Atlanta has been running the rap game for the last ten years.
But behind the music is a culture of crime, gangs, and violence.
Two of ATL’s hottest rappers been in a heated beef over the past few years
that has led to threats on social media and violence.
Let’s dive into the war between Young Thug and YFN Lucci.
Young Thug is one of the most influential artists in the game.
When he first came into the industry, people were shocked by his wild behavior,
fashion sense, and unusual delivery.
But over time, Thug gained respect for being a true pioneer
who paved the way for a new generation of rappers.
Thug grew up in the Jonesboro South Projects in Atlanta’s Zone 3 neighborhood.
He was the second youngest of eleven kids.
Most of his siblings were in the streets
so he jumped off the porch at an early age around eight or nine years old.
He started selling drugs
and getting into fights in school and was even expelled in the sixth grade
for breaking a teacher’s arm.
For that, he spent the next four years in juvie.
In an interview with Rolling Stone,
he said he aint have anything to do in juve except gamble, fight, and f***.
Thug is affiliated with the Bloods from Cleveland Avenue,
one of the main roads that runs through Zone 3 by the projects where he grew up.
They used to call themselves the ROC crew or Raised on Cleveland.
Thug was always a trendsetter and also looked at as a leader in his hood.
So, he started his own crew and brand called YSL, which eventually became his record label.
YSL has been labeled a gang by police,
but Thug and others denied this and say it’s a family and music collective
which stands for Young Stoner Life.
According to Thug, YSL wasn’t created to commit crime and violence
but to create legal opportunities for his friends and family.
And if you look at Thug’s accomplishments and what he’s achieved in the music industry,
it seems like it’s been a success.
Some of the first artists Thug signed were his day 1s, Gunna and Lil Duke,
with other names later coming on board like brothers Lil Keed and Lil Gotit,
Yak Gotti, Strick, T-Shyne, Unfook, and a lot more.
In a short amount of time,
Thug built his own empire and made a promise to make all of his friends rich.
One of Thug’s early contributions to the rap game was using the word SLIME
to refer to a friend or homie or just a slimey activity.
But it was first used by New York rappers like N.O.R.E. who used the term in a tweet back in 2009,
then it was popularized by Young Thug,
who dropped a series of tapes in the late 2010s called Slime Season.
Since then the term has been used by everyone from Playboi Carti to Drake,
showing how influential Thug is.
Young Thug made his debut in 2010 appearing on the song She Can Go, by Tru Royal.
Then he dropped his own solo mixtapes called I Came from Nothing Parts I through III.
This caught Gucci Mane attention, who signed the rapper to his 1017 label in 2013.
Thug then dropped the project 1017 Thug that same year,
which got high praise from fans and critics and earned attention from magazines and media,
who included the project on several year-end lists.
So it seemed like things were really heating up for Thug.
After Gucci got locked up in 2013,
Thug started making more moves in the industry.
He linked up with Birdman and Rich Homie Quan to form Rich gang in 2014,
leading to rumors that he might sign with cash money.
Then, in 2014,
he dropped the track "Stoner" which became his breakout hit.
On the song, he even shouts out his old crew, dropping the bar
“Hear my song way from YTC, ROB, SMM
now we YSL Venom”
YTC stands for Young Thugz in Charge
and ROB stands for Raised on Bleveland
what the Bloods call Cleveland Ave where Thug grew up
and SMM stands for Sex Money Murda, which is an east coast gang.
So basically,
he’s talking about how he ranked up through other Atlanta gangs to make his own collective.
But while Thug was blowing up in the industry,
another rapper from Zone 3 was also gaining a buzz.
YFN Lucci is a rapper who grew up in the Summer Hill hood of Zone 3,
not far from the Jonesboro projects where Thug grew up.
Lucci went to Southside high school and played football.
But after practice, he said he and his friends used to be in the streets, trying to make money.
Lucci’s from a blood set called ABG or Atlanta Blood Gang,
which is a branch off of the Inglewood Family Bloods from Los Angeles.
He, his brother, and their close homies
would form their own clique called YFN, which stands for Young Fly N****.
Just like YSL, Lucci denies that YFN is a gang
and says that it’s just a music group and record label.
But police look at it differently
and say it’s an influential set of the Bloods that Lucci controls.
