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Speaker 1: King Slime is a production of iHeart Podcasts in Heirloom Media.

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Speaker 2: I was in Wenette County in nineteen eighty eight at

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Speaker 2: the age of fifteen, and I was bussed to part

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Speaker 2: for Your High school. I was the only black guy

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Speaker 2: there and I was bussed at to be the first

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Speaker 2: African American running back for the school. But I didn't

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Speaker 2: know how to fit in. The streets are always calling

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Speaker 2: to you. I think our parents don't understand the tune

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Speaker 2: of the streets. It's always calling twenty four hours. It's

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Speaker 2: accepting whether you rich, poor, black, white, fat, skinny, whatever

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Speaker 2: gender you're from, the streets will say I'll welcome you.

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Speaker 2: I desire that friendship that confert and it led me

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Speaker 2: being around a lot of older guys, and I found

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Speaker 2: that sense of welcoming in the streets. At that time,

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Speaker 2: it was the gridsposure to the games not as elucid

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Speaker 2: as it is now. At that time, you just had

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Speaker 2: gds and vice lords running around. You had down by

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Speaker 2: law moving in certain places in Atlanta, and so when

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Speaker 2: I say the streets, it's a mixture of that. The

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Speaker 2: games was not as formulated as they are now. I

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Speaker 2: found that sense of welcoming in the streets, just going

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Speaker 2: out to the streets and started committing crimes. Started real small.

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Speaker 2: It always starts real small, and getting involved in stealing cars,

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Speaker 2: and that sense of to tell the truth of power.

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Speaker 2: It's hard when you feel powerless, but then the streets

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Speaker 2: give you this sense of power. And at that age

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Speaker 2: you don't realize this power is like a battery. It's

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Speaker 2: going to run out after a while, and you don't

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Speaker 2: understand what's going to run out, so you just keep

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Speaker 2: going and going and going in the snowball, and then

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Speaker 2: people expect a fifteen year old to stop the ball

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Speaker 2: that's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger, to stand in

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Speaker 2: front of it and just stop. I tried, and it

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Speaker 2: rolls me over. So just running around some older guys,

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Speaker 2: we end up robbing the store. Nobody was supposed to

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Speaker 2: get hurt. But in the heat of things moving around

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Speaker 2: and going into the store and somebody coming to the

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Speaker 2: store and people running and they're going so fast, the

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Speaker 2: guns fire. What just happened?

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Speaker 3: What just happened?

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Speaker 2: Because that's not like you were going in to go

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Speaker 2: We're gonna shoot these people. Go shoot this clerk, and

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Speaker 2: go shoot this person. Didn't happen like that. It didn't

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Speaker 2: happen like that. But when you put a gun in

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Speaker 2: your hand, you have to set what happens. At the

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Speaker 2: end of the day. You know, the clerk lost their life,

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Speaker 2: and there's like the darkest moment in my life. But

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Speaker 2: at that time, to be honest, I didn't feel anything

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Speaker 2: with Morris and sadness, and I became so much part

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Speaker 2: of the street. Oh just as hard as the road

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Speaker 2: out there.

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Speaker 4: I'm George Cheating and I'm Christina Lee.

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Speaker 1: This is King Slime, the prosecution.

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Speaker 4: Of Young Thug and Ysol.

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Speaker 5: I'm Andrew Morse.

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Speaker 6: I'm the president and publisher of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

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Speaker 6: Wanted to welcome everybody here tonight and mostly wanted.

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Speaker 4: It's Spring twenty twenty three, and I'm at the Gathering Spot,

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Speaker 4: a networking and co working club founded in Atlanta. Think

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Speaker 4: a country club without a golf course next to Georgia Tech.

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Speaker 4: Tonight's panel, sponsored by the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper, is

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Speaker 4: called celebrating Atlanta's Black Culture. There's a black and white

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Speaker 4: mural of Andre three thousand and Big Boy, a vowcast

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Speaker 4: in the promo image, and the venue is buzzing because

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Speaker 4: there are free whiskey cocktails and the night's guest of

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Speaker 4: honor is Alanta's mayor, Andre Dickens. Dickens want to run

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Speaker 4: off election against Felicia Moore in twenty twenty one, in

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Speaker 4: no small part because he grabbed the hip hop crowd.

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Speaker 4: Years prior, Moore had introduced an ordinance that would have

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Speaker 4: required that all music studios be built at least five

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Speaker 4: hundred feet away from residential areas, disregarding the existence of

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Speaker 4: Holme Studios altogether. Rap artist t I would remember this

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Speaker 4: ordinance as he rallied his Instagram followers against Moore, claiming

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Speaker 4: that she lost sight of the culture. Dickens, on the

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Speaker 4: other hand, is firmly part of the hip hop generation.

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Speaker 4: As he tells the panel crowd, he and Andre three

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Speaker 4: thousand were part of a crew that would swap clothes

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Speaker 4: so that none of them would repeat outfits to school.

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Speaker 5: I was so what Andre three thousand, Andre Benjamin. He

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Speaker 5: was in sixth grade at Sundon, I was in seventh

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Speaker 5: grade at Southwest. We were in a group of folks

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Speaker 5: that we would trade clothes so that we looked like

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Speaker 5: we had more clothes. I had a Fela jagasuit. Andre

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Speaker 5: had either like a Lecogsportie or Adida's jagasuit, and like

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Speaker 5: Tony had like a you know, a polo and Da

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Speaker 5: da da. So we would get together on Sunday and

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Speaker 5: I'd be like, here's mine, here's yours, here's yours. So

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Speaker 5: that week I was first like, man, you got a

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Speaker 5: new jagasuit every week. Now, he wasn't a rapper at

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Speaker 5: that time.

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Speaker 2: He was just a dude.

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Speaker 4: Of course, the mayor of Atlanta would have grown up

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Speaker 4: with Andre three thousand. We're at a moment in the

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Speaker 4: city's history where that just makes sense, but it's still

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Speaker 4: worth considering how we got here.

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Speaker 1: Atlanta's dual histories is a black mecca and music capital

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Speaker 1: have been intertwined since nineteen seventy four, the year Dickens

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Speaker 1: was born. Doctor Maurice Hobson is a historian and professor

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Speaker 1: of Afercana Studies at Georgia State University. He's consulted and

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Speaker 1: appeared in documentaries about Atlanta's nineteen oh six race massacre

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Speaker 1: and Atlanta rap star Little Baby.

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Speaker 7: The Atlanta sound is based on the soul in funk

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Speaker 7: that kind of comes into the city in the nineteen seventies.

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Speaker 7: And that's the result of Mayor Jackson, the creation of

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Speaker 7: Bureau Cultural Affairs, and Buddy Jackson, Ransom, his first wife,

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Speaker 7: who who brings soul in font after her Maynor divorce,

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Speaker 7: and Cameo and Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield and Brick.

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Speaker 3: And all these people kind of come to Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: That's the sound Maynor Jackson, Atlanta's first black mayor, founded

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Speaker 1: the Bureau of Cultural Affairs, is the city's first institution

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Speaker 1: to support local artists and art organizations. Talent shows sprung

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Speaker 1: up at schools across the city in hopes of keeping

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Speaker 1: kids off the streets. In nineteen seventy five, Maynard's then wife,

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Speaker 1: Bunny Jackson, founder of the pr firm First Class, incorporated

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Speaker 1: to support local bands that gave rise to Atlanta as

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Speaker 1: a music city.

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Speaker 4: Decades later, Antonio La Reid and Kenneth Babyface Edmonds continued

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Speaker 4: to build off that history when they founded La Face Records.

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Speaker 4: They chose to establish The Face Records in Atlanta because

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Speaker 4: it felt like a city full of dreamers. According to Reed,

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Speaker 4: He noted the city's history of black leadership, upwardly mobile

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Speaker 4: black community, and civil Rights legacy. The first acts that

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Speaker 4: LaFace Records worked with in town were future R and

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Speaker 4: B stars Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston. But then La Reid

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Speaker 4: took a meeting with two seventeen year old aspiring rappers

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Speaker 4: Andre three thousand and Big Boy. Aucas went on to

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Speaker 4: become one of the only rap groups to ever sell

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Speaker 4: over ten million units, going diamond instead of just gold

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Speaker 4: or platinum. The LaFace Records offices used to be in Buckhead.

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Speaker 4: Lifelong Atlanta resident Bane Joyner took not.

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Speaker 8: The labels would be in New York and then you

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Speaker 8: see the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles, so Atlanta

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Speaker 8: didn't have any of that. And around ninth tenth grade,

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Speaker 8: I found out that the Face office was in the

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Speaker 8: Blue Cross Blue Hill Building in Buckhead and it's like,

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Speaker 8: oh yeah, like it's here for real. I want to

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Speaker 8: go work for La Red and I'm the same age

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Speaker 8: as Chriss Cross.

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Speaker 1: This realization is crucial to what Joiner has been saying

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Speaker 1: for years now. If you've ever heard someone say that

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Speaker 1: Atlanta influences everything, it's beeause of Bame. That's the name

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Speaker 1: of his creative agency. Through that agency, he's helped create

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Speaker 1: a handy T shirt slogan and work with local officials

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Speaker 1: to update the city's image for this hip hop generation.

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Speaker 8: Atlanta has King and Coca Cola and outcasts starting I

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Speaker 8: Guess with the Diamond album and HEYI so this black

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Speaker 8: melting pot of civic, corporate, commerce, and culture. Those three

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Speaker 8: reasons are how we justify the statement, because we knew

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Speaker 8: if somebody wasn't from Atlanta, we would have to justify it.

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Speaker 1: And that very idea of Atlanta influencing everything is what

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Speaker 1: has made being an appropriate.

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Speaker 4: Spokesman for the city and why Joiners sharing the stage

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Speaker 4: with Mayor Andre Dickens at the Gathering Spot tonight.

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Speaker 6: We're all really fortunate to be living in this city

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Speaker 6: at this time. As our friend Bam Joyner who's here

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Speaker 6: and all embarrass him, but as he likes to say,

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Speaker 6: Atlanta influences everything. That has never been more true than

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Speaker 6: it is today. And the thriving, dynamic, influential Black culture

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Speaker 6: in this city is one of the reasons undeniably why

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Speaker 6: Atlanta influences everything.

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Speaker 4: When Dickens takes the stage, he DAPs up being before

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Speaker 4: he sits down center stage, and he's happy to wax

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Speaker 4: nostalgic about his school days, being friends with Andrew three

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Speaker 4: thousand and seeing civil rights leaders and person as a child, black.

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Speaker 5: Men wore suits and they were on TV talking about

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Speaker 5: good things for us, and I.

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Speaker 3: Said, I want to be them.

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Speaker 4: But for some of the tougher questions regarding the current

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Speaker 4: state of Atlanta, in particular about young thug, the YSL indictment,

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Speaker 4: and the national coverage that the city was seeing as

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Speaker 4: a result, Mayor Dickens actually had nothing to say.

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Speaker 9: And recently we've seen the city on the national stage

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Speaker 9: for a range of things, from politics, to cock City.

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Speaker 2: To the YSL tra I mean, you name it.

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Speaker 9: How do you think that some of these events are

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Speaker 9: going to shape the culture of the city.

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Speaker 3: How will it change.

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Speaker 10: A lot?

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Speaker 4: About Dickens had already rested as Mike on a table

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Speaker 4: next to him to take a sip of water, and

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Speaker 4: he doesn't pick it back up to answer. Instead, he

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Speaker 4: motions toward Bame and smiles widely as if cueing him

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Speaker 4: to speak on his behalf, which Bame does, reflecting on

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Speaker 4: how the nation is influencing Atlanta's black hole, sure whether

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Speaker 4: that is cop city?

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Speaker 8: When I heard about stuff happening in the trees. I

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Speaker 8: hit my home Badtonio, that's his neighborhood. Bruh, you're in

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Speaker 8: the trees, he said, Nah, bruh, I'm at the crib.

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Speaker 8: So when he checked around, I found out wasn't nobody

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Speaker 8: I grew up within the trees.

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Speaker 2: I'm like, well, who do you folk in the trees

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Speaker 2: or young thug?

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Speaker 8: Young thug got grammys, yo, don't forget like very creative

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Speaker 8: people that are floundering.

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Speaker 3: So the talent is in Atlanta.

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Speaker 2: Yax l is the talent.

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Speaker 8: But you see how he calling on Kevin Lows and

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Speaker 8: these other those are exacts. You see what I'm saying.

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Speaker 8: The execs of the industry are in New York. If

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Speaker 8: Farrell and Doug and Mays breed more execs, not just talent,

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Speaker 8: but the business of how this works, then we can

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Speaker 8: start to control our culture. And controlling our culture in

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Speaker 8: Atlanta means we help black people control their culture in America.

