The song appeared during Thursday's YSL RICO trial proceedings.
ATLANTA — The RICO trial against Young Thug and YSL took a brief musical turn in court Thursday when the song “Lifestyle” featuring the Atlanta rapper was played.
The song was approximately four minutes long and was played in full on court.
The issue of Young Thug's lyrics being used as evidence has been raised previously as prosecutors want to use the lyrics to paint the rapper as the ringleader of the suspected YSL street gang. But in this case, it actually belonged to Young Thug. Brian Steele, the lawyer who brought up the music video for the song.
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Why Young Thug's “Lifestyle” was played in court
Steele wanted to present the video as evidence of his argument that Young Thug has no gang ties and that much of the prosecutor's case simply criminalizes the rapper's art. Steele told Judge Granville in testimony with YSL co-founder Trontiuvs Stevens that he wanted to use the video to prove three things.
One reason for this is that the video features a group called Rich Gang, and Steele said he wanted to “show the jury what Rich Gang is and that this is a compilation of their music.” I have a right.''
Second, Young Thug (real name Jeffrey Williams) was not shown wearing red, a color associated with the Bloods gang, and YSL's gang color. said Steele. And third, Steele partly wanted the video to explain the relationship between Young Thug and the other two rappers who appear in the video, Rich Homie Quan and Birdman.
Was the video allowed to be introduced as evidence?
Judge Granville did not allow Stevens to be introduced into evidence at this time during his cross-examination.
The judge conceded that “for the reasons you have told me, the evidence is relevant and admissible,” but that there was another more directly relevant witness, perhaps Birdman or Rich Homie Quan himself. He said some testimony would be required.
“I understand this is a state case. You're trying to get what you need, and he's just not the witness for that,” Glanville told Steele.
After a brief discussion from Steele asking for reconsideration, Glanville added: “We're going to look at the evidence depending on the situation at hand…Remember what I said about the lyrics and everything else. It depends on what's being presented in the piece.” As for the basics, that's it. I think I made it very clear. ”
The trial will be adjourned from Friday until next week, when it will resume the following week. The judge told the court that the break was for jurors to rest for a while and deal with personal issues.
