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<\/figure>\n Life regularly imitates art; whether that happens whimsically, poignantly, or frighteningly just depends on the mood of the universe. But sometimes, the eerie similarities between an artwork and an ensuing momentous real-life moment feel downright prescient. The 2015 Key & Peele<\/em> sketch \u201cRap Album Confessions<\/a><\/span>\u201d is one of those artworks: a sarcastic send-up of the criminal justice system that, years later, would become all too sincere in the case of Young Thug and his Young Stoner Life label. <\/p>\n In the clip, Jordan Peele plays a rapper facing an interrogation by a detective (Keegan Michael Key) who is all-too-certain his perp is pinned, based on the evidence in his rap music. Peele also isn\u2019t worried, however: they\u2019re just lyrics, he insists, and it\u2019s just a song. \u201cI have a vivid imagination,\u201d Peele deadpans after Key plays back a verse where he shares specific details about a murder. The joke plays on the fact that Peele\u2019s lyrics make it maddeningly clear (if to be taken seriously) that he did commit a crime. But its real satire falls on the fact that it\u2019s inherently ridiculous to convict based on a lyric in a creative work\u2014 if that were a legal standard, wouldn\u2019t Sublime have faced a hard time for this <\/a><\/span>by now? <\/p>\n Seven years later, a new and far bleaker vision of the clip played out as Young Thug (real name Jeffery Williams), who since 2016 has fostered a vibrant coalition of multigenerational trappers with his label Young Stoner Life, was arrested<\/a><\/span> alongside 27 label-mates, including Gunna. Per the charges, members of YSL violated Georgia\u2019s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act\u2014allegations that align the label more with criminal gang activity than collaborative art-making. In a new article, The Face<\/em>\u2019s Christina Lee chronicles Williams\u2019 life and career, the story of how a once-divisive creator who grew to shape the mainstream, became embroiled in \u201ca legal saga that has halted his career at its commercial peak and, with his lyrics being employed against him by prosecutors, reignited the debate around using art as evidence in court.\u201d<\/p>\n The Face<\/em> boldly asserts that Williams is \u201cone of the artists to have most reshaped contemporary hip-hop in his image,\u201d but Lee backs it up deftly and artfully in her piece, which we highly recommend you read in full here<\/a><\/span>. Lee paints an expansive portrait of Williams\u2019 rise from an energetic, wildly creative teenager calling himself the next Lil Wayne to a definitive voice in hip-hop whose stylistic influence can be found in the countless rap superstars that followed him. <\/p>\n After thoroughly exploring the person behind the artist, Lee transitions to the criminal kingpin he\u2019s accused of being. Going as far back as Georgia\u2019s introduction of the RICO act 52 years ago, Lee paints a stark picture of how the indictment\u2014which notably, misidentifies YSL as standing for \u201cYoung Slime Life\u201d\u2014 reduces YSL to a street gang and flags Williams as their leader. <\/p>\n G\/O Media may get a commission<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201c[Williams] put in more than 10,000 hours \u2013 20,000 hours. He spends his life at the studio,\u201d one of Williams\u2019 earliest producers, Dun Deal, tells The Face<\/em>. \u200b\u201cFor people to take what he did and distort it, that probably hurts the most.\u201d<\/p>\n Although the 56-count indictment is extensive and will likely lend to a complex and high-profile trial (Lee spares no detail in laying specific charges, lyrical \u201cevidence,\u201d and how it all might play) many of Williams\u2019 closest collaborators have spoken out in support of the rapper. Metro Boomin, Meek Mill, and Post Malone have all publicly stood behind Williams. <\/p>\n