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Speaker 8: But with no control, right, you just got folks running

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Speaker 8: around here doing anything the business, not the vibe, not

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Speaker 8: the feeling, not the dancing, but how the money is made.

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Speaker 8: The brands are run by white boys who smoke weed.

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Speaker 8: What I'm saying is the business of how things work

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Speaker 8: in entertainment and culture. They're still either run by white

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Speaker 8: people or black people liking Kevin Lowes and who they're

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Speaker 8: trying to call on the witness stand that aren't from here,

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Speaker 8: and he's going to fight for the music industry. That

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Speaker 8: man ain't never really keep it on Cleveland Avenue in

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Speaker 8: Road Martin, and I like Kevin lows. I actually wanted

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Speaker 8: to be Kevin Lowes. So that's all I'm saying. The

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Speaker 8: YSL trial is also a lack of creative business infrastructure

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Speaker 8: that does not exist in this city.

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Speaker 4: And with that the panel portion of the night's event

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Speaker 4: was over.

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Speaker 2: I didn't even realize the magnitude of what had happened

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Speaker 2: to us. We ended up going to court. I didn't

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Speaker 2: know what was going on. I was only being tried

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Speaker 2: as an adult, but I really wasn't an adult at

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Speaker 2: that time. I caulpacity to understand the magnitude. I don't

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Speaker 2: even think I was a child. I don't know. I know,

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Speaker 2: I know I'd done wrong, and I always think i'm'a

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Speaker 2: go home. We denied everything going to court. It we

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Speaker 2: just denied everything. Is what we're sposta do, cause of

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Speaker 2: course courts are one in vict in people's heads, not unders,

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Speaker 2: you know, I I it's in your head. It's you

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Speaker 2: the one that's courting that what was in my head

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Speaker 2: that i'm'a beat this, and the judge gave us a

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Speaker 2: life sentence at the age of fifteen. The judge said,

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Speaker 2: you know, get this filth out of my courtroom. You'll

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Speaker 2: never see the light of day. You'll never see the

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Speaker 2: light of day.

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Speaker 1: We chatted with Bame Joiner a few days after that

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Speaker 1: a JC panel to break down what he had said

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Speaker 1: that night to start, and to borrow the title from

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Speaker 1: his first mixtape series, Young Thug Came from nothing more. Specifically,

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Speaker 1: he came from Cleveland Avenue, where Bame Joiner's mom would

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Speaker 1: sometimes be assigned as a public sector social worker.

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Speaker 8: It's a rough, lower income but blue collar area and

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Speaker 8: with like not much to look at.

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Speaker 3: And I think that's the key, Like.

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Speaker 8: Wasn't even no murals or nothing, you know, Like it's

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Speaker 8: just a rough, low income area.

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Speaker 1: Young thugs search for opportunity as an aspiring artist might

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Speaker 1: have begun at home with family connections. Chuck c who

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Speaker 1: You met at a episode two, remembers how Young Thug's

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Speaker 1: father Jeffrey Williams Senior taught the importance of showmanship to

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Speaker 1: Chuck's rap group, the Throwback Boys.

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Speaker 7: We would just get on stage of rap and he

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Speaker 7: was like, no, you got to have a show. You

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Speaker 7: got to have showmanship. The showmanship was taught to us

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Speaker 7: by Big Jeff.

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Speaker 1: But Young Thugs road to fame from Cleveland Avenue came

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Speaker 1: after La Face Records relocated to Los Angeles in the

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Speaker 1: year two thousand, which doesn't make coming from nothing any easier.

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Speaker 1: Recent numbers are hard to come by. The pandemics scrambled

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Speaker 1: our sense of what's going on in Atlanta's economy, But

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Speaker 1: in the years leading up to the pandemic, Atlanta leaders

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Speaker 1: relied on a set of studies that showed that a

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Speaker 1: kid born into poverty has only a one in twenty

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Speaker 1: five chance of reaching an income in the top quintile,

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Speaker 1: which is about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a

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Speaker 1: year today, But two out of three times the best

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Speaker 1: outcome is a working class fifteen dollars an hour job.

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Speaker 1: That's before accounting for the things that might drag someone back,

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Speaker 1: like a criminal record. A national study that's been running

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Speaker 1: regularly for thirty years shows that a black person with

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Speaker 1: a clean criminal record is less likely to be called

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Speaker 1: into a job interview than a white person with the

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Speaker 1: same resume and a recent felony conviction. Regular jobs treat

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Speaker 1: young black men with a criminal conviction as almost unemployable,

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Speaker 1: not just here but everywhere in America. In other words,

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Speaker 1: young Thug didn't just come from nothing. He was at

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Speaker 1: least statistically destined for nothing, which is what makes his

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Speaker 1: rise to fame and wealth so much more impressive.

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Speaker 4: Here's Bame.

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Speaker 8: I was like, Okay, yeah, like this is someone who

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Speaker 8: gets it, especially understanding Cleveland Avenue that area and Atlanta

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Speaker 8: and still not having music industry, real infrastructure.

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Speaker 3: I don't know where the hand up.

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Speaker 8: Came from, you know, that allowed him to get to

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Speaker 8: the next level.

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Speaker 2: He's just kind of diddy.

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Speaker 4: This lack of support may not seem out of the

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Speaker 4: ordinary for most places. Where we're talking about Atlanta, a

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Speaker 4: city that is now a hip hop capital despite almost

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Speaker 4: zero incentives from the state of Georgia, and a city

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Speaker 4: now regarded as a Hollywood of the South, almost entirely

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Speaker 4: because of incentives from the State of Georgia.

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Speaker 8: There was a film tax specifically created to pull money

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Speaker 8: in but there was nothing ever created for hip hop.

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Speaker 4: In the world of rap. Atlanta may be where talent

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Speaker 4: is born. It's a city where artists overwhelmingly connect and

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Speaker 4: get creative. From twenty one to twenty eighteen, Fulton County,

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Speaker 4: which includes Atlanta, saw its music related businesses recording studios,

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Speaker 4: music festivals, and the like generate almost one point seven

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Speaker 4: billion dollar. Those same businesses hired at six times the

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Speaker 4: rate as the rest of Fulton County's economy. But New

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Speaker 4: York and Los Angeles are still where those same artists

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Speaker 4: conduct business. It's where labels signed checks and cut deals

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Speaker 4: with future stars. This dynamic has frustrated Bame for as

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Speaker 4: long as I've known him.

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Speaker 8: If you influence everything and you shouldn't be number one

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Speaker 8: in income and equality, That's why I hate the shirt

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Speaker 8: sometimes because it translates to you, you cool, but you broke.

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Speaker 4: But concerning the YSL trial specifically, Bame also worries about

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Speaker 4: how Atlanta's influence gets wielded by people outside the city.

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Speaker 4: He sees that influence operating outside the city's control and

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Speaker 4: taking advantage of artists who intrigue critics and music listeners

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Speaker 4: with outlaw sensibilities. Like young thug. As he said during

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Speaker 4: the AJAC event.

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Speaker 8: Controlling our culture in Atlanta means we hope black people

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Speaker 8: control their culture in America. But with no control, right,

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Speaker 8: You just got folks running around here doing anything.

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Speaker 2: When you turn seventeen in State of Georgia, you go

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Speaker 2: straight to prison. You just go from juneile to prison.

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Speaker 2: I turned seventeen too fast, ended up going to Alto

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Speaker 2: State Prison, which was the worst prison in the State

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Speaker 2: of Georgia at that time. My biggest exposure to the games

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Speaker 2: was inside of the prison systems. After ten years being

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Speaker 2: in out then we started seeing these young boys coming

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Speaker 2: in that was from the same neighborhoods but worn with

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Speaker 2: each other because they from different games. Seeing how they

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Speaker 2: can call somebody from the outside might be homeing to

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Speaker 2: my need to take care of this, and they'll stab

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Speaker 2: somebody because somebody on the outside said, stab somebody and

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Speaker 2: catch more time in prison and be cool with it,

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Speaker 2: be okay with it. One of the scariest things of

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Speaker 2: my time in that place was I done by fifteen

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Speaker 2: years at that time, and the young guys coming in

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Speaker 2: and they're saying to each other, how much time you got, man?

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Speaker 2: I just got six man I got said eight, Well,

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Speaker 2: how much time you get? Major gave me ten. I'm

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Speaker 2: straight though, go down there waiting and all these young men,

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Speaker 2: none of them was older than nineteen, and they was

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Speaker 2: talking about time as if it was seconds. And then

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Speaker 2: they looked at me and said, well, how much time

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Speaker 2: you got? I just snapped on everybody because they don't

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Speaker 2: realize I just done fifteen. The screams, there's noise, The

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Speaker 2: sounds never stopped. It doesn't stop at night, and you

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Speaker 2: all think it's okay. It's not okay one day it's

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Speaker 2: not okay. Day is not okay. You've given up your

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Speaker 2: life in this environment to live in a cage. Why

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Speaker 2: everybody else around you live on outside.

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Speaker 1: A kid who knows my reporting confronted me on a

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Speaker 1: Martyr train a few weeks ago. You're that police ass

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Speaker 1: reporter on the young thug case. He said he wasn't

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Speaker 1: happy with me. There are entire subreddits full of people

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Speaker 1: who are not happy with me. I was a rap

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Speaker 1: music fan when I started reporting on this trial, and

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Speaker 1: I still am. But I am no supporter of the

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Speaker 1: rap music industry. If ever, I was not all of it,

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Speaker 1: of course, just the part that is exploiting the pain

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Speaker 1: and poverty of Atlanta and other cities for profit. Hip

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Speaker 1: hop is worth about three billion a year in recorded

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Speaker 1: music sales, according to the industry tracker trap it Them

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Speaker 1: take Spotify's top two hundred performing rap artists, half their

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Speaker 1: revenue comes from the US South. Maybe a third of

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Speaker 1: that is Atlanta millions in sales, yet only a third

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Speaker 1: of top line revenue ends up with an artist at all.

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Speaker 1: About two thirds of that money goes to record labels

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Speaker 1: and publishing companies, collaborators, and billionaire music executives in Los Angeles,

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Speaker 1: New York and elsewhere. Warner Music is owned by the

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Speaker 1: Ukrainian American businessman Leonard Lavatnik. Warner Music also purchased three

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Speaker 1: hundred Entertainment, the label that launched Young Stoner Life Records

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one.

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Speaker 4: Ahead of Young Thug's first bond hearing in summer twenty

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Speaker 4: twenty two, his defense team submitted over a dozen character

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Speaker 4: letters testifying on the artist behalf. One of those letters

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Speaker 4: from artist manager Benizaki, says that Young Thug once outfitted

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Speaker 4: a friend who was being released from prison. That's despite

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Speaker 4: how said friend tried to have him murdered.

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Speaker 2: Out of jealousy.

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Speaker 4: Another letter from three hundred Entertainment president Jeff ogan Lessi

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Speaker 4: remembers when Kanye West personally invited Young Thug to record

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Speaker 4: with him, but when his sisters weren't a part of

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Speaker 4: that invitation, Young Thug declined so that he wouldn't quote

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Speaker 4: hurt his siblings' feelings. As these character witnesses stress the

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Speaker 4: countless hours that Young Thug spends in the studio and

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Speaker 4: mentors his signees, prosecutors point to other possible motivations for

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Speaker 4: why all these music execs would not want Young Thug

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Speaker 4: flagged as a flight risk. Here's New York Times reporter

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Speaker 4: Joe Coscarelli.

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Speaker 11: You know, you have Kevin Miles, who's the CEO of

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Speaker 11: three hundred and who presumably made many, many millions of

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Speaker 11: dollars on that deal, testifying on Young Thug's behalf and

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Speaker 11: arguing for him to be granted bail, saying that he

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Speaker 11: stands behind him personally and professionally, that he's only ever

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Speaker 11: seen him as a motivator and a positive member of

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Speaker 11: the community. And then you have the Die's office saying,

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Speaker 11: everyone here who's testifying about how great of a guy

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Speaker 11: Young Veggez has a financial interest in him, So you know,

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Speaker 11: it's quite complicated.

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00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:11,600
Speaker 1: Trapatol has noted that sixty five percent of the rap

399
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Speaker 1: music audience is white. As much as black people claim

400
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Speaker 1: rap broadly as its cultural product, gangster rap is a

401
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:24,600
Speaker 1: black cultural product, is sold primarily to white people, and

402
00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:27,080
Speaker 1: apparently a subset of the audience is willing to pay

403
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Speaker 1: money for authentic gangsters rapping about shooting each other. Here's Costcarelli.

