King Slime Podcast Reveals Connection Between the YSL and Donald Trump RICO Trials

Lots of new music dropping tonight from Quavo, Lil Tecca, Rod Wave, Polo G, and more 🔥 We’re thinking of sending a shorter version of this newsletter every day but would love to hear your feedback in the poll below. In other news today:

• Song streams & revenue 💰️ 

• Travis Scott’s Utopia 2nd week revenue 🤑 

• King Slime podcast reveals RICO link between Young Thug and Donald Trump 🔍️ 

• Bobbi Althoff addresses rumor she slept with Drake 😳 

• New Music Friday releases 💿️ 

• Industry Insights 📈 

Song Streams & Revenue

It’s a new Thursday and a new song revenue chart. As reported by Hits Double Daily, which tracks streaming revenue week over week, the above chart reflects the streaming period from August 4th to 10th.

Gunna’s back on top with “fukumean,” earning over $100K from almost 21M streams which helped him reach the #5 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 this week (along with radio airplay). Doja Cat’s new rap single “Paint The Town Red” earned $57K from almost 12M streams in its first week.

‘Utopia’ Second Week Streaming Revenue

Continuing to track Utopia revenue, only 7 of the album’s 19 songs charted for the second week in a row on HDD’s song revenue chart. Last week, we reported Utopia made 1.5M in revenue from 323M first-week streams.

“Meltdown” continues to be the most profitable song earning $85K from over 17M streams, and “I Know ?” surpasses “Fe!n” amassing 61K from over 12M streams. All seven songs amounted to 386K from over 80M streams.

King Slime Podcast Uncovers Link Between Donald Trump and Young Thug RICO Indictments

The first episode of iHeart Radio’s King Slime podcast launched this week and it’s juicy. Music journalist Christina Lee and crime and politics reporter George Chidi explore Young Thug’s come-up in Atlanta, the YSL gang rivalry that started before Thug’s arrest, and they shockingly predict Donald Trump’s RICO indictment and how it’s connected to Thug’s RICO. Find out more below.

Thug had been on gang investigators’ radar in Atlanta for almost a decade before his arrest. Starting with a murder in 2015, referenced in the YSL indictment, that’s gone largely unnoticed but is a central piece to the case. Donovan Thomas was murdered in a drive-by shooting outside of an Atlanta barber shop on January 10th, 2015. Before he died at the hospital, he whispered the words, “Thug had me killed.”

In the YSL indictment, Thomas is described as a rival gang member with affiliations to the YFN street gang. Thug is accused of renting the car used in the drive-by.

A year prior to Thug’s arrest, YFN Lucci and other members of the YFN gang were hit with a 105-count RICO indictment. YSL was referenced seven times in Lucci’s indictment, and prosecutors allege that war had broke out between the two gangs over the murder of Thomas.

The Connection Between Trump and Thug

DA Fani Willis, responsible for every RICO indictment mentioned above, has a reputation for being tough on crime and a history of using Georgia’s RICO laws to her advantage when prosecuting groups of people. In 2014, she prosecuted Atlanta public school teachers and principals in, you guessed it, a RICO indictment for a cheating scandal.

RICO laws were originally written to put mobsters behind bars, but the lenience in Georgia laws has allowed Willis to use it against a variety of groups committing crimes. The podcast was shot before news of Trump’s indictment was announced, but Willis held a press conference months ago where she hinted that she wouldn’t hold back if charges were brought against Trump.

Host Chidi, who is very familiar with crime and politics, made the valid point that the timing of the YSL RICO was curiously before but not too far off from Trump’s impending charges. Chidi said it’s not hard to see the high-profile nature and sensitivity of the YSL indictment, which shook Atlanta and pop culture news, as a dry run for a high-profile political trial, aka Trump’s RICO.

You can listen to the first episode of King Slime life podcast on Apple Music and Spotify.

Context for those of you out touching grass

In May 2022, Young Thug was arrested and accused of being the leader of YSL, the label, and YSL, the street gang, in violation of the state’s RICO laws. Prosecutors referenced rap lyrics in the indictment claiming that they’re not just a form of musical expression but a means of promoting the gang.

In the announcement of the YSL indictment, DA Willis referenced the 2015 murder of Donovan Thomas and said she made a promise to his mother that she would get him justice—served in the form of a RICO because a car rental alone is not a smoking gun for murder.

Why this matters

The coverage of the YSL case has been scattered and piecemeal. This podcast is the first time someone has thoroughly investigated the case, the context, and the surrounding events related to Thug’s trial. Two potential motives for the YSL RICO were revealed in the first episode.