Lucci’s brother, YFN Kay was the one who encouraged him to start rapping,
along with his best friend’s older brother Big Nut.
Big Nut was a respected dude in Atlanta
who also had ties to Young Thug and the R.O.C crew.
He heard Lucci’s music and believed in his talent,
so he started plugging him in with people in the industry who could help his career,
including his current manager Fly.
Fly also managed Rich Homie Quan,
who was featured on the track "Exactly How it Was" from Lucci’s first mixtape Wish Me Well.
At that time, Rich Homie Quan and Thug were still close because of Rich Gang,
so, there wasn’t any beef between YSL and YNF.
But as Thug was reaching the top of the rap game and YFN Lucci was building a buzz for himself,
a crucial event would cause a big split in the city of Atlanta.
In January 2015,
Big Nutwas killed in a drive-by at a barbershop on McDaniel Street
in the Castleberry Hill neighborhood of Southwest Atlanta.
Nut was standing outside the barbershop
when a car drove by and someone fired an automatic weapon.
Another dude in his 20’s and a 14-year-old boy also got shot in the leg but survived.
Even though police aint have a clear motive, they said the shooting was gang-related.
Big Nut was a major figure in Atlanta and his death was a loss to the city.
Besides being close with YFN Lucci,
he was loved and respected throughout Atlanta’s hip-hop scene.
It’s not clear who killed Big Nut since his murder was never solved,
but there’s rumors that the YSL crew had something to do with it.
Even though no one was ever caught,
Atlanta police said Big Nut’s death sparked as many as 37 other crimes, including 4 murders.
So not only were the streets of Atlanta hot because of this death,
it also led to a major split in the local rap scene.
Lucci often talked about how much Big Nut helped his career and was a genuine friend to him.
Rappers from Atlanta were forced to pick sides between YSL and YFN
with many past collaborators turning away from Thug, like Rich Homie Quan and Bloody Jay.
But the beef wasn’t held to just the industry
and things played out in the streets too.
In an interview with Karen Civil, Lucci said that his childhood home got shot up multiple times,
including once where his mother and her friend got caught in the crossfire.
He don’t reveal who shot up his house, but based on the timeline,
many think it was the work of YSL.
This just tightened the tension between both sides and not long after,
YFN Lucci and Thug got into a public war on social media.
In February 2016,
YFN Lucci took shots at Thug by going after those closest to him.
First, he went at Thug’s fiancée Jerrika Karlae,
implying that they slept together in the past.
He tweeted “I know u miss laying on dat sofa wit me girl #Rika.”
Even though he aint mention her by name, fans knew who he was talking about.
He followed that up by tweeting
“I got ya hoe on a leash"
and “Fly n**** took a rich n***** b**** can’t do nun but respect him”.
But he aint stop there and continued going,
saying he had text messages that proved he and Jerrika had been involved.
Lucci tweeted “He gone cry when he see these messages,”
following up with
“Go follow my Instagram right now
send me 100k followers and I’m uploading em lets go”
Lucci must have gotten the clout he was chasing
cuz he ended up posting the supposed messages
and it looks like it is between two people who are about to hook up
but there’s no telling if the other number is really Thug's fiancé.
It shows Lucci asking the girl where she is and she responds saying 8 minutes away.
They send each other love and kissing emojis back and forth
and Lucci even tells her “About to jump in the shower wyd"
and "U should’ve gotten in with me.”
Lucci continued trolling by @ing Jerrika and tweeting “miss u bae”.
Then he turned his attention to Thug tweeting a bunch of LLLs
and “By the way nobody wants yo punk ass hoe cuz (baby boy insider)”
Thug wasn’t entertained by the trolling and tweeted back
“S/O solo lucci young king”
then followed up with “U just trying to get on”
and “If any upcoming rapper wanna be put on, lets make music…On wanna beef”
But if that wasn’t shady enough,
Lucci continued going at Thug a few days later by tweeting a video of his daughter
with the caption
“Happy Bday Baby girl”
along with a bunch of hashtags including LongLiveNut4Eva.
Thug is known to be very protective of his daughter
and once threatened to slap Plies for calling his daughter a b****
in an interview with Sway in the morning.
Thug did not publicly comment on Lucci’s post of his daughter,
but it’s likely there were consequences behind the scenes.