404
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:35,720
Speaker 11: I have not seen the music industry really held to

405
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Speaker 11: account for the way they do or do not engage

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00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:44,200
Speaker 11: in the seriousness and the literalness of this music and

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00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:49,960
Speaker 11: their artists. There's always another rapper from tough circumstances, rapping

408
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:54,520
Speaker 11: about tough stuff for a label to sign, and I

409
00:24:54,560 --> 00:24:59,520
Speaker 11: think a lot of people wonder where the consequences are

410
00:24:59,680 --> 00:25:01,720
Speaker 11: for the people who are really making money off of

411
00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:05,439
Speaker 11: this stuff. You know, three hundred Entertainment The Home of

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Speaker 11: l sold for four hundred million dollars largely on the

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Speaker 11: backs of young Thugs music, along with others. So I

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Speaker 11: don't believe corporations are inclined to change unless the economics change,

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Speaker 11: unless the business changes, unless there are financial incentives to

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Speaker 11: do so I just don't think we've seen that yet.

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00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 11: If the audience stops listening to street rap, then maybe

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00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,560
Speaker 11: the labels will sign something else. But you know, there

419
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:35,840
Speaker 11: seems to still be that interest if you look at

420
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:38,960
Speaker 11: the charts, you know, on Spotify or Apple Music, or

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00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:40,000
Speaker 11: listen to the radio.

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00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:45,240
Speaker 1: For all the sublime creative power of the art of rap,

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Speaker 1: the market is uplifting street violence in the music and

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00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:54,160
Speaker 1: the way minstrel shows were patronized when ragtime music was popular,

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00:25:55,480 --> 00:25:59,800
Speaker 1: the same elements are there. Black people behaving with comically

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00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:05,399
Speaker 1: loose morality, engaging in wild acts of violence, abusing women,

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00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:09,360
Speaker 1: drinking and drug use, and extolling the virtues of luxury

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00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:16,080
Speaker 1: brands to show off their apparent wealth. They even wore chains.

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Speaker 1: Minstrel shows made money because white people found it entertaining,

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00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:25,680
Speaker 1: reinforcing their own sense of racial superiority. We frown upon

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00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:29,280
Speaker 1: blackface these days, so we hire actual black people for

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Speaker 1: the job. Now. The more authentic to the role, the better.

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00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,120
Speaker 1: Sometimes audiences will accept a fake in the way wrestling

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00:26:37,160 --> 00:26:41,520
Speaker 1: fans accept staged cafe moves in the ring, but plainly

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00:26:42,280 --> 00:26:43,360
Speaker 1: they prefer the real thing.

436
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:58,240
Speaker 2: To survive prison. Do you really have to dehumanize yourself

437
00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:02,040
Speaker 2: all the most because emotions to get you killed. But

438
00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 2: I did all those years, and I remember looking at

439
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 2: the person in the mirror, and it's scared me. Literally,

440
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:12,040
Speaker 2: the person who looked back at me scared because a

441
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:16,120
Speaker 2: person who looked back at me wasn't human, he wasn't

442
00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:19,360
Speaker 2: as a person who didn't care what happened to you

443
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:24,560
Speaker 2: or anybody else around you. I knew right then and there,

444
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,359
Speaker 2: if I'm ever going to make home or become a

445
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:32,480
Speaker 2: better person, the person staring at me gotta die. I

446
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 2: realized that I can't fight everybody, but I will outwork you.

447
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:41,200
Speaker 2: I will out thank you. In this environment, the water

448
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:43,240
Speaker 2: would come into the dormitory and say, hey, I want

449
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:45,840
Speaker 2: everybody to move your pants from the top shelf and

450
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:47,840
Speaker 2: put them in the bottom shelf when I get back tomorrow.

451
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:51,840
Speaker 2: And guys were literally wants to go to the hole

452
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:54,359
Speaker 2: about that, ready to fight. I'm not doing nothing. I

453
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:56,480
Speaker 2: don't care what he's saying. I'm not doing nothing. What

454
00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:58,359
Speaker 2: are you gonna do? I key, I can move my

455
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 2: pants from the top shelf to the bottom shelf because

456
00:28:00,800 --> 00:28:03,439
Speaker 2: they're not my pants. This is not my locker box,

457
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:06,960
Speaker 2: this is not my bed. I'm just only temporary borrowing

458
00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:11,879
Speaker 2: these things until I go home, And that mindset created

459
00:28:11,920 --> 00:28:16,399
Speaker 2: hope for me. I got up before they told me

460
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:18,920
Speaker 2: to get up. I went to sleep before they told

461
00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:23,359
Speaker 2: me he went to sleep. The waters used to ship

462
00:28:23,359 --> 00:28:26,200
Speaker 2: me around from institution the institution to say I need

463
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,560
Speaker 2: you to stop the gangs for fighting each other. I'll

464
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:33,439
Speaker 2: get you home. And the moment I was able to

465
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:36,240
Speaker 2: get their camps under control, they put me on the bus.

466
00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 2: And that didn't happen one time, two times, three times,

467
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,080
Speaker 2: it happened over ten times. They'll put me on the

468
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 2: bus and ship me to another cap.

469
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:53,239
Speaker 4: Looking back at those days of the Throwback Boys off

470
00:28:53,320 --> 00:28:57,000
Speaker 4: Cleveland Avenue in the early two thousands, CHUCKXY can't help

471
00:28:57,000 --> 00:28:59,440
Speaker 4: but wonder if the influence he had on young thug

472
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,360
Speaker 4: demonstrating the opportunities available to him by way of music

473
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 4: was positive.

474
00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:08,480
Speaker 7: I'm one of the person he's listening to, right So,

475
00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:11,200
Speaker 7: so when I hear about what happened to while I

476
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 7: find Loose's mother's house, right then I think back on

477
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:20,120
Speaker 7: the song where I say disrespect that'll get your ass kicked,

478
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 7: shoot up your mama house and break your little brother's neck.

479
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,560
Speaker 7: So when I think about me saying that rap and

480
00:29:25,640 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 7: him listening to that rap and then somebody mother's house

481
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:32,040
Speaker 7: gets shot up, you know, I feel I feel a

482
00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:34,840
Speaker 7: certain you know what I'm saying a certain way, because

483
00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 7: these was the lyrics that we were saying, and these

484
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:41,080
Speaker 7: were the people. Young thug and his crew were the

485
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 7: people that was listening to take.

486
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:45,840
Speaker 2: It outside, Let's take it outside. Let's take it outside.

487
00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:47,040
Speaker 2: Let's take it outside.

488
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:50,640
Speaker 7: And that's what I feel kind of responsible for it

489
00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:54,040
Speaker 7: because we didn't set a good example. So of course

490
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:56,760
Speaker 7: the people up under us didn't have a good example

491
00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:57,280
Speaker 7: to look at.

492
00:29:59,080 --> 00:30:02,480
Speaker 1: Caro Confree, who leads Georgie's gang Prosecution unit at the

493
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:06,360
Speaker 1: Attorney General's Office, concerns yourself with how much more quickly

494
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:10,000
Speaker 1: such examples get spread today among an age group that

495
00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 1: seems to get younger and younger each year, like as.

496
00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:16,000
Speaker 12: Soon as you can throw up a sign, as soon

497
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 12: as you can articulate an affiliation, a loyalty to we've

498
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,880
Speaker 12: seen it and heard it so young single digit ages.

499
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 1: Kids, and among kids living in the social media age

500
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 1: in the city's most vulnerable communities.

501
00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:34,840
Speaker 12: The promise of a lifestyle is the number one draw.

502
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 12: It's the primary vehicle that's marketed through is social media. Now,

503
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:42,960
Speaker 12: when you can hold a device and see someone has

504
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:47,840
Speaker 12: access to not only success, but material success. You know,

505
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:51,160
Speaker 12: they've got stuff, They've got things, They've got jewelry, they've

506
00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:54,640
Speaker 12: got shoes, they've got clothes you want. They have attention

507
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:59,000
Speaker 12: and celebrity. They've got this huge network of friends and influence.

508
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,960
Speaker 12: And I think for young people, particularly young people in

509
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:06,080
Speaker 12: communities that might not organically get exposed to that some

510
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 12: other way, that lifestyle is more than attractive. I mean,

511
00:31:10,160 --> 00:31:14,280
Speaker 12: it's it's incredibly compelling, and it's something that we as

512
00:31:14,320 --> 00:31:18,120
Speaker 12: a not just law enforcement community, but really as a society,

513
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:20,560
Speaker 12: have to decide we're going to come together and try

514
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:23,680
Speaker 12: to recruit in our own way, because it's the most

515
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 12: impossible thing to come up against.

516
00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:30,440
Speaker 13: We the jury and the Abuff and Title Action find

517
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,080
Speaker 13: the defendant or enthal James Simpson not guilty of a

518
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 13: crime of murder and violation of penal cult Section one

519
00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:39,800
Speaker 13: eighty seven a a felony upon Nicole Brown Simpson, a

520
00:31:39,880 --> 00:31:42,440
Speaker 13: human being, as charged in count one of the information.

521
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:47,960
Speaker 4: Chuck c can remember when OJ Simpson was acquitted for

522
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,600
Speaker 4: the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goleman.

523
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:53,160
Speaker 7: We went outside as soon as we heard, and we

524
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:55,040
Speaker 7: shot guns and the air. We went to live the

525
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,320
Speaker 7: store a bottle bunch, and we celebrated. You know, we

526
00:31:58,360 --> 00:32:00,600
Speaker 7: felt like it was a win for all of us.

527
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:03,560
Speaker 4: He thinks that young folk getting acquitted would also have

528
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 4: people celebrating in the streets.

529
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:10,000
Speaker 7: This is definitely the OJ trial of out of this

530
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:13,400
Speaker 7: time right here. Every street person will feel like they

531
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:18,760
Speaker 7: want right, not just young thug, every street person, every

532
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:22,560
Speaker 7: Y and Sale member, every ABG member, every person that

533
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 7: lives on Cleveland Avenue, everybody that lives on Jonesboro Road.

534
00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:29,880
Speaker 7: Everyone is going to feel like they want It. Won't

535
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:32,200
Speaker 7: even be young thug beat the case on the streets.

536
00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 7: It'll be we beat the case.

537
00:32:34,440 --> 00:32:34,640
Speaker 1: Right.

538
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:36,840
Speaker 7: This is what the people are going to feel like

539
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 7: if he wins, or you know, praying.

540
00:32:40,920 --> 00:32:41,480
Speaker 2: That he does.

541
00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:45,000
Speaker 4: Cara Confrey couldn't disagree more.

542
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,400
Speaker 12: People in communities that have been victimized in this way

543
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 12: just want to feel seen and want to feel like

544
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:54,520
Speaker 12: they matter. So I choose to maybe people will be

545
00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:56,520
Speaker 12: celebrating the streets. I don't think so, though. I think

546
00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:57,160
Speaker 12: people get it.

547
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:01,600
Speaker 4: She says that Atlanta's police Chief Darren views the YSL

548
00:33:01,640 --> 00:33:04,880
Speaker 4: indictment as a productive step forward to combat that influence.

549
00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:08,640
Speaker 4: She remembers a recent training session where he boasted of

550
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:09,840
Speaker 4: the immediate aftermath.

551
00:33:10,840 --> 00:33:12,560
Speaker 12: One of the things he talked about is the effect

552
00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:16,400
Speaker 12: on crime that we saw after the YSL indictment dropped,

553
00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 12: which is we saw crime numbers kind of dip down

554
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:23,160
Speaker 12: right after the publication of the indictment itself. But his

555
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 12: big thing was an experience, an individual experience he had

556
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:29,320
Speaker 12: as just a human being walking through Cleveland into an

557
00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:34,200
Speaker 12: apartment complex that had been just totally terrorized by YSL

558
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:36,920
Speaker 12: and the violence that came with them, and their conflicts

559
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:39,640
Speaker 12: and stuff they had going on in that community. He

560
00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:42,520
Speaker 12: walked into the community on foot, and a lady approached

561
00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:45,920
Speaker 12: him and just said, you know, can I talk to you.

562
00:33:45,960 --> 00:33:47,640
Speaker 12: I just want to thank you because it is the

563
00:33:47,680 --> 00:33:51,400
Speaker 12: first sort of couple weeks of peace that I've had,

564
00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:54,800
Speaker 12: and thank you for caring about this community, for caring

565
00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:56,800
Speaker 12: about people like me that live here that are not

566
00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:57,640
Speaker 12: in YSL.

