Yak Gotti is one of those artist who really lives the life he raps about.
He beat a murder case, survived getting shot five times,
and spent almost five years in prison on a gun charge.
Now he’s caught up in the massive RICO indictment against Young Thug’s YSL crew
and is facing life in prison for a 2015 murder.
Here’s what’s going on.
On Monday, May 9th,
news broke that Young Thug and 27 other YSL affiliates
were being indicted in a 56 count RICO case.
The cops claim that Thug and the rest of YSL conspired “to associate together and with others
for the common purposes of illegally obtaining money and property through a pattern of racketeering activity
and conducting and participating in the enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity.”
When Thug got arrested, he allegedly had 1300 grams of weed,
31 bottles of lean, and six guns.
But that wasn’t even in the biggest headline.
The indictment also accuses Thug of renting a car that was “used in the commission of the murder
of Donovan “Peanut” Thomas Jr.”
Fans know that Nut was YFN Lucci’s homie and mentor,
and his death is what started the war between YSL and YFN.
For years theres been rumors about who was responsible,
but nothing was ever confirmed.
Now this indictment exposed who the cops really think was behind the hit.
Two weeks before he was murdered, the indictment claims
that Thug talked to the alleged leader of the Sex Money Murda gang Kyle Oree.
During their conversation, one of them allegedly said “sacrifices must be made,
soldiers must fall in order for battle to be won.”
Nut was a well-known dude in Atlanta who had a lot of connections,
and he helped YFN Lucci get his career started.
In January 2015, Nut was standing outside a barbershop when a car drove by and started letting off shots.
He was shot and killed on the spot, and two innocent bystanders also got hit.
This murder allegedly sparked the war between YFN and YSL,
and the cops believe it caused up to 37 other crimes
including four more homicides.
No one knows what the motive for killing Nut was,
but the indictment makes it seem like Sex Money Murda had YSL take him out.
The prosecution is also using a video that Thug made the day after talking to Oree as evidence.
In the video, Thug says “so n*** lie to they momma, lie to they kids, lie to they brothers and sisters
then get right into the courtroom and tell the God’s honest truth,
don’t get it, y’all n***s need to get ******* killed bro,
from me and YSL.”
While Thug is accused of renting the car used in the drive-by,
five other YSL affiliates were charged with actual murder, including Yak Gotti.
In an interview with No Jumper, Yak revealed that he grew up in Atlanta and has actually known Thug
since they were around seven or eight years old.
Their hoods were right next to each other, so they ended up crossing paths all the time.
Not much is known about Yak’s early life,
but at some point he jumped off the porch and started putting in work on the streets.
He used to write rhymes as a hobby, but ain’t start taking it seriously until later.
His uncle Russell “Block” Spencer owns a label called Block Entertainment,
and Yak Gotti used that connection to get started in the industry.
He linked up with a couple of homies who knew how to rap and they made their own collective,
but there was drama in the crew and they split up before it really started.
Yak said it ain’t work out because of jealousy and other issues,
plus he couldn’t even focus on the music since he was fighting a murder charge at the time.
In the interview with No Jumper, Yak told the story of how a fight with his mom
almost got him locked up for life.
Yak said he was a hard-headed kid who ain’t know how to listen.
And one day back around 2013,
he got into an argument with his mom over something and she ended up leaving the house.
One of his brothers came and picked him up,
and they spent the day riding around and smoking so Yak could cool off.
Later that day, his mom was sitting at a four-way stop in their neighborhood
and honked at a dude who was crossing the street.
Yak says the dude might have been walking too slow or something, but he wasn’t happy about getting beeped at.
The dude told Yak’s mom “**** you, *****,”
and she clapped back with “**** you, yo momma a *****.”
But it turned out that dude’s mom was actually dead,
so he pulled out his gun and started letting off shots when Yak’s mom disrespected her.
Luckily it seems like she wasn’t hit,
but it still ended up almost costing her son his freedom.
Yak says that his mom took care of everyone in the neighborhood and they all had love for her.
He couldn’t get at the dude who shot at her himself, so someone else ended up taking care of it.
But since his mom had reported the shooting,
the cops charged Yak with murder because he had a clear motive for taking the dude out.
He was locked up for seven months before they released him on bond,
and Yak says the experience changed him forever.
He told No Jumper “It’s like the gladiator zone.
This time I got to fightin’ a couple of times.
I seen dudes get stabbed. Now I’m really never gonna be normal.”
The case went to trial a year later and Yak ended up beating it -
but before he could really enjoy his freedom he got shot five times and almost died.
Yak was at a block party and one of his homies brought some dudes from out of town who was allegedly Crips.
Yak allegedly claims Piru so there could have been issues,
but he talked to them for a second and everything seemed cool.