After that, the beef died down for a little while both were focused on their careers.
Thug was rising to the top of the rap game,
hinting that he was working on a joint album with Kanye,
while also appearing on two songs on Drake’s More Life Project.
Thug then dropped his fourth official mixtape Jeffrey in 2017
which was a critical and commercial success
and quickly went viral because of its famous cover art him wearing a dress.
YFN Lucci was also making major waves in the industry,
dropping the track Everyday We Lit with PnB Rock in late 2016.
That song peaked at #33 on the Billboard chart
and was one of Lucci’s highest-charting singles.
He followed this up with the EP Long Live Nut, which was dedicated to Lucci’s dead homie Big Nut.
Later that same year, Thug released his fifth project
Beautiful Thugger Girls on June 16th, 2017, 2pac’s birthday.
A few days after Thug let the world know
he purposely dropped the project on 2pac’s birthday because he feels like the new 2pac.
Thug tweeted
“I dropped EBBTG on 2pac’s bday because I’m the #newPAC.
I feel like I am the thug he didn’t get to become #SoImGoingFinish WhatHeStarted”
YFN Lucci responded by tweeting
“Pac would’ve never worn a dress” with a clown emoji.
Thug then went on a Twitter rant aimed at Lucci,
ending it by saying
“doin too much could become a deep sleep.”
So this beef wasn’t just online,
it had the potential to get very real.
In 2018, Thug’s right-hand man YSL Duke was involved in a shooting
where he almost lost his life outside the Magic City strip club.
Surveillance footage from outside the club,
shows Duke leaving and being followed by two men.
He turns around and sees the dudes coming for him,
so he starts running as one of them pulls out a pistol and starts firing.
Duke runs around a car while the man is shooting
but luckily the bullets miss and he gets away.
The shooter got arrested and rumors were going around that Duke snitched.
But Duke later posted the paperwork confirming that he did not snitch.
It’s not clear exactly what caused the shooting,
but it’s been said it was tied to the beef with YFN.
Something must have gone down that fans didn’t get to see
because in 2019,
Thug got back on social media
and threatened to slap YFN Lucci and Houston rapper Sauce Waka
during an Instagram Live.
It’s not clear what caused the diss.
But it sparked a heated back and forth that reignited the beef.
Lucci responded to Thug by posting a video to his own Instagram
calling Thug a gay slur and telling him he’s not slapping nobody.
He even called Thug a punching bag and a h**.
Sauce Walka responded with his own post, showing Young Thug with a boxing trainer,
along with emojis as captions, including one of a woman in a dress.
Thug clapped back at Lucci
telling him again that he would slap him the next time he sees him in public
and that “my teeth cost more than your broke ass life, boy”
So the beef was back on and it wasn’t just for social media.
A month later, YFN Lucci’s car got shot up in Atlanta.
Police arrived at the scene and found a victim suffering from two gunshot wounds,
but it was not YFN Lucci.
The victim told police that he was driving when shots rang out,
spraying the car and hitting him in the shoulder.
The Mercedes G-Wagon belonged to Lucci but was registered in his mom's name.
So, police assumed the bullets were meant for Lucci.
Not long after that, someone spray-painted the word SLATT
on Big Nut’s gravesite, taking the beef to new lows.
Slatt is a Blood phrase used by Young Thug and other YSL members.
It’s not clear if it was vandalized by an actual YSL member
or just someone chasing clout.
But either way, it added fuel to the fire.
Thug would drop his debut album So Much Fun in 2019
and throw subtle shots at Lucci on the track Just How It Is.
First, he drops a bar justifying why he wore a dress on the cover of Jeffrey, rapping
“Had to wear the dress because I had the stick”.
This was also the line Thug said to Adam22 on an episode of No Jumper,
claiming he had an AK under the dress.
Even though this bar aint directly about Lucci,
he was one of the haters who clowned Thug for his fashion choice.
Then Thug rapped the bar
“Last n**** tried me almost got popped in Lennox”.
This bar is talking about the situation between Young Thug
and YFN Lucci at Lennox Mall in Atlanta.
It’s not clear exactly what happened,
but Lucci responded directly to the bar,
posting to his IG story with slides that said
“Cap Ass Album” and
“Boy almost shitted on his self in Lenox.”
“No Cap”.