567
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:03,480
Speaker 1: Crime has indeed fallen. It's fallen off a cliff, though

568
00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:08,520
Speaker 1: most notably east of where Cleveland Avenue is located. Oddly enough,

569
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:12,680
Speaker 1: crime has remained stubbornly high in Zone three, which includes

570
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:16,320
Speaker 1: Cleveland Avenue. Those crime numbers also don't account for tensions

571
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,560
Speaker 1: that have boiled over inside Rice Street, the overcrowded Fulton

572
00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 1: County Jail, and the state prisons, tensions that were displayed

573
00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 1: to horrifying effect at Spring twenty twenty three with a

574
00:34:27,520 --> 00:34:30,760
Speaker 1: cell phone video that leaked from behind state prison walls.

575
00:34:31,719 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 1: A warning, the audio from this video is graphic, slim.

576
00:34:40,680 --> 00:34:44,040
Speaker 2: There's not wholy rovi bless so in them. It's might

577
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:51,000
Speaker 2: you slang, lack candidition of both the living about crime each.

578
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,720
Speaker 1: The inmate holding the cell phone is pitting down another

579
00:34:55,760 --> 00:35:00,120
Speaker 1: inmate who has been gagged and hog tied, and then

580
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:02,440
Speaker 1: takes a blade against the victim's skin as if to

581
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:07,000
Speaker 1: literally scrape the YL tattoo inked on his arm. If

582
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:09,840
Speaker 1: hip Hop's social media is to be believed, then the

583
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:15,360
Speaker 1: assault is associated with YFN. Devin Franklin is the Movement

584
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:19,399
Speaker 1: Policy Council at the Southern Center for Human Rights. He's

585
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:23,080
Speaker 1: worried about the violent conditions that YL defendants live under

586
00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:25,480
Speaker 1: at state prisons and on Rice Street.

587
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 14: The main charging is why I say okas are still

588
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:35,480
Speaker 14: in a really uncomfortable place, crowded, and violence of the

589
00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 14: jail has been up.

590
00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 2: There are.

591
00:35:40,120 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 14: Shortages and staff with the Fulton County Sheriff's Department. They

592
00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 14: don't have enough people for the jail when it's not overcrowded.

593
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:51,880
Speaker 14: They really don't have enough staff to keep personal and

594
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 14: custody safe who are currently there. And to add on

595
00:35:56,400 --> 00:36:00,359
Speaker 14: to that fact, you have brought people back who are

596
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:02,680
Speaker 14: from who were in prison, they were down the road

597
00:36:02,719 --> 00:36:06,080
Speaker 14: at whatever state prison to come back to forth and

598
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:09,440
Speaker 14: to face trials. And you know, when you're already serving

599
00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:11,200
Speaker 14: the life centers, you have a lot of violence. You

600
00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:15,319
Speaker 14: have what we have being told of rival gangs in there,

601
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,759
Speaker 14: and they're under really inhumane circumstances, and I think it

602
00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:25,520
Speaker 14: may lead towards people acting in really aggressive ways, sometimes.

603
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:28,160
Speaker 1: In an effort to keep the powder keg at Rice

604
00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:31,960
Speaker 1: straight from exploding into all out of chaos. Young Thug

605
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:35,200
Speaker 1: has been held at Cobb and County Jail. Cobb's not

606
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,440
Speaker 1: exactly the Ritz Carlton. All of Atlanta's jails have issues

607
00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:41,880
Speaker 1: with violence, but his move there does keep him somewhat

608
00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:45,360
Speaker 1: isolated from his alleged wis hel Co worts and perhaps

609
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:50,040
Speaker 1: more importantly, his alleged wife and enemies, including wife and Lucci.

610
00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:53,839
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty two, before the yst Hel indictment named

611
00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:57,080
Speaker 1: wife and Lucci is a suspect and alleged rival gang member,

612
00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 1: Lucci had landed his own RICO charge. He's been in

613
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:07,000
Speaker 1: Rice Street since January thirteenth, twenty twenty one. No exceptions

614
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:09,960
Speaker 1: were made for him, and when the YSL trial began,

615
00:37:10,640 --> 00:37:15,319
Speaker 1: the YFN trial was postponed, which means Luci's been living

616
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:19,800
Speaker 1: in the be's nest even longer, and as we've mentioned before,

617
00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:24,319
Speaker 1: says that he's been stabbed in two separate incidents by

618
00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:29,400
Speaker 1: YL defendants. But things would change dramatically for both the

619
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:32,840
Speaker 1: YFN and YSL cases because of another event.

620
00:37:33,200 --> 00:37:36,279
Speaker 15: The Fulton County Sheriff's office says all defendants will be

621
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 15: booked into the Rice Street Jail. Sheriff Pat Labat has

622
00:37:39,680 --> 00:37:44,239
Speaker 15: previously said those defendants will be treated like any other detainee.

623
00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:44,680
Speaker 3: And have a mug shot.

624
00:37:45,040 --> 00:37:48,320
Speaker 4: It's August twenty fourth, twenty twenty three, and the roads

625
00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:51,640
Speaker 4: leading to Rice Street are lined with spectators. At the

626
00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:55,440
Speaker 4: Fulton County Jail itself, hordes of people stand behind barricades

627
00:37:55,960 --> 00:38:00,480
Speaker 4: summer supporters red maga hats, blue and red flags. A

628
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:03,800
Speaker 4: row wears T shirts to say blacks for Trump and

629
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:07,600
Speaker 4: summer protesters. One down's a prisoner costume, as if he

630
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:11,280
Speaker 4: came straight from party City. Others are in full body

631
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:14,719
Speaker 4: rat suits. But most of the people here are reporters.

632
00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:17,600
Speaker 8: So right now we have crews outside of the Fulton

633
00:38:17,640 --> 00:38:20,160
Speaker 8: County Jail to make sure you know what to expect

634
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:22,480
Speaker 8: today and let it do his first Rebecca Schran begins

635
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:24,880
Speaker 8: our live team coverage near the jail's main entrance.

636
00:38:24,960 --> 00:38:27,879
Speaker 1: The sun is just starting to set and lights from

637
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:32,440
Speaker 1: TV crews give the street an eerie green glow. Helicopters

638
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:39,280
Speaker 1: buzz overhead. It's carefully controlled chaos and expected but unprecedented event,

639
00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:43,719
Speaker 1: the end result of years of political and legal wrangling,

640
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:49,760
Speaker 1: broken faith, and growing discord. At this moment, all eyes

641
00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:51,600
Speaker 1: are on Atlanta.

642
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 2: Outside of Atlanta's Fulton County Jail, heightened.

643
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:58,400
Speaker 6: Security as the sheriff braces for Donald Trump to surrender

644
00:38:58,719 --> 00:39:01,040
Speaker 6: once he turns himself in deputy.

645
00:39:01,160 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 4: In anticipation, on Instagram, a club and restaurant called Sweet

646
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:08,640
Speaker 4: Food Lounge promoted its Welcome to Race Street party two

647
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:11,600
Speaker 4: hundred dollar bottles and free hookah for ladies.

648
00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:17,160
Speaker 1: Former President Donald Trump arrives by motor catad approximately seven

649
00:39:17,320 --> 00:39:21,360
Speaker 1: thirty PM. He's ushered in through the Fulton County Jail,

650
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:25,920
Speaker 1: away from the hoard, shielded from reporters. He's in and

651
00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:29,399
Speaker 1: out in less than fifteen minutes, and just a few

652
00:39:29,440 --> 00:39:32,600
Speaker 1: hours later, his mugshot will be on nearly every television

653
00:39:32,640 --> 00:39:36,000
Speaker 1: in the country. Perhaps the most famous image in the

654
00:39:36,080 --> 00:39:38,320
Speaker 1: history of American democracy.

655
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,719
Speaker 16: The mugshot of the forty fifth president of the United

656
00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 16: States will go from tomorrow's newspapers in two hour history books,

657
00:39:45,239 --> 00:39:50,440
Speaker 16: where the only presidential mugshot will live forever.

658
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:53,719
Speaker 4: But a far less indelible image is captured outside of

659
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:56,399
Speaker 4: Race Street that night, one that will make a few

660
00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 4: quiet circles on social media but will mostly be swallowed

661
00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:02,920
Speaker 4: in the tidal wave of Trump coverage. It's of an

662
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:05,319
Speaker 4: older black man with a bald head and a thin

663
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:08,239
Speaker 4: sprout of facial hair on his chin. He's wearing a

664
00:40:08,280 --> 00:40:11,080
Speaker 4: black T shirt that reads free y A Cell, and

665
00:40:11,280 --> 00:40:15,080
Speaker 4: huge all caps block letters in a similar font on

666
00:40:15,120 --> 00:40:17,799
Speaker 4: a black poster board sign that he holds. There's a

667
00:40:17,840 --> 00:40:22,239
Speaker 4: message It reads free why a Cell? Trump and Crue

668
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:25,120
Speaker 4: got a bond. Young Thug and y Cel face the

669
00:40:25,280 --> 00:40:29,680
Speaker 4: zach sane charges, but no bond. Make justice fair. We

670
00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:34,400
Speaker 4: deserve a fair fight too, Fani. It's signed Jeffrey Williams, Senior,

671
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:36,280
Speaker 4: Young Thug's dad.

672
00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:42,319
Speaker 1: Why did Donald Trump, who is accused of leading a

673
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:46,440
Speaker 1: violent insurrection to overthrow the nation's democracy, an insurrection that

674
00:40:46,520 --> 00:40:51,080
Speaker 1: led to one death, countless injuries, one point five million

675
00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:57,200
Speaker 1: dollars in damages, and prison sentences some decades long for participants,

676
00:40:57,760 --> 00:41:01,040
Speaker 1: get a two hundred thousand dollars bond and one that

677
00:41:01,120 --> 00:41:03,600
Speaker 1: cuts stay in the notorious Rice Street jailed down to

678
00:41:03,640 --> 00:41:08,440
Speaker 1: a fifteen minute photo op. The court uses something called

679
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:11,840
Speaker 1: the Ayala factors to decide whether someone gets a bond.

680
00:41:12,280 --> 00:41:16,040
Speaker 1: A judge considers a defendant's community ties, their employment status

681
00:41:16,040 --> 00:41:20,359
Speaker 1: in history, whether they've run before or committed crimes while

682
00:41:20,360 --> 00:41:24,840
Speaker 1: out on bond, and their past criminal record. A judge

683
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,000
Speaker 1: is also supposed to consider whether a defendant is likely

684
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:32,600
Speaker 1: to threaten witnesses, which with Trump is an open question.

685
00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:36,319
Speaker 1: He's been warned by judges for doing just that in

686
00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:41,080
Speaker 1: other trials. The difference between Donald Trump and Young Thug

687
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:45,399
Speaker 1: is that Trump is surrounded by Secret Service officers cops

688
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:49,240
Speaker 1: wherever he goes. I suppose that gets Trump the benefit

689
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:54,520
Speaker 1: of the doubt, where young Thug doesn't. Whether Trump's reco

690
00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:58,279
Speaker 1: indictment and subsequent spectacle will bog down the gears of

691
00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:01,319
Speaker 1: justice for YSL is an open question and when we

692
00:42:01,360 --> 00:42:04,240
Speaker 1: won't know the answer to for a while, but a big,

693
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:07,400
Speaker 1: high profile case that takes up at an ordinate amount

694
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:11,880
Speaker 1: of the Fulton County courthouses resources can certainly have that effect.

695
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:15,160
Speaker 1: Just ask why if and Aluchi.

696
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:25,280
Speaker 2: There was a water named brad Hooks and the institution

697
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 2: was going into a riot all over the state of Georgia.

698
00:42:29,280 --> 00:42:31,239
Speaker 2: And we was in Roger State Prison, and he said,

699
00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,319
Speaker 2: the commissioner wants to know would his camp sit down

700
00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:36,759
Speaker 2: in this riot. I told him give me a week,

701
00:42:38,200 --> 00:42:40,000
Speaker 2: and I got it. All of the game members from

702
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,920
Speaker 2: the Crypts, the Bloods, the Aryan Nation, all of them.

703
00:42:44,200 --> 00:42:47,719
Speaker 2: And I told them to come and meet in the library,

704
00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:49,440
Speaker 2: and I used to water and to leave them alone,

705
00:42:49,680 --> 00:42:52,279
Speaker 2: let them bring their henchmen, their two bodyguards with them

706
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:56,120
Speaker 2: like the good fellas. And they marched down the aisle

707
00:42:56,480 --> 00:42:59,480
Speaker 2: with their chests out. Because I realized some people, if

708
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:02,279
Speaker 2: you give them a sense of power, even though they

709
00:43:02,280 --> 00:43:06,120
Speaker 2: don't have any power, they'll respond to what you're telling them.