The first is that prosecutors have been trying to prove Young Thug was responsible for the 2015 murder of Donovan Thomas for nearly a decade, and the RICO is the perfect way to blame Thug as the gang leader indirectly. The second is that the timing of the YSL indictment was calculated and done as preparation for an even bigger fish—Donald Trump. The podcast will continue to unveil information about the trial in a new episode every week.

Drake and Bobbi Althoff’s Drama Explained

Earlier this week, follow-watching fans noticed that Bobbi Althoff and Drake had unfollowed each other on IG, and their interview for Bobbi’s The Really Good Podcast was deleted from her YouTube channel. Cue the conspiracy theories, with the most scathing being that Bobbi and Drake slept together, and she was now getting a divorce.

Dave Portnoy, CEO of Barstool Sports, said he DM’d Bobbi about the rumors on the BFF podcast, but part of his story was censored and edited in a way that suggested Bobbi owned up to the affair over DM. She posted a screenshot of the DM convo to prove that her response said off the record, those rumors aren’t true.

Before this silent social media war broke out, Bobbi appeared on the BFF podcast and candidly spoke to Portnoy about her experience interviewing Lil Yachty. She described him as awkward before they started filming and said she almost left because it was so uncomfortable. Some fans speculated that Drake disliked the Lil Yachty slander, given their close friendship, and that’s what led to the fallout.

If you watch the full clip below, the awkwardness she described wasn’t a shot at Lil Yachty but taken out of context—it can sound like it was.

Two days prior to the unfollowing, Bobbi attended Drake’s It’s All A Blur tour stop in LA and posted a TikTok at the show, making fun of herself for looking out of place. Drake has yet to comment publicly on the matter, but given his new album, For All The Dogs, is due for release soon, it would be on brand to have a petty lyric or two aimed at Bobbi. Twitter has taken it upon itself to ghostwrite some suggestions.

Context for those of you out touching grass

In July, Bobbi posted the episode of her interview with Drake that quickly went viral. Talking to Cosmopolitan, she revealed how she got the coveted Drake interview. After the rapper liked a video of her interview with Funny Marco and began following her, she decided to shoot her shot over DM. He agreed to go on her podcast and sent her his touring schedule. Two days later, she flew to Memphis and recorded the episode.

Why this matters

Not high on the life-changing scale for news, but Drake’s beefs are usually reserved for Pusha T and others in the rap sphere. He rarely does press, and he seemed to take a liking to Bobbi, posting the podcast on his socials and FaceTiming Lil Yachty during his interview with Bobbi. Here’s hoping For All The Dogs or Bobbi spills the tea.

New Music Friday

Quavo’s new album Rocket Power feat. Young Thug, Future, and the first posthumous music from Takeoff drops tonight 🚀 Mike WiLL Made-It and Lil Uzi Vert kicked things off early with their new single “Blood Mood.” Here’s all the music dropping tonight—categorized by 💿️ for albums and 🎶 for singles:

• 💿️ Rocket Power by Quavo

• 💿️ El Toro 2 by EST Gee

• 💿️ SANTIAGO by Russ

• 💿️ Not Now, I’m Busy by Joyner Lucas

• 💿️ Zero Tolerance by Giggs

• 💿️ The Patience by Mick Jenkins

• 💿️ Wish You Were Here by Dro Kenji

• 💿️ Different Breed by Swavy

• 🎶 Blood Moon by Mike WiLL Made-It, Lil Uzi Vert

• 🎶 HVN ON EARTH by Lil Tecca, Kodak Black

• 🎶 Barely Holdin’ On by Polo G

• 🎶 Hard to Handle by Young Scooter, Future

• 🎶 The Good Kind by Larry June, Cardo

• 🎶 Unavailable Remix by Davido, Latto

• 🎶 TBA by Smino

• 🎶 Forever by Ciara, Lil Baby

• Nicki Minaj teases snippets from ‘Pink Friday 2’ album and goes viral. The album was the second-highest trending subject on Twitter as a result.

• SoundExchange sues SiriusXM for over $150M in unpaid royalties to artists and rights holders. The lawsuit alleges that SiriusXM has been undercounting revenue from satellite radio to reduce the amount paid out in royalties.

• EST Gee walks out of Bootleg Kev interview and slams the podcaster on social media. The rapper said questions about aliens and football had nothing to do with his new album.

Like sports? 🏀 🏈 Get up-to-date analysis and unique insight that’s actually interesting to read with the Playmaker Newsletter.