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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →At Young Thug’s October 31, 2024 plea and sentencing hearing, defense lawyer Brian Steel objected to five parts of the prosecution’s account, including its use of rap lyrics. Steel called that use “offensive.” The remarks were arguments by the defense, not findings by the judge; prosecutors offered competing interpretations of the evidence. Rolling Stone’s account of the hearing describes the five disputes, while the Associated Press report covers the pleas and sentence.
What Steel said was offensive
Steel objected to prosecutors using Young Thug’s lyrics against him. As reported by the Associated Press, Steel said the defense “vehemently disagree[d]” with many of prosecutor Adriane Love’s statements and called the state’s use of the rapper’s lyrics “offensive.” Rolling Stone quotes Steel as saying Williams had tens of thousands of recordings and that some lyrics Love had recited were not performed by him. These are reported remarks, not independently verified transcript text.
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The lyric dispute was one of five challenges Steel raised in his final address. The following accounts distinguish the prosecution’s theories from the defense’s responses; none should be read as a judicial finding about the disputed events.
The five disputes Steel raised
1. Lyrics and who performed them
Love recited lyrics she said described overt acts in the alleged criminal enterprise. Steel challenged using them against Williams, arguing that their dates and performers were uncertain. Rolling Stone reports that he said some quoted lines came from Gunna, Yak Gotti or Nicki Minaj rather than Williams. The reporting establishes that Steel made this objection; it does not establish who wrote or performed each line.
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2. The 2015 Lil Wayne tour-bus shooting
Love said prosecutors believed they could prove Williams had a violent feud with Lil Wayne around the shooting of Wayne’s tour bus. Steel disputed that account, saying the two were friends and characterizing comments about the proposed Carter VI title as publicity-seeking or an attempt to provoke a rap battle. These opposing descriptions do not establish Williams’s involvement or non-involvement in the shooting.
3. The $24 million Instagram message
The prosecution allegedly treated an Instagram message referring to $24 million as a murder-for-hire call. Steel argued that the amount referred instead to Lil Uzi Vert’s pink forehead diamond and pointed to an image in the chat. That is the defense’s interpretation as reported by Rolling Stone, not a court determination of what the message meant.
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4. Donovan Thomas, Rich Homie Quan and alleged motive
Love outlined a prosecution theory linking Williams to a rental car allegedly used in Donovan Thomas’s killing and to support allegedly given to other YSL members afterward. Steel denied that theory. He also said Williams and Rich Homie Quan were friends, disputing a proposed motive tied to a label dispute. The account presents advocacy on both sides, not a verified account of the killing or a finding of guilt on those allegations.
5. The alleged YFN Lucci rivalry
Love discussed a 2019 social-media post in the context of an alleged gang conflict. Steel described it as a response to taunting and an effort to attract publicity, and said Williams had proposed making music together. Those descriptions remain the prosecution’s and defense’s competing accounts of the post and its context.
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How the plea and sentence put the hearing in context
On October 31, 2024, Williams pleaded guilty to one gang charge, three drug charges and two gun charges, and no contest to another gang charge and racketeering conspiracy, according to the Associated Press. A no-contest plea is not an acquittal: AP reported that he could be punished on those charges as if he had pleaded guilty.
Judge Paige Reese Whitaker imposed a 40-year sentence: the first five years were commuted to time served, followed by 15 years of probation. A further 20 years would be commuted if Williams completed probation without violations. Rolling Stone reported that prosecutors had recommended 25 years in prison.
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The case had already been unusually prolonged. AP reported that jury selection began in January 2023 and took nearly 10 months. The original judge was removed in July 2024 after two defendants sought recusal, citing a meeting with prosecutors and a state witness. Those procedural events explain some of the trial’s length and disruption; they do not resolve the merits of either side’s claims about the five disputes.
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