710
00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:08,399
Speaker 2: And we sat at that round table. They stood back

711
00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:10,920
Speaker 2: with their henchmans behind them, and I explained to them,

712
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:15,239
Speaker 2: I've been here for twenty five years. These bricks don't burn.

713
00:43:16,440 --> 00:43:20,560
Speaker 2: I've been there, done that. You'll lose your phones, your drugs,

714
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:24,080
Speaker 2: your connections, some of the females that y'all sleeping with.

715
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:26,120
Speaker 2: That's goa all gonna be going. We're gonna sit in

716
00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:28,359
Speaker 2: the cell and eat sandwiches out of a sack for

717
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:31,879
Speaker 2: the next six months. I'm going to work what y'all

718
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:35,239
Speaker 2: want to do. And at the table they decided we

719
00:43:35,360 --> 00:43:38,200
Speaker 2: all going to work here. Keep the water off of

720
00:43:38,239 --> 00:43:41,120
Speaker 2: our backs. I said, that's all we gotta do. And

721
00:43:41,239 --> 00:43:45,319
Speaker 2: Rogers didn't go into a riot the water. He wrote

722
00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:47,560
Speaker 2: a letter to the parole board and said, this kid,

723
00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:51,080
Speaker 2: if you sitting him home, I'll put my pension on

724
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:54,479
Speaker 2: the line. Then he'll never come back. He'll never come back.

725
00:44:02,719 --> 00:44:07,600
Speaker 4: In September twenty twenty two, Lashawn Thompson was found dehydrated, malnourished,

726
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:10,279
Speaker 4: and unresponsive in the jail's psychiatric wing.

727
00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:12,760
Speaker 10: The family of a man who died in the Fulton

728
00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 10: County Jail says he was eaten alive in his cell

729
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:17,759
Speaker 10: by bedbugs and insects.

730
00:44:18,080 --> 00:44:21,560
Speaker 17: He died in September after a three months stay at

731
00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:24,320
Speaker 17: the jail. Photos provided by the family's lawyers show a

732
00:44:24,440 --> 00:44:28,680
Speaker 17: jail sale and deplorable condition and the dead detainee covered

733
00:44:28,920 --> 00:44:29,719
Speaker 17: in bugs.

734
00:44:31,040 --> 00:44:33,920
Speaker 4: His body was found covered in bites and sores from

735
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:38,040
Speaker 4: bedbugs and lice, conditions that yielded a Department of Justice

736
00:44:38,080 --> 00:44:41,720
Speaker 4: investigation into the jail and a four million dollars settlement

737
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:45,960
Speaker 4: with Thompson's family. Thompson is one of twenty two people

738
00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:48,520
Speaker 4: who have died inside the jail since twenty twenty two.

739
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:52,440
Speaker 4: Ten of those victims have died from January twenty twenty

740
00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:57,080
Speaker 4: three until this recording in early September alone. One of

741
00:44:57,120 --> 00:45:00,720
Speaker 4: the latest was Samuel Lawrence, who on August twenty second

742
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:04,440
Speaker 4: hand wrote a twelve page plea to official seeking relief,

743
00:45:05,120 --> 00:45:07,600
Speaker 4: relief from a cell that didn't have running water, a

744
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:11,680
Speaker 4: working toilet or a mattress to sleep on, relief from

745
00:45:11,800 --> 00:45:15,480
Speaker 4: hits and bruises to his ribcage, and for medical staff

746
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 4: who said that if he continued suicide attempts, they would

747
00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:24,240
Speaker 4: quote call Drug Court coordinators to interfere with me getting out.

748
00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:26,600
Speaker 4: One of the last lines in his note was that

749
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:31,399
Speaker 4: he hoped to quote see some justice, peace, sanity.

750
00:45:31,640 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 1: Samuel Lawrence was not a guilty man. He was a

751
00:45:34,680 --> 00:45:37,799
Speaker 1: man who stood accused of a crime, awaiting his day

752
00:45:37,840 --> 00:45:40,960
Speaker 1: in court in a place where presumed innocence is a luxury,

753
00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:45,440
Speaker 1: seemingly few are afforded these days. Our producer Tommy Andres

754
00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:47,720
Speaker 1: asked Fannie Willis about this during our interview.

755
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:51,520
Speaker 18: So, Atlanta jails are a pretty dangerous place these days.

756
00:45:51,560 --> 00:45:53,600
Speaker 18: Several men who are charged in some of these high

757
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:55,960
Speaker 18: profile cases are being held in jail for a long

758
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:59,080
Speaker 18: periods of time without being convicted. I wonder what you

759
00:45:59,200 --> 00:46:01,279
Speaker 18: think about that sort of from your perch.

760
00:46:02,680 --> 00:46:05,080
Speaker 10: I think that we have a lot of violent defenders

761
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:08,680
Speaker 10: in the fulln County jail, and that's what I think.

762
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:12,520
Speaker 18: Does it concern you at all that those men, unconvicted

763
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:13,439
Speaker 18: men's lives may.

764
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:16,319
Speaker 2: Be at risk obviously sitting here.

765
00:46:16,680 --> 00:46:19,040
Speaker 10: I have to be concerned about the safety of people

766
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:21,480
Speaker 10: while they're in jail, because I think people are entitled

767
00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:24,640
Speaker 10: to dignity, that they need to be in safe spaces,

768
00:46:25,520 --> 00:46:28,600
Speaker 10: that they need to live in humane conditions quite frankly,

769
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 10: I've been here a long time. That jail has been

770
00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:33,680
Speaker 10: disgusting for a long time. I think that there's a

771
00:46:33,800 --> 00:46:37,400
Speaker 10: real responsibility to build a jail to make sure that

772
00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:41,239
Speaker 10: people live in humane conditions. So from that standpoint, am

773
00:46:41,239 --> 00:46:41,920
Speaker 10: I concerned?

774
00:46:42,760 --> 00:46:43,000
Speaker 2: Yes?

775
00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:48,279
Speaker 10: Now, you know, violent crime is down right, that's the

776
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:51,160
Speaker 10: reality you can't deal you know, my daddy say deal

777
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:54,400
Speaker 10: with reality or reality will deal with you. A lot

778
00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:58,560
Speaker 10: of violent offenders are being held and being convicted and

779
00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:02,120
Speaker 10: being sentenced down the road, and in terms of people

780
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:05,600
Speaker 10: that are convicted and held accountable that I'm proud of.

781
00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 2: When I came home, I created a job. I was

782
00:47:14,120 --> 00:47:17,640
Speaker 2: a sentizing consultant. I made that job up. I've literally

783
00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:21,319
Speaker 2: made it up. Most lawyers grow up in neighborhoods that

784
00:47:22,239 --> 00:47:25,800
Speaker 2: not likely definish their defending, and most people don't trust

785
00:47:25,840 --> 00:47:29,880
Speaker 2: public offenders. I was the liaison between both of them

786
00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:33,759
Speaker 2: to help the communication bridge work better. So I went

787
00:47:33,800 --> 00:47:37,200
Speaker 2: from there and I got hired for the Department of

788
00:47:37,280 --> 00:47:40,120
Speaker 2: Juvenile Justice. They literally changed the laws so I can

789
00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:42,479
Speaker 2: get hired. Because I still was a failure. I wrote

790
00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:45,399
Speaker 2: a program called Step to Change. It was for young

791
00:47:45,480 --> 00:47:48,440
Speaker 2: men who were tried as an adults. How do you

792
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:52,440
Speaker 2: make that transition from child to adult in that environment?

793
00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:55,160
Speaker 2: Nobody was teaching that, So we're beginning to teach that.

794
00:47:55,600 --> 00:47:59,080
Speaker 2: And we stopped the violence of teenagers being tried as adults.

795
00:47:59,280 --> 00:48:01,759
Speaker 2: We stopped them want to kill each other, harm each other.

796
00:48:03,000 --> 00:48:05,440
Speaker 2: And a friend of mine who worked for the Public

797
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:07,960
Speaker 2: Finder's Office said, Madam Dave was looking for a speaker

798
00:48:08,520 --> 00:48:11,400
Speaker 2: to come to a leadership training. So I came and

799
00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:14,520
Speaker 2: I did a one day event and it was just

800
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:18,480
Speaker 2: it was it was awesome. She called me and at

801
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:20,439
Speaker 2: the end of the day, I think you could do more.

802
00:48:21,239 --> 00:48:22,399
Speaker 2: What is it gonna take for you to come work

803
00:48:22,400 --> 00:48:26,200
Speaker 2: for me? She's she's she's a go getter. Right then

804
00:48:26,560 --> 00:48:31,480
Speaker 2: she says, said, what did I fin you? She said,

805
00:48:31,560 --> 00:48:36,799
Speaker 2: you were catching kids after they're convicted. I want you

806
00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:40,160
Speaker 2: to catch them before they even come to me, catch

807
00:48:40,239 --> 00:48:42,520
Speaker 2: them before they even come to me. I want to

808
00:48:42,520 --> 00:48:44,239
Speaker 2: put you in the front of the line. And they

809
00:48:44,280 --> 00:48:47,759
Speaker 2: were like the God moment for me, this is the

810
00:48:47,840 --> 00:48:53,799
Speaker 2: opportunity to stop them from going down that way.

811
00:48:57,040 --> 00:48:59,759
Speaker 1: Doctor Maurice Hobson remembers when he first heard about the

812
00:48:59,840 --> 00:49:01,120
Speaker 1: charge just against young.

813
00:49:00,920 --> 00:49:04,479
Speaker 7: Thug November between twenty one because it was the same

814
00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:08,040
Speaker 7: day as the Braves, the Braves that won the World

815
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:12,000
Speaker 7: series Friends.

816
00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:16,279
Speaker 1: That's because I had asked him whether he had heard

817
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:18,360
Speaker 1: of some of it's defended it's including Young Thug.

818
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:20,759
Speaker 3: I mean, this person who has the resources.

819
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:23,000
Speaker 7: He means me, and they kind of like, listen, if

820
00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:27,399
Speaker 7: you know anything about this crew, like somebody's watching them,

821
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:29,200
Speaker 7: and if you just know, you might need to tell

822
00:49:29,239 --> 00:49:30,960
Speaker 7: them that, like they need to get it together.

823
00:49:31,880 --> 00:49:35,440
Speaker 1: Indeed, the professor had since around twenty fourteen.

824
00:49:35,520 --> 00:49:37,839
Speaker 7: Young Thug got some banging ass beats and strips shit

825
00:49:37,920 --> 00:49:40,080
Speaker 7: talking to I mean, you know what really made me

826
00:49:40,160 --> 00:49:42,760
Speaker 7: really stop patches of the Young Thug is him until

827
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:44,440
Speaker 7: if it ain't about the money, I was like, man,

828
00:49:44,480 --> 00:49:47,040
Speaker 7: they hate talk us to real shit this thing.

829
00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:47,440
Speaker 2: Man.

830
00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:51,960
Speaker 1: After our conversations, Doctor Hobson starts making phone calls.

831
00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:54,520
Speaker 7: So I leave the spot where I am and I

832
00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:57,600
Speaker 7: just go to the I call a producer in the

833
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:00,879
Speaker 7: city and I'm like, hey, would you happen to know

834
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:07,520
Speaker 7: Young thugenhem And they were like yeah yeah, And I

835
00:50:07,640 --> 00:50:10,160
Speaker 7: was like, well, I mean I need to come see

836
00:50:10,200 --> 00:50:11,600
Speaker 7: you because I just got a message I need to

837
00:50:11,600 --> 00:50:15,160
Speaker 7: give you. So I was like, well, listen when they

838
00:50:15,160 --> 00:50:19,320
Speaker 7: say RICO, they already got somebody who's giving up information.

839
00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:21,480
Speaker 3: And I listen, I'm not in the streets.

840
00:50:21,480 --> 00:50:24,560
Speaker 7: But hell, I know that I didn't just because I'm

841
00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:26,640
Speaker 7: not in the streets on the mean, I don't understand

842
00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:27,520
Speaker 7: what's going on here.

843
00:50:28,440 --> 00:50:30,960
Speaker 4: Doctor Hobson is author of the book The Legend of

844
00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:34,200
Speaker 4: the Black Mecha, Politics and Class and the Making of

845
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:38,680
Speaker 4: Modern Atlanta. Hobson traces the making of that legend all

846
00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:42,080
Speaker 4: the way back to eighteen sixty four, when after Abraham

847
00:50:42,120 --> 00:50:46,120
Speaker 4: Lincoln commissions General William Sherman to burn down Atlanta during

848
00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:49,840
Speaker 4: the Civil War. Newly freed slaves settled into the city

849
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:51,200
Speaker 4: that had burned ashes.

