ATLANTA—Rapper Young Thug co-founded a violent street gang and promoted it in his songs and on social media, prosecutors allege in a sprawling indictment that accuses him and 27 others of racketeering and a laundry list of other crimes meant to further the gang’s interests.
The Atlanta-based rapper, whose given name is Jeffrey Lamar Williams, co-wrote the hit “This is America” with Childish Gambino, making history when it became the first hip-hop track to win the song of the year Grammy in 2019. Fulton County prosecutors say that in late 2012, he and two others founded Young Slime Life, a violent criminal street gang that’s commonly known as YSL and is affiliated with the national Bloods gang.
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