{"id":36381,"date":"2023-01-19T03:36:12","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T03:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/?p=36381"},"modified":"2023-01-19T03:36:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T03:36:12","slug":"did-gunnas-plea-deal-get-him-shunned-in-hip-hop-rolling-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjstudents.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/19\/did-gunnas-plea-deal-get-him-shunned-in-hip-hop-rolling-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Gunna\u2019s Plea Deal Get Him Shunned in Hip-Hop \u2013 Rolling Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tThe arrest of<\/span> Young Thug<\/a>, Gunna<\/a>, and other YSL<\/a> associates in last May\u2019s RICO<\/a> (short for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) indictment elicited a unified response from within the rap world. Fans and other musicians resoundingly proclaimed \u201cFree Gunna.\u201d But after his release in December, following an Alford plea deal that gave him time served and a five-year suspended sentence, few people in the rap world celebrated. Since footage of the Georgia plea hearing leaked, and the world saw him affirm Fulton County prosecutors\u2019 assertion that YSL is a gang and \u201cYSL must end,\u201d he\u2019s been demeaned as a \u201csnitch.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYSL members, as well as rappers Polo G, Meek Mill, and Lil Baby, a close collaborator Gunna taught how to rap<\/a>, have unfollowed him on Instagram. Fans believe Lil Durk threw a sly diss at Gunna \u201ctelling\u201d in a recent song snippet<\/a>. Gunna\u2019s first Instagram post of 2023 was derided by those who called him out for putting \u201cYSL the label\u201d in his caption after his Alford plea statement declared YSL a gang. Rap fans, few of whom have any proximity to the criminal lifestyle that fascinates them, have relentlessly ridiculed him as \u201ca rat.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be clear, Gunna stated that he has no plans to testify against YSL codefendants. His Alford plea solely applies to his case, and a close source has confirmed<\/a> that he won\u2019t be testifying during the trial \u2014 which is the only way the plea statement could hurt any YSL codefendants. But in a music world rife with abusers, homophobes, antisemites, and \u201canti-\u2019cancel culture\u2019\u201d apologists for all these things, cooperating in any fashion is the third rail that excommunicates someone from the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs damning comments go, his statement isn\u2019t in the same stratosphere as someone taking the stand in court, doing a press conference announcing that someone had them a shot, or stating someone is trying to kill them in an interview or song \u2014 which has all happened in hip-hop<\/a> history \u2014 but nuance doesn\u2019t seem to matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tWhat\u2019s happening to Gunna is a disheartening glimpse of an artist being squeezed between the sides of the criminal-justice system and the rap world, neither of which is as humane as it feigns to be. His fame made him a newsworthy target for Fulton County DA Fani Willis, who entangled him on a racketeering charge heavily predicated on his lyrics and appearance in the \u201cFox 5\u201d music video. He became the living embodiment of \u201crap on trial.\u201d And to get out of that predicament, he made a deal that ostracized him from the community that once embraced him. Through no fault of his own, he was displaced from rap stardom and tossed into a figurative space with life-altering consequences behind every door. Instead of being met with empathy by his peers, many of whom are an avaricious DA away from the same fate, he\u2019s being left out in the cold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rap world has long been unabashed in its disdain for snitches. Social media has stripped the terms \u201csnitching\u201d and \u201cratting\u201d of their original meaning. Still, as rapper Mysonne notes<\/a>, a snitch was initially defined as someone involved in a scheme with other people who then exposes their partners to a higher authority to evade the consequences of their actions in the plot. Anyone from the streets to the schoolyard can understand the disdain for that figure. But that definition doesn\u2019t apply to Gunna, a genre-bending crooner whose catalog fixates on love songs and odes to high fashion. He\u2019s never said that he came up doing crime or that he \u201csigned up\u201d for the streets. His mentions in the YSL indictment include a traffic stop, rap lyrics, and wearing a YSL chain. So maybe we shouldn\u2019t be holding entertainers to the same standard that Big Meech held BMF members.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s documented that artists including Lil Baby, Meek, Durk, and Polo G have lived lifestyles that reflect the grim tone of their music and come from environments where they\u2019ve likely had loved ones incarcerated after being cooperated against by codefendants. It would have been nice to see them stand in solidarity with a peer against the justice system, but one can understand them being triggered by the idea of someone making the statement Gunna did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tWhat\u2019s most aggravating is that Gunna\u2019s facing the heaviest scorn from fans with no such lived experience. For them, his plight is another episode in the dehumanizing reality show of rap that they live through. Modern rap fandom consists of egging on violent rap beef like sports rivalries and now lambasting artists who\u2019ve had their cooperation exposed \u2014 even though the odds are that the average suburbanite from Nebraska would do the same thing when faced with prison time. Anti-Blackness, capitalism, and the zest for social media pile-ons have merged to make rap fans too comfortable with discarding the people who soundtrack our lives. There\u2019s so much rapidly released music that it\u2019s easy, if not fun, for people to scrap someone they once respected. But hopefully, no one who\u2019s currently having fun at Gunna\u2019s expense ever faces his predicament.<\/p>\n

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\n\tAt this point, it doesn\u2019t seem like much could happen to sway the public\u2019s perception that Gunna is a turncoat \u2014 even if his plea statements won\u2019t be used against YSL codefendants. As Jay-Z<\/a> rhymed in \u201cA Week Ago,\u201d \u201cthe labeling of a snitch is a lifetime scar\/You\u2019ll always be in jail, nigga, just minus the bars.\u201d What\u2019s sad is that Gunna was mainly in jail because<\/em> of his bars. The justice system\u2019s war on rap is in full swing, with prosecutors avidly throwing lyrics, music videos, and social media posturing into their indictments to portray defendants as criminals. And now, Gunna\u2019s treatment shows prosecutors like Willis that even if they don\u2019t score a lengthy conviction, they can ruin an entertainer\u2019s career in the court of public opinion. They don\u2019t deserve that satisfaction. The criminal-justice system is intent on disposing of Black life; we can\u2019t help them do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe systems that manifested a culture of Black death and dehumanization have created conditions where we\u2019re expected to embrace martyrdom. If Gunna had refused a plea and been sentenced to prison, he\u2019d live as a hero in the minds of his peers, but he\u2019d be wasting his actual life. Instead, because he pushed back against his unjust incarceration and agreed to a harmless formality of the legal system, he\u2019s become persona non grata. Any lifestyle with such a tiny sliver between adoration and condemnation isn\u2019t worth living. Instead of scrutinizing the permutations of snitching, our outrage would be better served against the forces that push poor people toward the streets and its backward rulebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n