850
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:55,600
Speaker 7: Black people received equal protection and do process under the

851
00:50:55,680 --> 00:50:58,360
Speaker 7: law before the passes of the Fourteenth Amendment.

852
00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:01,560
Speaker 4: Hobson then explores the great a legacy of Atlanta's black

853
00:51:01,560 --> 00:51:04,799
Speaker 4: political leadership, that unbroken streak of black mayors in the

854
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:08,239
Speaker 4: city starting in nineteen seventy four with the city's first

855
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:12,759
Speaker 4: black mayor, Maynard Jackson. But he says as that same

856
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:15,799
Speaker 4: political leadership led Atlanta's bid to host the nineteen ninety

857
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:19,480
Speaker 4: six Olympics, the city also threatened to shut out if

858
00:51:19,520 --> 00:51:21,920
Speaker 4: not physically displaced. It's underclass.

859
00:51:22,480 --> 00:51:24,480
Speaker 3: The world assumes that all black people are modeling.

860
00:51:25,239 --> 00:51:29,480
Speaker 7: There's an educated elite that's that's a particular tract. There

861
00:51:29,560 --> 00:51:32,080
Speaker 7: was a merchant class, an entrepreneurial class that's a different

862
00:51:32,120 --> 00:51:36,719
Speaker 7: tract being. You have the rise of a political class

863
00:51:37,120 --> 00:51:41,319
Speaker 7: that marries some of this, and then you have the

864
00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:44,680
Speaker 7: working class and four who were So it's this tension

865
00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:45,680
Speaker 7: that goes on here.

866
00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:48,680
Speaker 4: If it wasn't for the rap group's outcast and goodie

867
00:51:48,640 --> 00:51:51,760
Speaker 4: Moms specifically, the world might not have heard from Atlanta's

868
00:51:51,760 --> 00:51:56,920
Speaker 4: working class at this time. Decades before you'd see Germaine Dupree, Ludacris,

869
00:51:57,040 --> 00:52:00,320
Speaker 4: and Killer Mike's face on that giant screen greeting visitors

870
00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:04,640
Speaker 4: arriving at Hartsville Jackson Airports. Domestic terminal outcasts recorded and

871
00:52:04,680 --> 00:52:08,400
Speaker 4: an album interlude called Welcome to Atlanta, where the voice

872
00:52:08,440 --> 00:52:11,120
Speaker 4: of a pilot points out to passengers how the Georgia

873
00:52:11,160 --> 00:52:14,439
Speaker 4: Dome still flies the Confederate battle flag, and how parts

874
00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:17,240
Speaker 4: of Atlanta's South side are home to the Red Dogs,

875
00:52:17,719 --> 00:52:21,600
Speaker 4: as in the controversial crack era police unit whose name

876
00:52:21,680 --> 00:52:25,480
Speaker 4: stood for run Every Drug Dealer out of Georgia. Atlanta's

877
00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:28,960
Speaker 4: hip hop legacy has evolved since then, and doctor Hobson

878
00:52:28,960 --> 00:52:32,400
Speaker 4: confesses that he's critical of trap music, specifically.

879
00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:35,080
Speaker 7: When we start talking about like trap and all that

880
00:52:35,160 --> 00:52:39,560
Speaker 7: kind of stuff, Like, I can't glorify that as if

881
00:52:39,640 --> 00:52:43,120
Speaker 7: it's a way of life, but I do understand that

882
00:52:43,200 --> 00:52:46,160
Speaker 7: it was a mechanism for some of these young gen

883
00:52:46,360 --> 00:52:48,960
Speaker 7: x is to kind of get out of issues, get

884
00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:50,200
Speaker 7: out of the streets.

885
00:52:50,520 --> 00:52:52,279
Speaker 3: And so it's complicated for me.

886
00:52:53,080 --> 00:52:55,680
Speaker 7: For people in Atlanta, you know, off bank Head and

887
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:58,919
Speaker 7: you know off you know what used to be Simpson Road,

888
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:01,840
Speaker 7: and then you know, kind of get into Cleveland Avenue

889
00:53:01,840 --> 00:53:04,719
Speaker 7: and whatever whatnot. Like they're not looking for some kind

890
00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:07,960
Speaker 7: of self righteous kind of person. They're looking for someone

891
00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:11,160
Speaker 7: who understands them and recognizes that they need help. So

892
00:53:11,360 --> 00:53:14,399
Speaker 7: that doesn't always come in the package of I got

893
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:15,759
Speaker 7: to be a preacher or I got to.

894
00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:20,640
Speaker 4: Be a teacher without the music. Without that recognition, the

895
00:53:20,719 --> 00:53:23,839
Speaker 4: legend that doctor Hobson has so carefully studied wouldn't live

896
00:53:23,880 --> 00:53:26,440
Speaker 4: on because the odds for a large portion of the

897
00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:29,120
Speaker 4: black population in Atlanta are grim.

898
00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:31,080
Speaker 7: I wrote this book the legend of the Black Meca

899
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:33,000
Speaker 7: of politics and class and making them out of Atlanta,

900
00:53:33,440 --> 00:53:36,400
Speaker 7: and people often try to conflate the legend with the myth.

901
00:53:38,040 --> 00:53:40,000
Speaker 7: There's a reason I named it the legend, And what

902
00:53:40,040 --> 00:53:45,000
Speaker 7: I'm saying is that a myth is something fictitious. With

903
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:48,520
Speaker 7: every legend, there is truth. We have to figure out

904
00:53:48,560 --> 00:53:51,800
Speaker 7: what's real and what isn't. But the one truth about

905
00:53:51,800 --> 00:53:54,360
Speaker 7: Atlanta as a Black mecca is the creative culture that

906
00:53:54,360 --> 00:53:56,080
Speaker 7: comes out of here. I mean, like people from all

907
00:53:56,160 --> 00:53:58,520
Speaker 7: over the Black world have been able to come here

908
00:53:58,560 --> 00:54:03,959
Speaker 7: and produce music and movie, movies and content in particular ways.

909
00:54:04,040 --> 00:54:07,080
Speaker 3: That is the true legacy of the Black Mecca.

910
00:54:11,360 --> 00:54:13,799
Speaker 1: It's hard to predict how the wisl trial will turn out,

911
00:54:14,320 --> 00:54:17,560
Speaker 1: especially before a jury has been seated, but regardless of

912
00:54:17,560 --> 00:54:21,520
Speaker 1: the verdict, this trial has already had an impact in Atlanta.

913
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:25,360
Speaker 4: There's long been this disconnect between how the world views

914
00:54:25,360 --> 00:54:28,840
Speaker 4: Atlanta's musical influence and how those who run the city

915
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:34,200
Speaker 4: actually acknowledge that influence. In twenty eighteen, Stacy abrams gubernatorial

916
00:54:34,239 --> 00:54:37,520
Speaker 4: campaign got a catchy anthem, a remix of the song

917
00:54:37,600 --> 00:54:42,200
Speaker 4: win by Jay Rock. Jay Rock is from Los Angeles.

918
00:54:43,040 --> 00:54:45,920
Speaker 4: When Atlanta hosted Super Bowl fifty three and twenty nineteen,

919
00:54:46,320 --> 00:54:50,080
Speaker 4: the leading halftime act was Maroon five, Big Boy of

920
00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:54,839
Speaker 4: Outcast played a mere supporting role, and in twenty twenty two,

921
00:54:55,160 --> 00:54:58,279
Speaker 4: the Atlanta Falcons revealed its new theme song by Routini,

922
00:54:58,680 --> 00:55:00,880
Speaker 4: an acter singer known for for his role in the

923
00:55:00,920 --> 00:55:05,719
Speaker 4: TV show Power O. Temmy is from New Jersey. Bank

924
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:08,759
Speaker 4: Joiner doesn't see Atlanta hip hop being any better represented

925
00:55:08,800 --> 00:55:11,359
Speaker 4: in light of the trial, not when the why Cell

926
00:55:11,440 --> 00:55:14,840
Speaker 4: trial is still pending. Perhaps as a convenient excuse.

927
00:55:15,640 --> 00:55:21,000
Speaker 8: My guy at us Bank and Elevan, they're running a

928
00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:25,040
Speaker 8: small black business campaign out Atlanta, and.

929
00:55:26,560 --> 00:55:27,200
Speaker 18: They say that.

930
00:55:27,200 --> 00:55:32,560
Speaker 8: They can't find artists without a rap sheet, so.

931
00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:35,400
Speaker 3: They land or Music Soul.

932
00:55:35,239 --> 00:55:40,400
Speaker 4: Child Music soul Child, while a revered singer songwriter is

933
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:41,319
Speaker 4: from Philadelphia.

934
00:55:41,880 --> 00:55:44,600
Speaker 8: What you hear is everybody saying Atlanta is the home

935
00:55:44,640 --> 00:55:47,120
Speaker 8: and hip hop and all of this, but when it

936
00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:52,480
Speaker 8: starts coming to corporate America tapping that they only know

937
00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:54,880
Speaker 8: as much surface knowledge as they know.

938
00:55:55,560 --> 00:55:56,280
Speaker 2: And so the.

939
00:55:56,120 --> 00:56:02,000
Speaker 8: Falcons said, tis in trouble man must not be anybody else. Now,

940
00:56:02,080 --> 00:56:07,399
Speaker 8: Ji d huge fan of the Falcons Earth Gang, So

941
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:11,479
Speaker 8: these acts ain't nobody shooting up. They bus Earth Gang

942
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:14,120
Speaker 8: went to May's High School, Southwest Atlanta.

943
00:56:13,719 --> 00:56:15,759
Speaker 2: Being Hill and.

944
00:56:17,200 --> 00:56:21,879
Speaker 8: You still don't hear these acts from viewing O three

945
00:56:22,040 --> 00:56:26,040
Speaker 8: to you know, dare I say, iHeartRadio. And because of

946
00:56:26,080 --> 00:56:33,719
Speaker 8: the lack of infrastructure, there's no cultural liaison to God brands,

947
00:56:33,840 --> 00:56:38,200
Speaker 8: to you know whatever. No one knows what to do,

948
00:56:40,280 --> 00:56:46,440
Speaker 8: So the YSL trial people are using that as an

949
00:56:46,520 --> 00:56:49,920
Speaker 8: excuse to not tap in any further win.

950
00:56:50,000 --> 00:56:52,719
Speaker 4: Producer Dune Deal and I chatted about the y CEL indictment.

951
00:56:53,120 --> 00:56:55,560
Speaker 4: He was looking to sign his own artists. When it

952
00:56:55,600 --> 00:56:58,080
Speaker 4: comes to rap Atlanta Zone, Gucci Mean has set a

953
00:56:58,120 --> 00:57:01,600
Speaker 4: gold standard in town for discovering talent. He's been called

954
00:57:01,600 --> 00:57:04,640
Speaker 4: the city's best unofficial an are for having discovered artists

955
00:57:04,719 --> 00:57:07,239
Speaker 4: like Walk a Flalk of Flame. He's opened up his

956
00:57:07,280 --> 00:57:10,200
Speaker 4: brick factory studio to artists like Migos and Young Thug

957
00:57:10,280 --> 00:57:13,120
Speaker 4: himself early in his career before he got his teeth

958
00:57:13,120 --> 00:57:18,080
Speaker 4: fixed for Done Deal, though that standard doesn't necessarily hold today.

959
00:57:18,440 --> 00:57:22,720
Speaker 4: How does all of this affect that talent? Does it

960
00:57:22,760 --> 00:57:24,920
Speaker 4: have any effect on that talent scouting ability? Is this

961
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:27,720
Speaker 4: something that you're considering as you're looking for a potential talent?

962
00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:33,760
Speaker 7: Yeah, for sure. It makes me think about is it

963
00:57:34,400 --> 00:57:37,960
Speaker 7: look look at Gucci like I love Gucci's death. But

964
00:57:39,680 --> 00:57:45,800
Speaker 7: two of your main artists get arrested, How can you

965
00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:50,200
Speaker 7: help yourself? How can you help them and help yourself

966
00:57:50,320 --> 00:57:54,480
Speaker 7: in the situation. So I think you kind of have

967
00:57:54,560 --> 00:58:01,360
Speaker 7: to to look for somebody that doesn't put you in

968
00:58:01,360 --> 00:58:02,520
Speaker 7: a situation that's bad.

