And in that way, you’re kind of adopting or embracing the criminal objectives of the enterprise.

You just need to take affirmative action, knowing that it’s going to somehow help the criminal organization. The basic idea is that doesn’t need to be a criminal act. A lot of these criminal cases boil down to intent. Just promoting YSL, legitimizing them, helping their image or their street cred, that’s enough- if his intent was to advance and to further facilitate their criminal agenda. That’s one thing RICO has been criticized for in the past: You don’t have to do a lot to connect yourself to the conspiracy and to be held liable as a conspirator. A lot of how he’s connected to the conspiracy is posting videos and writing songs and lyrics that tie him to YSL. So for someone like him, he’s in a different boat than the people who are actually accused of murder. If you look at Williams in particular, he’s accused of some pretty serious stuff, but he wasn’t accused of murdering anybody. It’s hard to say that universally for all the defendants. How perilous of a position would you say Young Thug, Gunna, and the rest of these defendants are in right now? So if they did those things, you’re a long way home as a prosecutor. But when you’re dealing with blatant criminal activity, like what they’re accused of-murder, aggravated assault, drug dealing, attempted murder-all these things are, clearly, acts of racketeering. Jeff Grell: If these defendants did what they’re accused of doing, it’s kind of a slam dunk. VICE: What did you make of the indictment, and how strong is the Fulton County DA’s case against YSL, in your view? He weighed in on how the case against YSL might play out, and walked us through the intricacies of the controversial law it hinges on. For help unpacking it, VICE called up Jeff Grell, an attorney who’s been litigating RICO cases since the 1990s, wrote a textbook about the law, and teaches a class on it at the University of Minnesota Law School. The RICO case against Young Thug, Gunna (born Sergio Kitchens), and their co-defendants is a doozy. In Georgia, a RICO conviction carries a minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 20. Essentially, as long as someone intentionally and knowingly contributed to organized, criminal activity in some way, they can be hit with RICO charges-even if they never, say, pulled a trigger or robbed a bank. It allows prosecutors to charge individuals who may not have directly committed a crime themselves, but were tangentially involved in a criminal enterprise. Georgia’s RICO Act is similar to federal RICO law, which was designed to help prosecutors fight organized crime and take down organizations like the Mafia. (It’s worth noting that Young Slime Life shares initials with Thug’s record label, Young Stoner Life, an imprint of 300 Entertainment.) Thug’s attorney, Brian Steel, wrote in a statement to Rolling Stonethat Thug “vehemently denies the allegations lodged against him” and “looks forward to the opportunity to defend this case in court.”

Time and again, prosecutors cite photos of Thug wearing YSL gear and throwing up YSL gang signs in photos and videos online, along with lines he’s recorded-e.g., “YSL won’t fold, pick his ass off from the balcony, YSL, wipe a n- nose”-as proof that Thug is a member of the enterprise. Notably, the indictment also repeatedly points to Thug’s song lyrics and social media posts as evidence of his involvement with YSL, which prosecutors claim he co-founded. The indictment contains a number of allegations against Young Thug (born Jeffery Williams) specifically, including that he rented a car used in the 2015 murder of Donavan Thomas, Jr., and that two defendants once discussed obtaining Thug’s “permission” to try to kill rapper YFN Lucci while he was incarcerated in Fulton County jail.

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