lil Keed and Ola Runt were among his examples. Thug believes Ralo and others mistakenly blame him for strife, and he hasn’t been able to move on and rectify that perception because of how hurt he feels over Gunna and others' decisions. He asked Big Bank how to move on, who opined that Thugger took his blessings for granted post-jail and hasn’t done all he could to make things right.
He suggested having a conversation with Wunna, and acknowledged that knowing and communicating these feelings is the first step. Young Thug stayed happy until the day of this interview, since the scandal really made him look at what messed him up. Ironically, it was the expectation of “being a man” and “standing on it” that delayed this confession. “You got to allow people to see the growth and be a part of it, because you allowed us to see all the other s**t,” Big Bank remarked.
Thug understands why people are mad at him and hopes they can at least understand his perspective, even if they don’t agree. He did acknowledge that he didn’t live up to his standards, and that a lot of negativity towards him is due to his own actions and standards against others. Young Thug worked hard to build others up and possibly hold that over their heads, until he learned the consequences the hard way. Now, he must build himself back up.