969
00:58:03,080 --> 00:58:04,680
Speaker 3: Like it's getting a little bit out of hand.

970
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:08,360
Speaker 4: The trial could also stand to change Atlanta hip hop's

971
00:58:08,360 --> 00:58:11,760
Speaker 4: relationship with its own city. Dundale has chatted with other

972
00:58:11,880 --> 00:58:15,040
Speaker 4: artists and producers since the Wiseel indictment arrived in twenty

973
00:58:15,120 --> 00:58:19,280
Speaker 4: twenty two. Those people no longer want to work in Atlanta.

974
00:58:20,000 --> 00:58:21,520
Speaker 4: Here's what he told me previously.

975
00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:23,320
Speaker 3: Their vibe is gone.

976
00:58:23,360 --> 00:58:25,840
Speaker 7: They don't want to come to a studio and work

977
00:58:26,160 --> 00:58:28,360
Speaker 7: knowing that their brothers got locked.

978
00:58:28,160 --> 00:58:28,720
Speaker 1: Up out here.

979
00:58:29,160 --> 00:58:33,160
Speaker 4: Willie Prophet Stiggers, co founder of the Black Music Action Coalition,

980
00:58:33,600 --> 00:58:35,960
Speaker 4: can also remember a time when it was easier to

981
00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:38,080
Speaker 4: connect with its music scene.

982
00:58:38,080 --> 00:58:40,720
Speaker 19: Most of the artists in Atlanta are leaving Atlanta and

983
00:58:40,760 --> 00:58:44,520
Speaker 19: going to other places to live in or get creative.

984
00:58:44,960 --> 00:58:46,720
Speaker 19: Look around. There's a time you can walk into a

985
00:58:46,760 --> 00:58:49,720
Speaker 19: public so walk it anywhere and see Atlanta artists, you know,

986
00:58:50,120 --> 00:58:53,000
Speaker 19: moving around the streets as common as you've seen other people.

987
00:58:53,240 --> 00:58:55,959
Speaker 19: You don't see that as often today. When you throw

988
00:58:56,000 --> 00:58:59,959
Speaker 19: something like a Rico case on someone where you only

989
00:59:00,120 --> 00:59:04,520
Speaker 19: need conspiracy to be a part of that, it becomes

990
00:59:04,760 --> 00:59:09,000
Speaker 19: very difficult for creators to want to work with folks

991
00:59:09,040 --> 00:59:11,440
Speaker 19: not knowing shit. If even being in the room or

992
00:59:11,480 --> 00:59:13,920
Speaker 19: being on the record with you that shit may indict

993
00:59:14,040 --> 00:59:15,120
Speaker 19: my ass, you know what I'm saying.

994
00:59:15,480 --> 00:59:18,400
Speaker 1: The prophet says that this phenomenon doesn't begin with the

995
00:59:18,480 --> 00:59:23,280
Speaker 1: y Sel indicement. He says Atlanta artists were spooped one

996
00:59:23,360 --> 00:59:27,160
Speaker 1: month before they sell indicement when Georgia Governor Brian Camp

997
00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:29,800
Speaker 1: signed a bill that allowed residents to carry a concealed

998
00:59:29,840 --> 00:59:32,680
Speaker 1: handgun in public without a permit.

999
00:59:33,560 --> 00:59:39,000
Speaker 19: Now you don't need concealed carriers permit to move around

1000
00:59:39,000 --> 00:59:40,280
Speaker 19: Atlanta with guns anymore.

1001
00:59:41,040 --> 00:59:41,120
Speaker 4: So.

1002
00:59:41,240 --> 00:59:45,760
Speaker 19: Now any and everybody's just walking freely with pistols with ars,

1003
00:59:46,560 --> 00:59:50,360
Speaker 19: you know. And when you're dealing with already trauma, community

1004
00:59:51,840 --> 00:59:57,320
Speaker 19: does lacking resources, does lacking opportunity, and then you have

1005
00:59:57,360 --> 01:00:02,800
Speaker 19: an open carry policy, it's a recipe for disaster.

1006
01:00:03,120 --> 01:00:05,960
Speaker 1: I'm gotta tell you, that's just an extremely interesting observation

1007
01:00:06,000 --> 01:00:09,320
Speaker 1: that you're giving us right now, that this like this

1008
01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:12,120
Speaker 1: question of violence in the street was starting to affect

1009
01:00:12,800 --> 01:00:16,360
Speaker 1: hip hop be in Atlanta even before young Thuck.

1010
01:00:16,200 --> 01:00:17,400
Speaker 3: Oh one thousand percent.

1011
01:00:17,880 --> 01:00:20,040
Speaker 19: This is why many in the coaches looking at this

1012
01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:23,360
Speaker 19: like are you serious? Like Atlanta has been it has

1013
01:00:23,400 --> 01:00:27,280
Speaker 19: been tough out here, you know, it's been tough, it's

1014
01:00:27,360 --> 01:00:28,840
Speaker 19: been dangerous.

1015
01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:35,480
Speaker 1: In our interview with Fanny Willis, the district attorney said this.

1016
01:00:35,680 --> 01:00:38,960
Speaker 10: We cannot arrest our way and we cannot prosecute our

1017
01:00:39,000 --> 01:00:42,240
Speaker 10: way out of the gang problem. That's gonna fail. So

1018
01:00:42,400 --> 01:00:44,680
Speaker 10: what we have to do is make sure that we

1019
01:00:44,760 --> 01:00:49,480
Speaker 10: take as many children away from thinking that this is

1020
01:00:49,520 --> 01:00:53,160
Speaker 10: sexy and this is attractive and leading them down different paths.

1021
01:00:53,360 --> 01:00:55,000
Speaker 10: And so you have to have a double edged sword.

1022
01:00:55,720 --> 01:00:58,480
Speaker 1: And true to our word, Madame da has been sharpening

1023
01:00:58,520 --> 01:00:59,640
Speaker 1: the other edge of that sword.

1024
01:01:00,080 --> 01:01:03,320
Speaker 2: So we own a program like this and from the

1025
01:01:03,320 --> 01:01:05,680
Speaker 2: DiscT Attorney's office to reach program in the United States

1026
01:01:05,720 --> 01:01:09,920
Speaker 2: of Americland that a district attorney has created a program

1027
01:01:10,400 --> 01:01:14,400
Speaker 2: to help change the minds of youth to think better,

1028
01:01:14,440 --> 01:01:17,760
Speaker 2: to thanks stronger for themselves, to become leaders inside of

1029
01:01:17,760 --> 01:01:19,720
Speaker 2: the school system during school hours.

1030
01:01:20,320 --> 01:01:22,360
Speaker 4: At the start of the twenty twenty two to twenty

1031
01:01:22,400 --> 01:01:25,880
Speaker 4: twenty three school year, the Fulton County District Attorney's Office

1032
01:01:25,960 --> 01:01:29,360
Speaker 4: launched a novel program meant to slow down gang recruitment,

1033
01:01:30,120 --> 01:01:33,400
Speaker 4: a program led by a man with some particularly relevant

1034
01:01:33,440 --> 01:01:37,160
Speaker 4: experience and a uniquely tailored set of skills.

1035
01:01:37,560 --> 01:01:41,120
Speaker 2: When there's a Keen Wooden and Director Juvenile Services for

1036
01:01:41,200 --> 01:01:43,440
Speaker 2: the fourteen County District Attorney's.

1037
01:01:42,960 --> 01:01:46,800
Speaker 1: Office, word it oversees a weekly class that targets at

1038
01:01:46,880 --> 01:01:51,040
Speaker 1: risk youth in Fulton County schools. He brings in detectives, investigators,

1039
01:01:51,080 --> 01:01:54,960
Speaker 1: and survivors of gang violence to speak. The program is

1040
01:01:55,000 --> 01:01:55,640
Speaker 1: called Reach.

1041
01:01:56,480 --> 01:02:02,040
Speaker 2: Gang's commodity is children, it's people. It's not money. They

1042
01:02:02,040 --> 01:02:04,280
Speaker 2: can have money, but eventually, what can you do with

1043
01:02:04,320 --> 01:02:06,480
Speaker 2: it other than just spending it by thing? But they

1044
01:02:06,520 --> 01:02:11,800
Speaker 2: need more members. The Reach program is to educate, elevate,

1045
01:02:12,120 --> 01:02:18,280
Speaker 2: and to stop that flow of kids into into games

1046
01:02:18,360 --> 01:02:18,760
Speaker 2: to say no.

1047
01:02:19,800 --> 01:02:23,960
Speaker 4: But the most powerful mentor that program may be Woodard himself.

1048
01:02:24,040 --> 01:02:25,680
Speaker 2: Kind of opened the door for a lot of them.

1049
01:02:25,760 --> 01:02:29,000
Speaker 2: Was I told my story that I've been to I've

1050
01:02:29,000 --> 01:02:30,560
Speaker 2: been through the pain. I've been through the hurt, I've

1051
01:02:30,560 --> 01:02:32,480
Speaker 2: been through the neglect. I've been through left behind, I've

1052
01:02:32,520 --> 01:02:36,080
Speaker 2: been through left to die. I've been hits put on

1053
01:02:36,120 --> 01:02:37,880
Speaker 2: my head while I was in the prison. So I've

1054
01:02:37,920 --> 01:02:38,520
Speaker 2: been through all that.

1055
01:02:39,160 --> 01:02:41,720
Speaker 4: Last year, one hundred and thirty five students went through

1056
01:02:41,720 --> 01:02:44,680
Speaker 4: the program at six different middle schools and high schools.

1057
01:02:45,120 --> 01:02:47,360
Speaker 2: You know, eighty five percent of our children in Atlanta,

1058
01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:52,800
Speaker 2: they're great kids, man, they are great kids. Even in

1059
01:02:52,960 --> 01:02:56,760
Speaker 2: bad environments. They are good kids. They're fighting, trying to

1060
01:02:56,800 --> 01:02:58,440
Speaker 2: go to school, to trying to make it right. And

1061
01:02:58,440 --> 01:03:00,600
Speaker 2: then there's a ten percent of our popular who are

1062
01:03:00,680 --> 01:03:06,000
Speaker 2: like moths. They are attracted to the light. They're attracted

1063
01:03:06,040 --> 01:03:08,000
Speaker 2: to it. Whatever the light is, brighter, they are attracted

1064
01:03:08,040 --> 01:03:10,560
Speaker 2: to it. But then that's a five percent of our

1065
01:03:10,600 --> 01:03:15,680
Speaker 2: population who are the lights. We spend too much time

1066
01:03:16,320 --> 01:03:19,760
Speaker 2: locking up moths and not lights.

1067
01:03:21,480 --> 01:03:25,120
Speaker 1: So while there's a flashy trial happening on television being

1068
01:03:25,160 --> 01:03:29,200
Speaker 1: picked over by journalists like us, there's a quieter fight

1069
01:03:29,240 --> 01:03:32,480
Speaker 1: happening down the road now at eighteen schools in counting

1070
01:03:33,200 --> 01:03:36,440
Speaker 1: and hopes that there will be no more reco trials

1071
01:03:36,480 --> 01:03:39,480
Speaker 1: indicting gang members in the years to come in Fulton

1072
01:03:39,560 --> 01:03:42,160
Speaker 1: County and potentially beyond.

1073
01:03:42,880 --> 01:03:46,760
Speaker 2: There's a psychological war going on for our children. But

1074
01:03:46,840 --> 01:03:51,640
Speaker 2: the only thing majority of society see is the physical war.

1075
01:03:53,280 --> 01:03:57,200
Speaker 2: We keep attacking these physical war lock them up, stop them,

1076
01:03:57,440 --> 01:04:02,000
Speaker 2: do this, trains this, but the cycle logical war. We

1077
01:04:02,120 --> 01:04:05,240
Speaker 2: have yet put boots on the ground to begin to

1078
01:04:05,280 --> 01:04:06,560
Speaker 2: fight that part of the war.

1079
01:04:14,080 --> 01:04:16,680
Speaker 4: We asked Stephan Franklin to imagine a scenario where Young

1080
01:04:16,720 --> 01:04:20,680
Speaker 4: Thug was acquitted of all charges. That possibility wouldn't necessarily

1081
01:04:20,720 --> 01:04:23,480
Speaker 4: bode well for the artists who could come after him.

1082
01:04:23,960 --> 01:04:28,040
Speaker 14: I don't envision a world where the movers and shakers

1083
01:04:28,080 --> 01:04:31,960
Speaker 14: of the Georgia political and legal scene.

1084
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:35,160
Speaker 3: Turn their gaze away from gang Lass.