Some more of Yak’s homies showed up and he told them to keep a eye on the Crips,
then something wild went down.
According to Yak, there was a bottle laying in the middle of the street.
A truck came through and ran it over - then all of a sudden everyone started shooting
because the bottle getting run over sounded like someone letting off a shot.
Yak got hit three times in the left leg, once in the right leg, and in his left arm while he was shooting back.
Luckily he made a full recovery
and avoided any legal issues from the shoot out, but the trouble wasn’t over for him yet.
After beating the murder case, Yak knew he had a second chance at life
and decided to go all in on music.
He started dropping his own tracks,
and his first big break came when Thug featured him on the track Dream.
In the interview with No Jumper, Yak talked about how Thug helped early on with picking the right flow and delivery.
With one of the biggest artists in the world backing him,
Yak was set to be next up
but right when he was getting started,
he got hit with a weapons charge and was locked up from 2015 to 2020.
When Yak was released after spending almost half a decade in prison,
he wanted to go even harder in the music to make up for lost time.
He dropped the Gotti Outta Here project in 2020 and followed it up with a string of singles throughout 2021.
But even though he was on his grind, Yak couldn’t stay out of trouble completely.
In 2020, Yak posted a pic of himself standing on YFN Lucci’s car in the Lennox Mall parking lot.
The RICO indictment actually used this post as evidence in their case
because it was “an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
But this ain’t the only other crime the indictment accused him of.
According to the RICO documents, Yak Gotti and a YSL affiliate named Duke
committed conspiracy to commit murder by slding into opp territory armed with a Draco and .40 cal pistol.
The indictment claims that in October 2015, they drove into “the territory of a rival gang
with the intent to cause the death of another human being in retaliation for a prior shooting by the rival gang.”
but Yak and Duke also got charged with theft by receiving stolen property
because one of the guns they had was stolen from a dude named Christopher Greer.
Plus, Yak got hit with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
On top of the more serious charges,
the cops are also using Yak’s social media and lyrics as evidence.
They listed a few different photos he posted online
as “overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy,”
and they’re also using his lyrics from the track Take it To Trial off of the YSL compilation tape Slime Language 2.
The indictment quotes Yak’s lyrics
“for the slimes you know I kill,
trial, I done beat it twice,
state, I’m undefeated like
Feds came and snatched me, I don’t know, no point askin’
I was on Bleveland stuck like a magnet /
***** ass n****, I’ll shoot at your mammy
Need to sit down if you can’t stand me
I don’t turn down, I up my stamina
Take it to trial, get an appeal
Take it to trial, yeah, you can whack ‘em.”
Prosecutors using rapper’s lyrics against them ain’t nothin new,
but now artists are trying to fight back.
When the news broke that Thug, Gunna, and other YSL affiliates' lyrics were in the indictment,
artists and lawyers came out in support of the music.
Metro Boomin tweeted “Using song lyrics to indict n****s is lame af and a joke.
These the same lyrics that have made billions for these corporations over the past decade.”
Gunna’s legal team blasted the prosecutors and said
“It is intensely problematic that the State relies on song lyrics as part of its allegations.
These lyrics are an artist’s creative expression and not a literal recounting of facts and circumstances.
Under the State’s theory, any artist with a song referencing violence could find herself the victim of a RICO indictment.”
The New York State Senate just passed the “Rap Music on Trial” bill
that will limit the use of lyrics in court.
Jay-Z, Meek Mill, Killer Mike, and others supported it
and are trying to make trials more fair for artists,
but the bill still has to pass the state before it goes into effect -
but unfortunately Georgia don’t have anything like this to protect artists and their free speech.
Even though his whole crew is facing serious charges,
Yak seems to be in good spirits.
His girlfriend Babydoll Forbes went on No Jumper, and Yak unexpectedly did an interview with them from jail.
He said “We chillin’, one day at a time. I’m good…
This is crazy
It's been a pretty exciting past couple weeks of your life huh?
This **** is a crazy turn of events. ****, you know we’re good
everything, everything.
Later in the interview Yak revealed that he’s isolated and ain’t talked to nobody else in YSL,
but it sounds like he’s taking it all pretty well.
Nah I don't talk to nobody.
We ain't talk I'm isolated.
Hopefully he’ll be able to beat the case or at least bond out while he waits for trial,
but that’s not looking too likely considering the charges against him.
The news just broke that Gunna was denied bond even though he’s not accused of any violent crimes.
The judge also set his trial date for January 2023, but that could easily change as time goes on.
Massive RICO cases like this can take years to move through the system,
but hopefully everyone in YSL can keep their heads up and stay positive.
More info is dropping almost every day in this case, so tap in for updates.