The 3 Ways Young Thug's Team Denied RICO Acts in Opening Statement

“Pushin P” stands for Positivity, according to Young Thug’s lawyer, who referenced the song in court. Does that mean Gunna’s “P Power” stands for Positivity Power? In other news today:

• Billboard Hot 100 📈 

• Recap of Young Thug’s RICO trial so far 🐍 

• Yeat discusses his home planet and encounter with aliens 👽️ 

• André 3000 outsold these rappers with his flute album 😳 

• Discover new music with The Rap Index 🎵 

• Industry Insights 🔎 

The Billboard Hot 100

The above chart shows Billboard’s Hot 100 ranking for this week. The Hot 100 ranks songs based on streaming activity, radio airplay audience impressions, and sales data—all measured by Luminate.

Jack Harlow secures his third #1 song with “Lovin On Me,” Drake’s “You Broke My Heart” debuts at #11 as the highest charting song from his Scary Hours deluxe release. For All The Dogs is back at the #1 album spot, thanks to the deluxe edition, beating out Taylor Swift with 145K units sold.

Young Thug’s YSL RICO Trial Gets Underway

It’s been over a year and a half since Young Thug was arrested on RICO charges, and this week, his trial finally began. The pre-trial antics of Percocet passing and 30-page essays on the importance of juror duty were an appetizer for what will be a verbal bloodbath between the prosecution and Thug’s defense team.

On Monday, the prosecution gave their opening statement and read a passage from The Jungle Book about wolf packs. The storytime likened YSL to wolves, saying its members operated as a pack, reporting to “King Slime,” aka Thug, their clear leader. The prosecution also claimed YSL is aligned with the Sex Money Murder sect of the Blood Gang.

The opening statement insinuated that there may not be evidence of Thug committing the crimes himself, but the actions of his co-defendants were in service to him and the overall “criminal enterprise.”

On Tuesday, Thug’s defense lawyer, Brian Steel, spent 2.5 hours giving his opening statement. He addressed each charge and “overt act” against Thug, casting doubt on the credibility of evidence associated with them. Overt acts are the combined small actions that make up a RICO charge. Find the best Saul Goodman defense statements below.

What “Young Thug” stands for

Steel painted a picture of Thug’s impoverished upbringing—a young, malnourished kid who idolized 2Pac and Lil Wayne and saw rap as a way out. So much so that 2Pac’s 1995 song “P.Y.T (Playa Young Thugs)” inspired his stage name. Steel affirmed that it wasn’t meant to be menacing but is instead an acronym for Truly Humbled Under God.

“Pushin P” is for positivity, not gang signs

Addressing a photo of Thug on social media, Steel refuted the prosecution’s claim that he was making a Bloods gang sign and said it’s actually a P in reference to Gunna’s song “Pushing P,” which features Thug.

“It’s called Pushin P, and it’s positivity. It means any circumstance you’re in, if you think positively about something, you can make it through. You’re pushing positivity,” said Steel. He also spoke to Thug using the word “slime” and said, “Jeffrey did not invent slime. Slime comes from Jeffrey’s idol, Lil Wayne.”

“24M on a n***a head” refers to Lil Uzi Vert’s forehead diamond

Steel accused the prosecution of misrepresenting a text message where Thug said, “YSL rule the world kid, 24M on a n***a head…” as a bounty for someone’s death and overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy. The message referenced Lil Uzi Vert’s $24M diamond forehead implant, which was publicized around the same time.

Yeat Discusses His Home Planet & Encounter With Aliens

Yeat dropped his ski mask and traded his ad-libs for some “hillbilly-in-the-mud, PBR vibes” with 032c Magazine. In his second cover story ever, he says more full sentences in English than what can be found in the entirety of his discography, shedding light on the person behind the persona.

For starters, he doesn’t send addresses—he sends coordinates, and the only music he listens to is from the 1880s to 1960s, shouting out the 1700s for having one of his favorite songs. He doesn’t remember anything before his encounter with aliens at age 11, and sometimes, he thinks he’s from a different planet.

The galactic sentiment aligns with the travel plans Yeat told Complex last year. Having grown bored of rage rap, he wanted to usher in a new dimension of futuristic rap, so outlandish that it lives in its own genre. Find his best quotes from the interview and a snippet of new music below.

His upcoming album:

“Evolution-wise, each album has been a pretty big level-up. Between the last record and this upcoming one, it feels like a ten-album difference in time. People have no idea what it’s going to sound like. It’s like 2093 dystopian society.”

His alien encounter:

“That was deadass. It was real. I won’t go into too much detail because I’m not sure if they want me to talk about this right now. The aliens, I mean. I will say one thing though, they are really tall—and looked almost human.”

“I remember everything on the night it transpired, second for second. I can tell the difference between a dream and reality, and I know I was awake. That’s also my first memory. Everything before that feels fake. Something I think I might not even be from here because I have dreams about other planets.”

Clues about his home planet:

“This album gave me more clues than I expected. I don’t know the name of it yet, but I feel like there’s a G in there somewhere, and maybe a 4 or a 3.”

Communicating with numbers > words:

“I think I can actually communicate better with numbers than letters sometimes. I mean, on certain days, there are no words for me at all. [...] For example, I don’t send addresses, I just send coordinates. I can just look at the numbers and know where it is based on the equator.”

André 3000’s Flute Outsold These Rap Albums

André 3000’s debut solo project, New Blue Sun, and his first album in 17 years managed to outsell some of the noteworthy rap releases this year despite having no bass, drums, or spoken word. André and his symphony of woodwinds achieved 24K in first week sales and debuted at #34 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Hip-Hop By The Numbers shed light on the achievement by posting a list of rappers the project outsold with the caption, “Outselling mainstream rappers with an ambient flute album is such an Andre 3000 thing to do.”

The list names the rapper and their first-week sales but not the associated album name. Some of the projects on the list include Magic 2 by Nas, Tha Fix Before Tha VI by Lil Wayne, Pistolz & Pearlz by Kodak Black, and Like…? by Ice Spice.

The Rap Index ft. Kanye, Fetty Wap, Busta Rhymes, Quavo & More

The Rap Index is a way to follow and discover new music. Divided into 4 categories describing rap subgenres, songs are placed according to their style and sound—giving you a better idea of what songs will appeal to your musical taste. Only releases from the previous New Music Friday are included to help keep you up to date.

RapTV’s Ranking of NMF Songs Featured in the Rap Index

1. “Vultures” by Kanye, Ty Dolla $ign, Bump J, Lil Durk (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

2. “Pepe Lit” by Trippie Redd (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

3. “Spin the block” by Fetty Wap (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

4. “Remind ‘Em” by Busta Rhymes, Quavo (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

5. “#skeptacore pt.2” by Skepta, Ryder (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

6. “Left The Trenches” by Skiifall (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

7. “What You Want” by SoFaygo (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

8. “Up The Ladder” by Wiz Khalifa (Listen on Apple Music & Spotify)

• 42 Dugg details the hardships of his prison job working in the kitchen. “Waking me up at 4am, bruh, I’m talkin’ ‘bout killing me,” the rapper said he wasn’t even paid for the work during his incarceration.

• Spotify has a new system for paying streaming royalties. It will no longer be compensating artists for songs with less than 1,000 streams to deter artificial streaming,

• 2Pac's and Biggie's arrest fingerprint cards are up for auction, starting at $225K each. 2Pac’s is from his 1995 sexual assault arrest, and Biggie’s is from his robbery arrest that same year.

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