1085
01:04:35,880 --> 01:04:39,320
Speaker 14: I would be fearful that they've tried to find ways

1086
01:04:39,320 --> 01:04:42,400
Speaker 14: to make it easier to convict someone based on the

1087
01:04:42,400 --> 01:04:45,400
Speaker 14: fact that was able to quote unquote beat the charges.

1088
01:04:46,080 --> 01:04:49,440
Speaker 4: Hypothetically, those convictions could begin with a document that started

1089
01:04:49,520 --> 01:04:53,240
Speaker 4: circulating around social media shortly after Young Thug was indicted,

1090
01:04:53,760 --> 01:04:56,440
Speaker 4: rumored to be a comprehensive list of gangs on the

1091
01:04:56,520 --> 01:05:01,000
Speaker 4: Georgia Gang Unit's wanted list. That list raised eyebrows because

1092
01:05:01,160 --> 01:05:04,200
Speaker 4: YSL was on it, but so was four PF or

1093
01:05:04,240 --> 01:05:07,360
Speaker 4: four Pockets Full, the name of the crew turned label

1094
01:05:07,600 --> 01:05:12,280
Speaker 4: founded by another Atlanta megastar, Little Baby, Because there was

1095
01:05:12,320 --> 01:05:15,400
Speaker 4: no header to be seen. It was honestly impossible to

1096
01:05:15,440 --> 01:05:18,560
Speaker 4: tell whether the images of that document were real or fake,

1097
01:05:19,280 --> 01:05:21,920
Speaker 4: and so we decided to check. So to speak with

1098
01:05:22,040 --> 01:05:24,720
Speaker 4: Cara Confrey, she's hesitant at first.

1099
01:05:25,320 --> 01:05:27,720
Speaker 12: Let me stick with the first and non controversial one.

1100
01:05:27,760 --> 01:05:31,720
Speaker 12: So I think YSL is a very real criminal enterprise.

1101
01:05:31,760 --> 01:05:36,080
Speaker 12: It operates in and around Atlanta. Is this like a

1102
01:05:36,160 --> 01:05:37,360
Speaker 12: I don't know, why are you comfortable with me?

1103
01:05:37,400 --> 01:05:38,600
Speaker 7: And Sana?

1104
01:05:39,080 --> 01:05:42,800
Speaker 4: She's asking whatever handlers seated tour left inside this conference room.

1105
01:05:43,200 --> 01:05:46,640
Speaker 12: YSL is one example of that. But we've got all

1106
01:05:46,720 --> 01:05:52,560
Speaker 12: kinds of other things. I think you mentioned PDE, PFK, DFW,

1107
01:05:53,080 --> 01:05:54,880
Speaker 12: all kinds of groups like that.

1108
01:05:55,200 --> 01:05:57,320
Speaker 1: To those groups share the names with record labels that

1109
01:05:57,440 --> 01:06:02,840
Speaker 1: boasted rising rap stars. PD features Baby Drill. In summer

1110
01:06:02,880 --> 01:06:05,480
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three, Baby Drill was featured in a

1111
01:06:05,560 --> 01:06:09,120
Speaker 1: music video by Lano and Cardi B. Two months later,

1112
01:06:09,760 --> 01:06:12,840
Speaker 1: the DA's office and dyeted eight alleged PDE gang members.

1113
01:06:13,480 --> 01:06:17,440
Speaker 4: PFK stands for Play for Keeps. The Crew Turn label

1114
01:06:17,480 --> 01:06:21,520
Speaker 4: boasted one of Little Baby's closest collaborators, the rapper Little Marlowe,

1115
01:06:21,640 --> 01:06:23,640
Speaker 4: before he was shot and killed in twenty twenty.

1116
01:06:23,800 --> 01:06:29,600
Speaker 12: I mean I could go, I mean, I'm challenging you.

1117
01:06:29,680 --> 01:06:30,560
Speaker 2: He go on three.

1118
01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:34,360
Speaker 4: But Cambrey protests, saying that any alleged gang that she's

1119
01:06:34,400 --> 01:06:37,640
Speaker 4: aware of could easily rebrand itself. So we press her

1120
01:06:37,640 --> 01:06:40,160
Speaker 4: on specific example, is four PF on y'all's radar?

1121
01:06:41,360 --> 01:06:44,360
Speaker 12: When you say so four PF is an active hybrid

1122
01:06:44,400 --> 01:06:45,800
Speaker 12: in the city, I would say absolutely.

1123
01:06:46,720 --> 01:06:52,360
Speaker 1: Slaughter Gang. Yes, Slaughter Gang is the name of both

1124
01:06:52,360 --> 01:06:56,360
Speaker 1: a record label and entertainment company by twenty one Savage,

1125
01:06:56,920 --> 01:07:00,000
Speaker 1: the same artist who's arrested by Ice, inspired the Rap

1126
01:07:00,080 --> 01:07:03,800
Speaker 1: Act to limit the use of lyrics as criminal evidence. Meanwhile,

1127
01:07:03,960 --> 01:07:06,760
Speaker 1: the DA's office in twenty one's native to Cab County,

1128
01:07:07,440 --> 01:07:11,360
Speaker 1: is alleged that Cook Darius Dorsey, one of the YSL defendants,

1129
01:07:11,760 --> 01:07:15,160
Speaker 1: is also affiliated with Slaughter Gang. I saw this social

1130
01:07:15,200 --> 01:07:18,840
Speaker 1: media freak out of oh my god, they're gonna go

1131
01:07:18,880 --> 01:07:21,360
Speaker 1: after a little baby or something like that, right, or

1132
01:07:21,560 --> 01:07:22,960
Speaker 1: name a rapper like.

1133
01:07:25,040 --> 01:07:25,720
Speaker 2: The uh.

1134
01:07:26,480 --> 01:07:29,200
Speaker 1: There was this whole moment where there was a whose

1135
01:07:29,240 --> 01:07:36,840
Speaker 1: next conversation like is that still legitimate? Like or should

1136
01:07:36,920 --> 01:07:39,400
Speaker 1: should people? Should we be looking at it? Should rappers

1137
01:07:39,440 --> 01:07:40,000
Speaker 1: be looking around?

1138
01:07:40,040 --> 01:07:40,680
Speaker 2: Like the mind coming?

1139
01:07:40,800 --> 01:07:43,440
Speaker 3: I mean, are they coming for me? So?

1140
01:07:43,480 --> 01:07:45,240
Speaker 12: It's not illingual to be in a gang, but if

1141
01:07:45,280 --> 01:07:48,080
Speaker 12: you are meaningfully affiliated with the gang and you are

1142
01:07:48,120 --> 01:07:53,120
Speaker 12: doing criminal acts to facilitate those objectives, yes, regardless of

1143
01:07:53,120 --> 01:07:53,680
Speaker 12: who you are.

1144
01:07:57,080 --> 01:07:59,440
Speaker 4: The question of whether young Thug will be found innocent

1145
01:07:59,520 --> 01:08:02,200
Speaker 4: or guilty is not one for us to speculate about.

1146
01:08:02,720 --> 01:08:05,600
Speaker 4: That's for the jury to decide. Our job has been

1147
01:08:05,640 --> 01:08:09,640
Speaker 4: to examine the social, economic, and cultural forces swirling around

1148
01:08:09,640 --> 01:08:13,320
Speaker 4: this trial and to help understand its impact regardless of

1149
01:08:13,320 --> 01:08:16,559
Speaker 4: the verdict. But one of the things we've discovered is

1150
01:08:16,560 --> 01:08:19,599
Speaker 4: that even when the verdict is reached, an n might

1151
01:08:19,640 --> 01:08:20,400
Speaker 4: not be reached.

1152
01:08:20,760 --> 01:08:25,080
Speaker 1: Credible informants who wish to remain anonymous tell us that

1153
01:08:25,280 --> 01:08:28,439
Speaker 1: Fulton County isn't the only entity that's been investigating YSL.

1154
01:08:29,680 --> 01:08:33,839
Speaker 1: Almost immediately after Donovan Peanut Thomas was gunned down outside

1155
01:08:33,840 --> 01:08:37,839
Speaker 1: of Ann and M barbershop, the FBI and other federal

1156
01:08:37,840 --> 01:08:41,200
Speaker 1: agencies formed a task force gathering information on the alleged

1157
01:08:41,200 --> 01:08:44,040
Speaker 1: street war between YSL and YFN all on its own.

1158
01:08:45,120 --> 01:08:52,320
Speaker 1: That task force's name Operation Planters. Consider that Kenneth Copeland

1159
01:08:52,520 --> 01:08:55,080
Speaker 1: Lie Woodie, who was arrested in twenty twenty one on

1160
01:08:55,120 --> 01:08:57,880
Speaker 1: a gun charge, basically fell off the face of the

1161
01:08:57,960 --> 01:09:02,640
Speaker 1: earth after that arrest. The day charges were dropped, it

1162
01:09:02,720 --> 01:09:05,479
Speaker 1: was plainly on the hook for a federal case, but

1163
01:09:05,520 --> 01:09:09,759
Speaker 1: there's nothing visible in the federal record. Perhaps the Justice

1164
01:09:09,760 --> 01:09:14,880
Speaker 1: Department was merciful, but it's also possible that Copeland's charges

1165
01:09:14,920 --> 01:09:20,000
Speaker 1: were filed under seal to protect a federal witness. The

1166
01:09:20,080 --> 01:09:24,600
Speaker 1: Feds have seven years of evidence, and they're watching this

1167
01:09:24,720 --> 01:09:58,000
Speaker 1: trial as closely as anyone.

1168
01:09:44,200 --> 01:09:47,599
Speaker 4: Normally. Here's where we'd say next time on King Slime,

1169
01:09:48,040 --> 01:09:50,040
Speaker 4: but after this episode, we'll be taking a bit of

1170
01:09:50,080 --> 01:09:53,320
Speaker 4: a break to let the Wiseol trial unfold. While the

1171
01:09:53,400 --> 01:09:56,799
Speaker 4: number of defendants have dwindled from twenty eight to just seven,

1172
01:09:57,360 --> 01:09:59,680
Speaker 4: and while jury's selection began all the way back in

1173
01:09:59,760 --> 01:10:03,400
Speaker 4: Janeanuary twenty twenty three, not a single juror has actually

1174
01:10:03,439 --> 01:10:07,880
Speaker 4: been seated. What's more, as we tape this episode, prosecutors

1175
01:10:07,920 --> 01:10:11,080
Speaker 4: have doubled their witness list and only recently turned in

1176
01:10:11,240 --> 01:10:15,160
Speaker 4: three hundred thousand documents that the defense must review to

1177
01:10:15,160 --> 01:10:18,559
Speaker 4: prepare their arguments. All of which is to say, we

1178
01:10:18,640 --> 01:10:21,759
Speaker 4: still don't know when opening statements will actually take place,

1179
01:10:22,280 --> 01:10:24,839
Speaker 4: So to make sure you don't miss a new episode

1180
01:10:24,840 --> 01:10:27,880
Speaker 4: when we start up again, hit, subscribe or follow on

1181
01:10:27,920 --> 01:10:35,799
Speaker 4: your podcast app of choice. King Slime is a production

1182
01:10:35,880 --> 01:10:38,120
Speaker 4: of iHeart Podcasts and Heirloom Media.

1183
01:10:38,240 --> 01:10:41,560
Speaker 1: It's written and produced by George Cheaty, Christina Lee.

1184
01:10:41,280 --> 01:10:45,519
Speaker 4: And Tommy Andres, mixing sound design and original music by

1185
01:10:45,520 --> 01:10:47,080
Speaker 4: Evan Tyre and Tayler Shakoginne.

1186
01:10:47,400 --> 01:10:49,360
Speaker 1: The executive producer and editor.

1187
01:10:49,160 --> 01:10:51,920
Speaker 4: Is Tommy Andres, fact checking by Kaylin lynch.

1188
01:10:52,320 --> 01:10:54,160
Speaker 1: Our theme music is by Done.

1189
01:10:54,000 --> 01:10:58,360
Speaker 4: Deal Special thanks to Carl Catl, Tyler Klang, Jack O'Brien,

1190
01:10:58,720 --> 01:11:01,639
Speaker 4: Nancy Stoltz, and wil Pearson, and to.

1191
01:11:01,600 --> 01:11:06,479
Speaker 1: The Atlanta news outlets eleven Alive, WSBTV, Atlanta News First,

1192
01:11:06,680 --> 01:11:07,559
Speaker 1: and Fox five.

1193
01:11:07,960 --> 01:11:11,679
Speaker 4: For more shows from iHeart Podcasts, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1194
01:11:11,920 --> 01:11:14,880
Speaker 4: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.