Thug responded to Lucci’s comments by @ing him, and saying
“if I ain’t like what u do for your mother and kids I WOULD”VE BEEN KILLED U”
with a bunch of crying emojis.
But that aint the only time YSL and YFN had a confrontation at Lenox Mall.
About a year later, Thug’s artist Yak Gotti posted a photo to Instagram of himself
standing on the trunk of Lucci’s car in the mall’s parking lot
while throwing up the middle finger.
Around the same time, a YSL member named Snake Face
posted a video of a YFN chain,
claiming he jacked Lucci or another YFN member.
On Just How It Is, Young Thug raps,
“n**** stole a chain, but I ain’t worried fool”,
which might be a possible motive for the chain snatching.
YFN Lucci aint even respond to the alleged chain snatching,
but he did respond to Yak Gotti standing on his car.
He hopped on IG Live and said he saw Yak Gotti at the mall and he just dapped him up.
It wasn’t until he left that people started telling him that the rapper was standing on his car
taking pictures, which he considers a weak move.
So, it seemed like the beef was getting out of control
and it was only a matter of time before things got violent.
But before it reached that point,
YFN Lucci would get himself involved in some serious trouble with the law
which threatened both his freedom and his career.
In January 2021,
YFN Lucci was accused of being the driver in a drive-by that left one man injured
and another man dead.
Police say that Lucci, along with three other gang members drove through the opps hood
in December of the previous year and opened fire on another group of men.
The other group ended up firing back
and a man named James Adams who was inside the car with Lucci got shot in the head.
Adams was thrown out of the car and left to die on the side of the road.
Later that same day, Kevin White,
a dude who is believed to be one of the men Lucci and his crew shot,
showed up at a local firehouse with a gunshot wound to the stomach.
He was brought to the hospital and survived.
Lucci is accused of being the driver and not believed to have pulled the trigger.
But he was still charged with murder, aggravated assault,
participating in criminal street gang activity,
and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Lucci turned himself in and then posted a $500,000 bond.
But he violated the conditions of his bail
by going to a recording studio and then the strip club.
To make matters worse,
the prosecutors say the strip club he went to
was the scene of an alleged gang-related shooting that led to the drive-by that got him locked up.
So his bond was revoked and he got sent right back to jail to await trial.
If that wasn’t bad enough, a few months later
Lucci was involved in a Georgia State RICO Case
which accused a bunch of Bloods of various crimes from murder to racketeering.
Police used the rapper's social media and music videos
to tie him to other blood sets from Atlanta to Miami.
They claimed that YFN was not just a record label and music group,
but an official Blood set and that Lucci had used his position as a famous rapper
to order crimes on behalf of the gang.
They used his participation in the drive-by shooting that killed James Adams as evidence,
as well as another incident where Lucci supposedly strangled a man
for playing his opps music.
One of the dudes arrested alongside Lucci for the drive-by was Ra’von Boyd,
who is a rapper from Miami that goes by the name CP3.
Another rapper caught up in the indictment was Bloody Jay,
who collab’d with both Thug and Lucci before Big Nut died, when he sided with Lucci.
Prosecutors claim that Lucci and CP3
were attempting to unite the Bloods in Atlanta with the Bloods in Miami
and used their music as a way to make money for the gang and diss their enemies.
The dissing lead to real violence in the streets,
including the shooting where Lucci was allegedly the driver.
Even though most of the evidence against Lucci is indirect,
it’s still going to be a tough legal battle and he’ll be locked up as he fights the case.
So, it seems like his petty beef with Young Thug will be put on hold for the moment
while he fights for his freedom.
It doesn’t seem like Thug cares to continue the beef either.
In an interview he did with Big Boy back in 2019,
Thug said the Nipsey situation changed his whole perspective
and he doesn’t want problems with anyone, including Lucci.
So, it seems like the beef is dead for now.
Lucci’s life is on the line
and the last thing he needs to be doing is beefing with another rapper.
Meanwhile, Thug is still at the top of the rap game,
recently scoring a feature on a number one song with the Drake and Future collab
Way 2 Sexy, as well as a number one album with his recent project Punk.
So really, he has nothing to gain by beefing with another rapper from his city
who is facing a RICO charge.
Hopefully, this beef stays dead
and no new threats or info has the two rappers back at each other's necks.